Diners started out on wheels. In the late 19th century, street carts selling snacks and lunches had morphed into roving lunch wagons. While some lunch wagons sported Gilded-Age decor, such as elaborate coffee urns and etched windows, many were ramshackle, giving them an iffy reputation.
The person credited for creating the polished diner image was a lunch wagon manufacturer named Patrick Tierney, whose prefabricated and eventually stationary eateries featured tiled floors and a revolutionary indoor restroom. Meanwhile, on the rails, dining cars were setting the standard for food service on the move. Train historian Joe Welsh describes “a traditional [dining car]” as consisting of a “long ‘tunnel’ of tables and chairs.” Tiny lunch wagons couldn’t accommodate the demand for fast, tasty meals. So manufacturers began building shippable, train-like “dining cars,” which people had shortened to “diners” by the mid-1920s.
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