Railroads & Locomotives History On the ‘Lake Shore Limited,’ a diner debut, and a flamboyant waiter

On the ‘Lake Shore Limited,’ a diner debut, and a flamboyant waiter

By Bob Johnston | January 8, 2024

| Last updated on January 15, 2024

No. 8400’s revenue debut represented a harbinger of hope

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Lake Shore Limited

Dining car at high-level station platform at night
Lake Shore Limited: Named for the hometown of the Beech Grove shops, where it was born in 1987 and refurbished in 2011, Viewliner prototype diner Indianapolis shines at Albany-Rensselaer on Feb. 18, 2012. Bob Johnston

Oct. 3, 2011, wasn’t just another day in the life of the Lake Shore Limited. That’s because just ahead of two New York Viewliner sleeping cars on eastbound train 48 out of Chicago was dining car No. 8400, on its first revenue run after a top-to-bottom refurbishment at Amtrak’s Beech Grove Heavy Maintenance Facility in Indiana. The car was one of three original Viewliner prototypes — the other two were sleeping cars — fabricated in 1987 for Amtrak as the Budd Co.’s last gasp in the intercity passenger car business.

The diner roamed the rails for years after its debut, only to be sidelined by its oddball, unmatched trucks and temperamental mechanical systems. That changed when Beech Grove received a large slice of $1.3 billion in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds specifically designated by the Obama Administration to rehabilitate sidelined Amtrak equipment.

The excitement was palpable as sleeping-car passengers filed in for a wine-and-cheese welcome before the 9:30 p.m. departure. What’s this? No dingy fluorescent lighting or tired upholstery? Dave Skillman, a Beech Grove engineer, was busy checking light intensity from the overhead and side LED lights his company had provided for the double-windowed car. He discussed the new HVAC system and other improvements that were meant to be a blueprint for an upcoming Viewliner II order that, at the time had, not been finalized.

Man working in kitchen of dining car
Chef John Rivera presides over the steam table of Viewliner diner 8400 on the Oct. 4, 2011, first revenue run of the refurbished car on the eastbound Lake Shore. The onboard staff marveled at the spaciousness of the kitchen. Bob Johnston

But the main plaudits came from chef John Rivera and then-18-year Amtrak veteran server Alex Tamboni. They were busy stocking the new dining car’s generous storage space, including nine refrigerated cabinets and 24 overhead dry storage compartments. Rivera marveled at all of the kitchen’s counter space — separate prep and plating areas, which I was able to observe firsthand the following morning as breakfast service was concluding.

Tamboni had been a fixture on the Lake Shore, memorably recognized by his flamboyant thrusts of a large tray he insisted on using from kitchen to table even if there was only one plate to be served. He helped stock the chocolate-covered cream puffs in their own refrigerated tray at Chicago, but when serving them at lunch the following day decided to add strawberries and powdered sugar.

Server in diner holding serving tray high above table as he moves down aisle
Alex Tamboni approaches the table with his serving tray held high …
Man in red apron serving to customer at table.
… and serves lunch with flair to Ross Downing, traveling from Rochester, N.Y. to Boston and clearly entertained. Tamboni was thrilled to be a part of the car’s debut. Two photos, Bob Johnston

“Look, when we can do something special for our customers, we do it!” he insisted. Tamboni and lead service attendant Jeffrey Manning both noticed after breakfast and lunch how the Viewliner diner’s ambience was having a positive effect. “When passengers walk into the car from the coaches you see this ‘wow’ factor in their eyes,” Manning remarked. “Those dual windows make a great atmosphere.”

The Lake Shore Limited’s staff had kept customers happy despite aging hand-me-down dining cars, many over 50 years old. As that fleet shrunk, the New York-Chicago train was dealt the bottom of the barrel: Horizon and Amfleet I dinettes. But with the promise of a new fleet on the way, the 8400’s revenue debut represented a harbinger of hope for the enthusiastic Lake Shore onboard service crew sampling the snazzy diner for the first time.

Food at table with scenery passing outside dining car window,
Tamboni added fresh strawberries to the cream puff desert as lunch was served along the Mohawk River and Erie Canal on the eastbound Lake Shore in upstate New York. Bob Johnston

Postscript

Alex Tamboni would continue his distinctive tray acrobatics until 2018, when his position was eliminated with the switch to “Flexible meals.” Ironically, he never had the chance to work any of the 25 Viewliner II diners on which the prototype was based.

“I had 25 years in, I was 62, I did a training trip as a coach attendant and absolutely hated it,” he told News Wire recently by phone from his home in Staten Island. “I have my pension and got a job at Target where I work 20 hours a week making $20 an hour to put a box on a shelf.”

Tamboni started as a waiter on the Broadway Limited in 1993 until the train was cut in 1995 and estimates he worked close to 1,000 round trips: about 400 each on the Lake Shore and New York-New Orleans Crescent, earning a living wage. “I was making $27 an hour when I left,” Tamboni reflects, “And I’d go back tomorrow — I loved that job and the people I worked with.”

Bouncing on the extra board between all three trains for seven years, Tamboni’s growing seniority finally entitled him to hold regular assignments while learning from the “masters.” He says the trademark swirling-tray “shtick” was fashioned from watching 20-year veterans like LeRoy Wilson and Gartrell Walton, also known as “Trigger.” That flair and cordial demeanor earned Tamboni service-award recognition from Amtrak’s volunteer Customer Advisory Committee in 2018, perhaps the last plaque it presented before being disbanded. His technique also caught the attention of two repeat celebrity passengers, singer Nancy Sinatra and actress Shirley Jones.

“Both of them asked me if I was on Broadway,” he remembers, “but I told them, ‘This is my stage, right here.’”

Read more about the Lake Shore Limited in the February (1,oooth) issue of Trains.

4 thoughts on “On the ‘Lake Shore Limited,’ a diner debut, and a flamboyant waiter

  1. Mr. Tamboni was not only entertaining but a superb waiter.
    If one wanted a cocktail, it was served instantly. He handled
    substitutions with ease and grace – some of his colleagues did not – and, of course, everything was presented with that distinctive flair and his broad, welcoming smile. Another
    waitperson from the same period was Carla – I never knew her last name. She was the opposite of Mr. Tamboni in terms of style – but she was equally wonderful. At breakfast, as quiet as a church mouse, she’d notice you had no more syrup for the french toast and suddenly it appeared without
    asking. Coffee, water, juice — these items were bottomless
    at her table. Once, while having dinner with a stranger riding up the Hudson, she brought my companion one dinner roll but me, two. “How come he rates two rolls?” asked the gentleman, quite pleasantly. “Oh, Mr. Ludwig always asks for a second roll so I just bring him one to begin with. You may have another, too, sir”. And, I notice the picture of Mr. Riveria, whom I mentioned in a separate comment. He was a first rate chef. I always felt lucky any time I happened to “hit” him on my trips. Even when he was working with an Amfleet II lounge car in substitution for a
    “real” diner, he never put anything b4 me which wasn’t
    delicious. With Mr. Riveria in the kitchen and Carla and John
    out front, one got a memorable, well-prepared meal served with panache – and left the dining car feeling – as Oscar Hammerstein said in one of his lyrics, “prime”.

  2. I agree. While air travel is the Number1 method of travel today and we use planes for speed and save time to get to our destinations, air travel can never take the place of comfort and view of the passing scenery like sitting in the dining car of a train. Enjoying a nice meal and watching the passing and breath taking scenery roll pass the window. Even the pre heated or packaged meals served on most Amtrak trains is far superior to any thing served on an airplane where the norm is a morsel of chips or crackers and a small drink even on cross country flights. Defintely a meal served on a train in the dining car is an experience that everybody has to do at least once in their lives I can remember my first such experience while traveling down to Florida to visit family and I rode on the Silver Star to Winter Park. This was in 2014 and the Silver Star that I was traveling on had a conventional dining car. This was pre Viewliner dining cars but the meal was great and while at the table my dinner companions was a young couple traveling to Jacksonville and we enjoyed a great meal and great company Same goes for my return trip back to New York where I had a nice lunch in the dining car. Great experience and you can’t beat the comfort and scenery and sometimes great folks you might meet and have as your dining companions. Defintely beats any food or dining service on a plane or whatever pitiful snack they serve you A word to the wise. Eat a hearty meal before you fly on a plane and don’t bring your appetite aboard. You will surely starve or experience hunger pangs before you land at your destination. Joseph C Markfelder

  3. The dining car was an exciting place when I rode the City of Los Angeles in the sixties.
    The best part was after the diner closed and the staff would entertain me with their funny, true stories.
    What fools our government are when they cut intercity passenger trains meals.
    Best part of riding on a train is eating in the dining car.

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