People paying big bucks to ride in a first class sleeper would not be happy having to schlep their luggage from train to train. Also, unless you really upgraded the first class accommodations on NEC trains, most people would simply travel by coach, cutting down on revenue. Since Amtrak owns the NEC, there's no probably running as many trains as possible. Truncating LD at Washington makes no sense at all.
Aside from the Acela...
Did they ever try first class on the NEC? I heard about it being used with BC (then Custom Class) on Amtrak California trains.
First class as we sort of know it now on the NEC started back with the Pennsy, when they introduced the original Metroliner service. It was called Club Class, but it was essentially the predecessor of today's First Class on Acela. When Acela was first announced, they actually changed the name on the Metroliner's to First Class so as to get people prepared for the name change when Acela arrived.
Perhaps Bill or someone else knows if there were other versions of First Class service on the NEC that pre-date the Metroliner. I believe that there were, but I'm not so sure that those FC services if indeed they did exist, offered at seat service for your meals. I believe that you walked to a dining car in those cases, and I'm not sure that the meal was actually included in the fare either.
You probably are talking about parlor cars. They were all over the place, they go way way back to the heavyweight era. They were more useful when coaches were more spartan than they are today. They sort of became redundant after coaches got reclining seats, air conditioning, etc.. They often had single swivel seats. There were different designs Some had private drawing rooms. They were operated by the Pullman Company just as some sleeping cars were.Definately ticketed literally as first class.
Some have referred to the Congressional and the Senator. But those trains were not noted for their parlor cars (but of course they had them)but because they were re-equipped as stainless steel streamliners in the mid 50's. They got some acclaim for that. There were even ads for them in the National Geographic.
Parlor cars were most common in the N.E. as an obvious business persons choice but they were all over the country at one time.
Meals were not included anywhere ever that I ever heard of until Amtrak started doing it.
Looking at a 1957 Railroad Guide equipment for N.E. I see such things as: dining car, parlor bar lounge,coffee shop tavern,parlor buffet lounge, observation bar lounge, grill cars.In other words, dining and beverage facilites and whether you had to walk to them or find them in the same car was all over the wall. A fascinating and complicated subject..Not sure about things bring brought to your seats, maybe, esp.drinks, not sure.
Changing the subject for a moment, "back then" sometimes you sat in a regular lounge car and rang a buzzer and somebody came and got your drink,snack order and brought it back to you. This not related to parlor cars but just regular lounges.
Also Amtrak policy has not been consistent through the years about the LD trains not carrying local passengers. Sometimes they have. The southbound Carolinian seems to do it today.I remember reading some guy who managed to go from Baltimore to NYC in the mornings just so he could eat breakfast on the Silver Meteor.
And the railroads before Amtrak, all kinds of different things. The OP might be interested to know that in the pre Amtrak past some trains from the south only had through sleepers to NYC. Coach passengers did have to change in WAS.
The majority of the the Atlantic Coast Line and Seaboard trains had both through coaches and sleepers from NY to points south. But on the Southern Railroad there was only one train, out of nine , which had through coaches from NYC to points south. Coach passengers on all other Southern RR trains had to change at WAS.
