In search of his true calling, former college football star Jack Marshall enlists as bartender and steward aboard Horace Button's vintage private railroad car, the Pioneer Mother, which is transporting the legendary food writer and social critic across the country in opulent style.

From Michael Palin to Nicholas Crane, a riveting anthology of railway travel covers every kind of train from the luxurious Orient Express to the insanely crowded commuter trains of Bombay In an age when low-cost airlines have reduced travel to a point-to-point aerial bus service, the train can still take travelers on a genuine journey, nosing through sweeping valleys, across vertiginous viaducts, and stopping at tiny halts in the middle of nowhere in the dead of night. For better or worse, it brings along its own shotgun traveling community: the delightful breakfast companions chance-met in the dining car or the crazy loner with whom one faces the prospect of sharing a sleeper compartment across the Urals. Here, Michael Kerr has gone through the archives to compile a riveting anthology of all the best railway travel that has appeared in the Daily Telegraph. Here are epic forays from Wick in northernmost Scotland all the way to Vladivostok, Moscow to Peking, and on the Sunset Express across the United States to California. Historic events such as the last day of steam in Britain and less momentous but equally emblematic experiences such as the signal failure in the Midlands are also highlighted. By turns hilarious and alarming, this is armchair travel at its very best and the perfect book indeed for a long train journey.

Revised and updated edition of the best-selling first edition (978-0-8117-2878-2).

The rise of the American diner is the most savory of phenomenons, where classic architecture, a friendly face behind the counter, and some mean pie all combined to make these little roadside stops a treasured part of history. From the early days when Walter Scott brought his horse-drawn lunch wagons through the streets to the heyday of mass-produced chrome and neon diners in the 1950s, The American Diner offers a full blue-plate special of nostalgia for all those who loved the counter culture of these great eateries. More than 250 historical and bright colorful photographs help remind us of life before fast food, and generous helpings of classic advertisements, cool collectibles, and architectural highlights also highlight the era. Diners from coast to coast are featured, giving readers a trip to some of the best stainless-steel and neon diners that still dot the American roadways.

All aboard for a delicious ride on nine legendary railway journeys! Meals associated with train travel have been an important ingredient of railway history for more than a century—from dinners in dining cars to lunches at station buffets and foods purchased from platform vendors. For many travelers, the experience of eating on a railway journey is often a highlight of the trip, a major part of the “romance of the rails.” A delight for rail enthusiasts, foodies, and armchair travelers alike, Food on the Move serves up the culinary history of these famous journeys on five continents, from the earliest days of rail travel to the present. Chapters invite us to table for the haute cuisine of the elegant dining carriages on the Orient Express; the classic American feast of steak-and-eggs on the Santa Fe Super Chief; and home-cooked regional foods along the Trans-Siberian tracks. We eat our way across Canada’s vast interior and Australia’s spectacular and colorful Outback; grab an infamous “British railway sandwich” to munch on the Flying Scotsman; snack on spicy samosas on the Darjeeling Himalayan Toy Train; dine at high speed on Japan’s bullet train, the Shinkansen; and sip South African wines in a Blue Train—a luxury lounge-car featuring windows of glass fused with gold dust. Written by eight authors who have traveled on those legendary lines, these chapters include recipes from the dining cars and station eateries, taken from historical menus and contributed by contemporary chefs, as well as a bounty of illustrations. A toothsome commingling of dinner triangles and train whistles, this collection is a veritable feast of meals on the move.

Poetry collection exploring ideas about our culture and its meanings. Topics covered include the dining car scene in the movie 'North by Northwest', fairy penguins, Siberia, living in Mount Waverley, and the music of Vaughan Williams. Poet lectures in classical studies at RMIT University and is honorary chair of the Melbourne Poet's Union.