Remember the Smoking Car on Trains?

[mso489]

When I was a kid, I'd ride the commuter train with my dad to his work place in the city on holidays, and we'd ride in the smoking car so he could smoke his pipe and we'd read the newspaper. The cars were pre-World-War-II with velvet like upholstery and dark wood trim, very 1930's. There would usually be a smokey card game going on in one of the four-place seating areas, and before a.c., the windows slid open. Does anyone remember the days of smoking cars? I think I probably got the equivalent of a small cigar of nicotine just riding along in that earlier time. Nostalgia. My trips to his office were one of the treats of the winter holidays, and I'd take adventures around the big office building and down to the newsstand, and lunch was a big deal in a downtown restaurant, sometimes Berghoff's, a German place with gruff middle-aged male waiters and white tablecloths.

 

[btp79]

The only smoking on trains I ever saw was in the late 90's on the Eurorail Pass trains. This was pre-EU so we had to exchange currency every other day. Made for great souvenirs on a budget!

 

[Morrison Jeremiah]

I remember the smoking carriages here in the UK.
Even though I was a smoker, I preferred to go without and sit in the normal carriages.
I really hated that stink.

 

[Hampshire Pipes & Cigars]

Fond memories of my dad - a non smoker - coming home from work in the 70s smelling of smoke from the train. He preferred to sit in the smoking car with his mates and play cribbage. That smell ... mmmmm

 

[daveinlax]

I grew up in the west and we’d travel overnight on the Empire Builder at least once a month and my dad was a chain smoker lived in the club car. I remember the smoke was a thick as the tent in Chicago. He loved the train!

 

[Laurent]

That would be fun sitting on a train while smoking a pipe, especially the train that runs from Vancouver to Washington. I’m the age that I remember catching the last year of being able to smoke in a McDonalds with their brass little ash trays. Nothing better then a BigMac and cigarette!

 

[Smoke Queen]

When I was a kid, I'd ride the commuter train with my dad to his work place in the city on holidays, and we'd ride in the smoking car so he could smoke his pipe and we'd read the newspaper. The cars were pre-World-War-II with velvet like upholstery and dark wood trim, very 1930's. There would usually be a smokey card game going on in one of the four-place seating areas, and before a.c., the windows slid open. Does anyone remember the days of smoking cars? I think I probably got the equivalent of a small cigar of nicotine just riding along in that earlier time. Nostalgia. My trips to his office were one of the treats of the winter holidays, and I'd take adventures around the big office building and down to the newsstand, and lunch was a big deal in a downtown restaurant, sometimes Berghoff's, a German place with gruff middle-aged male waiters and white tablecloths.

Sounds amazing! I wish I could have experienced that ????

 

[tzinc]

It's interesting that were smoking cars on trains because couldn't you pretty much smoke anywhere in those days? Airplanes, hospitals, restaurants, offices etc. Maybe trains were the 1 exception.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Trains n planes had restrictions, some areas of hospitals. Office subject to rules of the owner or lessee.

 

[Peter Peachfuzz]

Fond memories of my dad - a non smoker - coming home from work in the 70s smelling of smoke from the train. He preferred to sit in the smoking car with his mates and play cribbage. That smell ... mmmmm

Good luck finding cribbage players these days

 

[Chasing Embers]

Sure do!?

Who Remembers Smoking Cars? :: General Pipe Smoking Discussion

Sorry, there's a little bit of age discrimination in this thread, but how many members are of an age, and remembering actually riding in a smoking car on the train? My family used the Chicago and Northwestern railroad commuter line to get to and from downtown Chicago, and for many years, until...

pipesmagazine.com

 

[mikethompson]

No I don't Tom, but I do remember smoking sections in McDonalds. Seems totally bizarre now, but as a kid it was just part of the experience.

 

[Smoke Queen]

No I don't Tom, but I do remember smoking sections in McDonalds. Seems totally bizarre now, but as a kid it was just part of the experience.

At McDonald's!!?? Gotta love it!!? ?? I wish I could have experienced that. The only smoking I had around me was my uncle Hugo's gambling nights at his house with his buddies.. that's where I learned to smoke, play poker and blackjack and drink whiskey..oh, and also riding in his car and him smoking with my cousin's and I in it ????

 

[STP]

Cars- yes, trains- no. I remember seeing ashtrays on planes, but smoking was already banned… except on international flights maybe. I also remember when ashtrays in cars went from a standard feature to an option.

 

[Chasing Embers]

At McDonald's!!??

McDonald's had smoking into the late '90s.

 

[condorlover1]

I remember the train from Scotland in the 1980s riding in the Royal Mail Car with my motorcycle and several crates of Salmon. I was sitting on a sack of mail using the wooden floor to slice up plug and drinking thick cups of BR tea with one of the guards.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Trains, planes, busses, hospitals, courthouses, and restaurants well into the late '90s. My oldest daughter was born in 2002 and there was still a smoking waiting room in the hospital.

 

[Smoke Queen]

McDonald's had smoking into the late '90s.

I never knew that! I live in Canada, maybe it was different here ???

 

[kcghost]

I have the foggiest recollection of taking a smoking car when just a tot. Unfortunately I can't recall anything about it.

 

[mikethompson]

McDonald's had smoking into the late '90s.
View attachment 120423

Whoa you had some fancy McDonalds down south.

We had these: