Traveling by train was pretty swanky in the early to mid-1900s, and it hasn’t gone out of style.
Today, Japan’s bullet trains can make the trip from Tokyo to Osaka in just 2 1/2 hours, and in the US, Amtrak is working on high-speed trains of its own.
Still, the lavish furnishings and fine dining of the past hold a special place in the railroad’s rich history. These vintage photos show how glamorous train travel used to be.
People used to dress up for train travel.
Dressed-up passengers waited with their luggage to board the first special passenger train to London in 1909.
Passengers wore fascinators and white gloves — no sweats or hoodies here.
Messrs Carreras employees peered out of their railway carriage window before departing Charing Cross Station in London in 1934.
Traveling was an event.
A crowd of Messrs Carreras employees waved from the platform before departing Charing Cross Station in 1935.
Railway carriages were spacious and well-lit.
A train carriage photographed in 1934 featured plush seats with tables.
First-class cars in particular were tastefully decorated.
Cleaners working in a Minerva train car in 1938 polished its tables and dusted its cushy armchairs.
Furnished like living rooms, they came complete with armchairs, drapes, and carpeting.
In 1928, passengers enjoyed a luxurious first-class lounge onboard a London Midland and Scottish Royal Scot train.
A first-class Japanese Railway Department observation car in 1920 utilized elements of Japanese art.
The car’s decorative trim and light fixtures evoked the ancient Momoyama style of Japanese art.
Celebrities like Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger enjoyed the comforts of first-class cars.
McCartney and Jagger traveled together from London’s Euston Station in 1967.
Second class wasn’t quite as glamorous, but it still ensured a cushy ride.
Passengers in the second-class coach of a Hikari Train in Japan in 1965 read newspapers and looked out of the windows.
Restaurant cars hosted guests with elegant table settings.
A British Railways restaurant car in 1949 featured tables set with artfully folded napkins.
Passengers dined on fine china.
A first-class dining saloon in 1951 looked more like a restaurant than a train car.
Some trains offered food buffet-style.
Passengers enjoyed refreshments in a buffet car at London’s Waterloo station in 1938.
Others employed dapper servers to pour drinks.
Waiters wore tuxedos in a restaurant car on a Great Western Railway oil-fired locomotive in 1946.
In cars equipped with radio gramophones, passengers could enjoy music and radio programs.
Passengers draped in fur listened to a radio gramophone on a LNER train carriage in 1930.
Playing cards was also a popular pastime.
Travelers in a BEA Vickers Viking train played a game of cards in 1947.
As was reading the newspaper.
Passengers listened to the wireless radio while perusing the paper on board a Canadian Pacific Railway train in 1930.
Sleeper cars featured upholstered beds with plenty of room to spread out.
A woman was photographed reading in a sleeper car in 1905.
Sleeper-car attendants would bring passengers morning cups of tea on trays.
An attendant wearing a suit and tie brought a passenger a cup of tea in an LMS sleeper car in 1945.
Back then, traveling still involved the same crowded rush as it does now.
Passengers waiting for the Cornish Riviera Express train crowded London’s Paddington Station in 1924.
There was also a special thrill to riding the railroad that’s hard to come by these days.
Milkmen from United Dairies posed with an LNER train at King’s Cross Station in 1932.
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