Germany used to be so stylish in sleeping and dining cars

Reinhold Palm’s recordings beam us back to a time when the trains were still pulled by steam and diesel locomotives and the journeys took much more time. There were no high-speed lines yet, but there were so-called express trains and the Trans-Europe Express.

In the on-board kitchens of the dining legends, the menus were not simply heated up in the microwave, but freshly prepared in a small space. Waiters in white jackets walked through the car offering cold platters. And after the meal there was a digestive with names like Dujardin, Scharlachberg or Asbach-Uralt – these were the hip drinks.

In the 1950s, the economic miracle in Germany celebrated itself. This is the impression today when we look at the photographs of Reinhold Palm, who headed the press office of the Federal Railways in Frankfurt am Main for three decades from 1949.

His large treasure trove of photographs was included in the picture archive of the Eisenbahnstiftung. The journalist Udo Kandler, known for his countless railway books, has the most beautiful motifs for the volume “Fascinating early German Federal Railroad – From Reinhold Palm’s photo archive“, which has now been published by GeraMond Verlag.

With the large-format photo book we embark on a journey through time, back to the 1950s to the 1970s. All of the images in the book are accompanied by knowledgeable captions that strike a balance between technical information and linguistic nostalgia.

We are showing a selection of photographs from the carriages of the German Sleeping Car and Dining Car Company (DSG), founded in 1950. The company, which existed until 1994, also managed the half-dining cars, buffet cars, snack bar cars and couchette cars of the Deutsche Bundesbahn in addition to the sleeping and dining cars.

Take a look at the following railway photo series:

– Mountain railways: Travel higher on old tracks

Railway Stations of the World: Spectacular railway cathedrals and charming provincial stations

– Canfranc in the Pyrenees: This Spanish ghost station awakens from its slumber

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