Though I imagine if you were discreet about it - e.g. brought cups and poured whatever into it while the conductor wasn’t looking, you could get away with it. I don’t think I’d set a six-pack of Pawtucket Patriot on the tray table, or uncork a bottle of wine!
Whatever you bring, consider taking a soft cooler to keep it in. You can bring “blue ice” to keep it cool if you’ll have access to a freezer at the other end (and want to do the same for the return trip), but another trick is to freeze zip-loc bags of water. Double bag them of course!!! At the other end, either empty, refill and refreeze, or get ice from the hotel’s ice machine. (hah! Ninjaed by Silenus on that one).
I’ve traveled on at least a dozen times on Amtrak routes of 24 hours or more (in the Roomette, the second-class sleeper) and four times on Via Rail Canada’s Montreal-to-Halifax route. Never brought any food. It’s just another thing to have to lug around and be a pain in the ass. They sell decent stuff in the dining and cafe cars, and I don’t mind paying whatever they charge because I want to help support the passenger rail system. And always give a decent tip!
The people who work the trains are typically cool as shit to hang out with, they’re usually found in the lounge car late at night, or on breaks during the day, when they’re not patrolling around the cars. It’s a field that has a lot of history behind it - it is a traditionally African-American occupation, for one thing…read about the history of the Pullman Porters sometime. These guys take their job very seriously. The crew are often former military or longtime transportation service guys. Do not ever make the mistake of thinking that the train is like some self-aware machine that just drives itself, or that there’s just one guy at the locomotive sitting doing nothing for hours. Coordinating the train’s stops, dealing with potential hazards or delays, working around the schedule of the freight lines which have the right-of-way over Amtrak, maintaining constant communication between train crews and stations…all of this is complicated and stressful work, and now more than ever is under the gun from budget cuts.
These people absolutely BUST ASS to get you where you need to go…and, when there are delays (as there often are), or unexplained stops, they get bombarded with complaints from all the irate passengers as if it’s within the capability of the crew to just magically fix everything if enough people ask them to. Just please cut them some slack. They do their best, believe me.
My favorite travel foods are those orange peanut butter crackers (or make your own, Club crackers are good, or you can do whole grain), trail mix (or separate bags of nuts and dried fruits), peanut M&Ms and fruit like grapes or clementines. Also Vitamin Water Zero, they taste good at room temp.
I’ve had a couple of very long train trips, and always brought a cooler so I had plenty of cold food and drinks, but I also brought an MRE or two, because I knew that after about 18 hours I would be in serious need of a hot meal. They’re nowhere near as bad as people make them out to be.
For what it’s worth, the time I went to Florida and back via train (where I sat in coach vs a sleeper), I treated myself to breakfast and lunch in the dining car. Shared a table with the same woman both times too. Well, on the trip down; on the trip back, I wanted dinner in the dining car but they had filled all the dining slots :(. I had to get the meal “to go” and ate it in the club car. Breakfast was a nonevent because my train arrived at 6:30 or so in the morning.
I do recommend a dining-car meal once, just for the change of scenery and (as you said) to get a hot meal. And since you wind up sharing (unless you have a tablefull in your party) you meet other people.
I like to bring snacks at least - because to be honest, the selection in the cafe car is not always the greatest, nor the healthiest. One time, I asked for item A, “sold out”, item B, “sold out”, item C… before they had what I wanted.
I take a medication 4x daily that must be taken with food. Therefore, I always carry a good sized baggie of homemade trail mix, a bottle of vitamin water, a packet of crackers, and a pouch of tuna salad for a day/evening journey and replace the crackers and tuna with cereal bars if it is an overnight trip. I will make use of a dining car if available and serving something I like, but if one isn’t available, I always have my fallback provisions.
Once, unable to get a flight from Denver to Grand Junction, CO, I took an Amtrak instead. It took maybe 45 min more than it would have to drive and navigate treacherous snowy passes, and the sceney was beyond compare. Highly recommended.
My standby for long trips is a crusty baguette, a selection of good cheeses, a hard salami (or similar), and red wine (decanted into a nondescript container for discreet imbibing.) Graceful consumption requires a Swiss Army knife, which all good travelers carry.
My personal experience with BYOB on Amtrak is that if you’re discreet and not noticeably inebriated the conductors have better things to do than hassle you.
When I am feeling like I need cover, I will buy a beer in the cafe car. I can then keep the bottle on my tray table while I drink other beers, decanted into a cup.
For liquor, bring airplane bottles and the same brands they sell and you’re golden.
