One would think that if anybody on this forum voted "old" for everythng, it would be this 61 year old tottering,dottering fool.....but not necessarily.
I very much grew up in the pre-Amtrak era ad have many thoughts on the subject but not that I can go into very much as I am very busy today, as I often am. Can't ususally give very long answers to anything. (my only computer is at work, not at home)
But I will hare some thoughts, having had a lovely Canadian trip last October.
First, I was ill and facing surgery and the comforter beds were extremely welcome to my physical bod---more comfy than Amtrak,yes.
However, I was in a double bedroom and I missed the sofa we have for daytime use on Amtrak deluxe bedrooms.
ALso missed the tray foldout for anything we bring to our room. Have gotten spoiled to that on Amtrak. Amtrak patterned after airlines for that, putting fold out trays in both sleepers and coaches. The "old" trains did not have that. You balanced food in your lap.
Of course in the "good old days" we did not have showers all over the place aswe have today. Very few trains had them, they were usually not public but just in one or two specific private rooms. Often called master rooms. Extremely expensive.
Of course one of the neat things about the old cars is the farword view from the dome. Can't beat that.
But then, on a superliner if our room or seat is upstairs we are sort of in a dome the whole trip.(though no forward view). If the lounge is too crowded and too noisy, and I am in a deluxe room, I can see quite well out of my own room, which cannot be said for the old equipment.
The over all courtesy helpfullness is better, or more consistent,on VIA than on Amtrak.
In talking abut the "good old days" don't forget that not every train was run like the 20th Century Limited or the Broadway Limited. There were many very slow, multistop locals, trains which went long distances with no food or lounge or sleeper whatsoever. There was immense variety, far more than today .... you could find extremes in service level far more immense than anything on AMtrak, for better or for worse.
Oh, and there is also this---moving away from the point of this post a little bit, but think about all the fun we have today planning dummy trips to see how much it costs, checking on time status all day long for trains we are not taking ---when I was the age of some of the members of this forum, I would never have dreamed we could have this much fun someday, with computers. Of course that does not speak to railroad improvements as much as it does to societal improvements. But it is true the first computer was Amtrak not the airlines. ALSO--it means there are far fewer reservation foul-ups today than in the "good old days".