Gravy Train : Luxury Rail Car Offers Passengers Gourmet Food, Hot Showers

As a kid who tended to get motion sickness within a three-block drive, a five-minute boat ride or a two-second plane trip, trains were the only promise of travel without pain.

But in those days--the old days --of the ‘60s and ‘70s, rail travel was erratic, unpredictable, unimaginative and, well, just plain boring. A train was a bus on tracks.

Now comes the Keystone Classic Club, a luxury train car that offers gourmet food, hot showers, shoeshine service and big easy chairs.

Where was it when I really needed it?

I pondered all these things, real and metaphysical, as I nibbled on filet of sole with salmon mousse and Japanese noodle salad. Then came fresh strawberries with cream and apple-cinnamon torte.

The views with the lunch were of picture-postcard farms, woods, rhododendron-covered hills and towns and villages dating to the Revolution.

That’s part of the package promised those who take the Classic Club, a specially outfitted Pullman car that is part of Amtrak’s New York-to-Pittsburgh “Pennsylvanian” four days a week.

The one-way fare is $320; a round trip is $522. Amtrak’s regular round-trip fare is $132.

Classic-style travel is finding a niche with train buffs, the well-heeled, those who scorn planes and groups who want a captive audience for business meetings. One business group, from American Express, booked the entire car and spent the time discussing, of all things, improving air service into Pittsburgh.

The Classic Club is touted as the last daytime luxury rail service in America--comparable to Switzerland’s Glacier Express.

Instead of the Alps, the train crosses the Allegheny Mountains. Instead of oom-pah, there is soft jazz or classical music.

And, while the famed Horseshoe Curve in central Pennsylvania may not be the Matterhorn, it makes traveling by any kind of train worth the trip.

What puts the Classic Club in a class by itself is the service. It began from the moment I entered New York’s Penn Station with thousands of other travelers and harried commuters.

Upon asking where I could find the Classic Club, an Amtrak porter pleasantly replied: “Ms. Bradley-Steck? We’ve been waiting for you.”

Who? Me?

With those words I tasted luxury for the next nine hours and 444 miles--as did the other three passengers bound for Pittsburgh.

“I realized, once I got on, that this is a rolling cruise, because a cruise is just floating and eating, and this is rolling and eating,” said Ken Zeiger, an attorney-musician from New York, as he munched brioche and croissants.

I sank into the mauve-colored easy chair, dug my toes into the sea foam green carpet and held out my teacup as porter John Long poured.

For four guests, and even for the maximum of 10, there was plenty of room. The main sitting area has 10 easy chairs and Chippendale-style furniture. The two dining tables are set with fresh flowers and a hutch is filled with china and linens.

The car also has a small kitchen, a reading room, an extra, smaller dining room and two bathrooms, both with showers.

While the train rolled away from the noise and clutter of New York and farther into New Jersey, Long gave a brief history of the Classic Club, passed around newspapers and magazines and offered--no kidding--to “draw the water” for anyone who wanted to take a shower.

“Now, where else can you get that kind of service?” he chuckled.

I secretly wished I needed a bath. The white-tiled shower with chintz curtain looked inviting. And the idea of showering on a train seemed intriguing.

Somewhere near Philadelphia I sat down to a breakfast of a made-to-order omelet with cereal, fruit, croissants and juice. It was briefly interrupted, much to Long’s chagrin, by the conductor collecting tickets.

“I’m sorry for that,” Long said after the conductor departed. “I’ve told them to take their hats off and wait ‘til you’re done eating.”

Across from me, Gayl and Beverly Doster were the picture of contentment, with their noses buried in books and newspapers. The couple, from East Greenwich, R.I., was headed to western Pennsylvania for business and a little pleasure, and had managed to find enough time to go by train.

“The telephone can’t find you. The doorbell can’t ring. You can get a lot of reading done, and a lot of letter writing. And you feel very pampered,” Beverly Doster said as Long polished her shoes.

“I love to fly, but I just find this so relaxing,” said Zeiger, who was missing out on the full treatment because of his sneakers. “My wife thinks I’m nuts with these trains because she travels so much she just wants to get there. But I’m a New Yorker, and I do this just to slow down.

“You know, you can’t be anywhere for 10 hours. You know you’re going to have to chill out. It’s a therapeutic thing.”

With each passing mile the farms slowly gave way to forests, hills and mountains. Long offered tidbits of information about a stone arch bridge near Harrisburg, the horseshoe curve near Altoona and the Johnstown flood as the train chugged down the same narrow valley taken by the raging waters in 1889.

Against this mountainous backdrop Long served a luncheon that would have satisfied the hungriest gourmand: two entrees, two salads, grilled vegetables and three desserts.

No sooner were the dishes cleared than Long brought out several varieties of warm and cold hors d’oeuvres. No deviled eggs here. There were Brie and artichokes on toast, Belgian endive with shrimp relish, grilled chicken kebabs, Peking duck wrapped in crepes and caviar Bellini.

The jury’s still out on the future of the Classic Club. Amtrak rented the all-stainless steel car from a North Carolina collector last summer with the idea of operating it from August until December, 1991.

Budding interest in the service prompted Amtrak to continue the experiment until the end of this month.

As we pulled into the remodeled Amtrak station in Pittsburgh, a few pounds heavier but lighter in spirit, I recalled what one passenger had written in the guest book:

“As good as a Rolling Stones concert.”