Menus Can Tell More Than Just What's For Supper

Along with collecting railroad dining car china and silverware, I also collect dining car menus. The first picture shows 3 menus from arguably 3 of the most famous trains to run in the United States, the New York Centrals' 20th Century Limited, The Santa Fes' Super Chief and the Pennsylvania Railroads' Broadway Limited. The other three pictures show my favorite menu, one from an unknown secondary train of the New York Central. Back in the days when sports teams travelled by train, this unknown train of the NYC obviously provide the best transportation in Sept. 1956 for the Boston Red Sox. The team was travelling on the train and a waiter or conductor used this menu to get some autographs. On it are autographs of 9 members of the 1956 Boston Red Sox, including legendary Ted Williams! We all wish that historic artifacts could talk and tell us stories of the past. This lowly menu from a secondary train does just that. By the way, the menu was printed in August 1956. If you check the Red Sox schedule around that time, you will see that they were on the road during the first couple weeks in Sept 1956, travelling to play various teams between Chicago and Boston, all cities served by the New York Central. That dates when these autographs were obtained.