Updated June 2017 

Railway Operational Items - Catering

The Railways realised from the earliest days that providing food and drink for their passengers would provide a useful extra income and so the Companies introduced Railway Hotels, Station Refreshment Rooms and Restaurant Cars on trains.

The most commonly occurring items are Silver plated Railway Cutlery and serving utensils, crockery and Cooking pots. Most of these items are marked with the Company name and often the Hotel for which they were provided. There are also a wide range of other collectables including such items as napkins, tablecloths, Menus etc.

GNR China Milk Jug	LMS "Art Deco" China Tea Pot

If you are interested in making a collection of Catering items we would suggest that you either build up a table setting of silver plated items including cutlery or else a collection of useable crockery that is functional and also reflects your railway interests. These sort of items can be picked up quite cheaply unless you go for the early pre Grouping companies where some prices can be very high.

GWR silverware is readily available, attractive and reasonably priced so would make a good starting point. A selection of items are shown below