Who Remembers Smoking Cars?

[mso489]

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 the sixties probably, a smoking car was standard on the commuter runs. I even remember the old cars with velvet like upholstery and wood trim. Most of the riders read the newspaper as they smoked, but others had ongoing card games that went on for years. Cigarettes were standard; cigars not uncommon; and pipes were always represented. You could track styles of pipes over time. I remember the craze for Meerschaum lined leather wrapped pipes, often in the apple shape. It is something to remember while there are those who can.

 

[seanv]

I dont remember smoking trains but I do remember smoking on airplanes and in shopping malls

 

[kcghost]

If your under 65 you don't much chance at this one. I was on a train that had a smoking car and my mother didn't smoke so we didn't go in there. I was five or six.

 

[canucklehead]

The smell of deep fried food and tobacco smoke in combination always gives me some serious 80s nostalgia.

 

[didimauw]

I'm barely old enough to be able to smoke in restaurants years ago. Cigarettes and coffee till 2am. And my Jeep has ashtrays. That's it lol

 

[jpmcwjr]

I think the Erie Lackawanna trains had a smoking car in the late 70's. I commuted, but never went near the smoking car. A cut throat game of Hearts was the draw.

 

[olkofri]

I don't remember smoking cars because when I traveled by train passengers could smoke anywhere.

 

[logs]

I remember them. I also remember smoking on airplanes. I can't say I have any nostalgia for them. As a kid, being trapped in a small space with a bunch of chain smokers and poor ventilation is not a good time.

 

[JPremo]

Well I'm a bit young for smoking trains but I do remember the segregated smoking sections in restaurants!

 

[Richmond B. Funkenhouser]

You could smoke on a plane in the 90's.

 

[Chasing Embers]

I smoked on trains, planes, and busses, as well as hospitals as late as '94.

 

[brian64]

I smoked on trains, planes, and busses, as well as hospitals as late as '94.

Nothin' beats hospital smokin'...those were the days.

 

[jpberg]

Yup. Heading down to the morgue level to smoke my Gitanes in the hall. Good times.

 

[brian64]

Yup. Heading down to the morgue level to smoke my Gitanes in the hall. Good times.

I love the scene in the Twin Peaks reboot where the Laura Dern character lights up in the morgue and they tell her, "You can't smoke in here" ... she replies, "It's a fucking morgue!"

 

[condorlover1]

I remember smoking on planes for long haul flights but no pipes or cigars were allowed. In fact I remember a flight from NYC to London Heathrow circa 1987 were I was sitting next to a lovely priest who smoked Lucky Strikes. We went through a patch of turbulence and one of the Irish sisters asked him 'Father cannot you do something?'. He smiled and replied that he was only retail and that they needed to speak with head office! I remember smoking Belomorkanal Cigarettes on an Aeroflot flight in the very early 1990s as well. You could still smoke on the London Underground until maybe 1986/87 and on British Rail well into the mid 1990s. When I arrived in NYC in 95 you could still smoke in the office, bars and restaurants until Bloomberg turned NYC into a messed up version of Disney world.

 

[saltedplug]

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 the sixties probably, a smoking car was standard on the commuter runs. I even remember the old cars with velvet like upholstery and wood trim. Most of the riders read the newspaper as they smoked, but others had ongoing card games that went on for years. Cigarettes were standard; cigars not uncommon; and pipes were always represented. You could track styles of pipes over time. I remember the craze for Meerschaum lined leather wrapped pipes, often in the apple shape. It is something to remember while there are those who can.

Very nostalgic! I remember going into those smoking cars and almost being asphyxiated. I
couldn't believe that to smoke you had to tolerate such volume of secondhand smoke and that smokers regularly did so.

 

[timelord]

I think London Underground had smoking cars until about 1984. Certainly I remember as a student travelling in the smoking cars to get a seat (I didn't smoke in those days). If I recall correctly in those days there were two smoking cars per train; in earlier years it had been two non-smoking cars per train.

 

[krizzose]

I kinda miss smoked-filled bars, but I don't miss the smoke-filled clothes that resulted

 

[condorlover1]

I think London Underground had smoking cars until about 1984. Certainly I remember as a student travelling in the smoking cars to get a seat (I didn't smoke in those days). If I recall correctly in those days there were two smoking cars per train; in earlier years it had been two non-smoking cars per train.

They got rid of the smoking cars on the London Underground after the Kings Cross fire if I remember correctly!

 

[Briar Baron]

Yes, in Sydney an 8 carriage train (called Red Rattlers) would have 2 carriages dedicated as smoking cars well into the 70s and 80s (I remember lots of Falcon pipes for some reason). Planes yes also. In Japan the bullet trains still had smoking cars in the late 80s and into the early 90s.