There were Pullman conductors and Pullman porters (most named George after the founder).
No, they weren't. Some dumbass passengers
called them that, a dehumanizing* disrespect to the porters, who didn't complain because they wanted their tips and to keep their jobs, and a minor vexation to passengers actually named George, who
did complain, although not to the Pullman Company because it wasn't their fault.
You walked into the diner to eat a meal in a suit and tie.
Most men outside of blue-collar or farm work did everything in a suit and tie back then.
There was no "crew only" space and cell phones, I-pods and service other than 5 star was NEVER tolerated.
It would have been some miracle to tolerate (or do anything else with) cellphones and I-pods because they didn't exist. That said, I
seriously doubt that if cellphones had existed in, say, 1950, an important businessman traveling on the Broadway Limited to an important meeting in Chicago would have refrained from using his phone for imporant calls (and they're all important, because they're his calls) or tolerated the Pullman lounge attendant or porter telling him to refrain. There were self-important jerks in 1908 and 1958 just as much as in 2008.
And what's wrong with crew-only space?! Nobody's on-duty 24-7, and if passengers could walk into crew space and demand service in the middle of the night while off-duty crewmembers were sleeping, you
know some self-important jerks would do just that.
The crisp table linens and spotless starched uniforms of the waiters were immaculate. There were four cooks in the kitchen and four waiters in the diner. The oldest waiter usually was saved for "upstairs" service (room service in your Pullman room) as the tips were usually a lot better than waiting on tables in the diner. There were so many choices on the menu and each RR tried to outdo the other by having regional choices. The car was run by a steward who seemed to have complete control over every move made by any of the staff.
Yes, and all that show was put on to impress businessmen with the efficiency of that railroad (Pullman was an agent of the railroads after the 1940s) so they would ship goods with the same railroad. When most businessmen stopped taking trains, the level of service you describe started disappearing.
In the decade or so after Pulllman but
before Amtrak -- and thus relevant to the OP's question -- some railroads maintained a semblance of the same service, but others flushed service down the crapper in an effort to reduce ridership so they could get permission from the ICC to cancel the passenger trains.
Or to put it another way, only Sir Elton John should wear rose-colored glasses. :lol:
*in the mode of "they all look alike to me" and such.