The American diner was traditionally a small restaurant - more or less in the form of railway car - which provided solid, inexpensive food for the working man at virtually all hours of the day and night. From its humble origins in 1872, the diner flourished in the 1920s and 30s and was particularly frequented during the bleakest years of the Depression. In recent decades, diners have been dying out, victims of pervasive fast-food chains.