I loved the Tristar. When we lived in Lisbon (well Cascais) in the mid 1980s we would occasionally use TAP to get back to London and occasionally it would be on a L-1011-500 rather than their 727s. J was referred to as "Navigadores" Class (Navigators) and I remember they had a very nice world map on the bulkhead with all the routes of the Portuguese Discoveries like VdG and so on. And of course, big fluffy business class recliners in a 2-2-2 config, such a contrast to Club Europe on the 757s.

Then off we went to Bahrain which was Tristar heaven with Gulf Air -200s on the main routes such as to London. By the time we arrived the Tristar was nearing the end of service and was slowly being replaced by 767s and A340s. They'd lost some of the luxe features like the onboard library, the bar (who says EK are innovative...) and the swivel seats in F that allowed pax to dine face to face like in a QSuite (who says QR are innovative...) but they still had a underfloor galley, served by a lift. I remember going up and down several times as a child, there was lots of space down there but it did feel very utilitarian. Galley duty was considered plum duty amongst the GF stewardesses (and they were almost all stewardesses) as they could go down after takeoff, change into PJs, cook 300 meals, do hair, nails, makeup...emerging in London ready for a night on the town. I remember the noise in the rear galley was horrendous, only separated from the turbine of the RB211 by a thin bulkhead and some soundproofing.

GF bar:


GF F cabin with face to face dining:

GF example at BAH - you can see the window for the underfloor galley just forward of the wing root: (some carried N- registrations as used to get swapped with TWA)

The BA examples were not as plush but still nice to fly on. Ultimately the aircraft was very advanced for its time (direct lift control, anyone?) which made it complex and expensive to maintain, and the engine issues at the start hobbled range and performance. The early Tristar models for BA were specced for BEA, for short trunk routes in Europe, but then BA decided to send them off to places like Saudi. A friend of my father's was BA manager in Riyadh in the 80s, sending a full Tristar back to London in August even in the middle of the night was a nightmare, they used to regularly file a flight plan to Frankfurt and then 'divert' to London once the winds had been worked out to be favourable. The -500 model was much improved but heavier with fewer pax. The DC-10 in comparison was a DC-8 in drag and much easier to look after but with an appalling safety record in the early years. Funnily enough its successor the MD-11 also had performance/range issues when it launched, leading to SQ cancelling their (RR-powered Trent 500...no relation to the engine that ended up on the A340-600) order.