Nostalgia & History > Did You Ever Stop To Get Food!

I think this would be a fun thread.  Between Knob Noster, MO and Warrensburg, MO, there is a BBQ place or was...it might still be there.  Over the years train crews would stop and pick up supper or lunch.  I was wondering about others.  I am sure it happened all over the US.  If you ever stopped for a meal while on your regular run, why not tell us about it.  It would be fun to hear of your experience.  Did you have to get off the engine and go after the food, did the establishment bring it to you, was it so good that you always stopped, etc.  Just wondering.  Let us know.

Any rail that doesn't know every hole in the wall along the way to get a burrito, is not a rail at all. That being said, I can think of a couple of unusual instances of getting something to eat along the way.

On one occasion, I was headed to Yermo. We were approaching Arlington when my conductor asked me if I wanted to get a pizza. A little puzzled, I said, "Sure", so he got on the phone and called his girlsfriend and asked her to pick up a pizza and meet us at Devore with it. As soon as he got off the phone with her and called in our order, the dispatcher called us and told us to pick up a road forman at San Bernardino, without mentioning who it was. Normally, it probably would have taken a good 45 minutes to an hour to get from Riverside to Devore but, of course, this day we were on clear signals and had good power so we shot right up to San Bernardino and found the road forman waiting for us. Once we'd picked him up, I ran as slowly as I could, without making it obvious that I was stalling but, even so, it was clear that we were going to be at Devore in about 15 minutes. The conductor and I kept looking at each other, not sure whether to cut the roadforman in on what was going on. He was one of the cooler ones so finally we told him. He didn't seem too concerned at first but as we came to a stop at Devore and saw that there was noone around, he began to get pretty wormy. He started saying things like, "This isn't cool, we've got to get moving". Well, we put him off for about ten minutes and she finally showed up with the pizza and all was good then.


For many years, on the LA&SL, we got paid two hours pay for not stopping to eat enroute. If you were more than eight hours on duty between terminals, you could claim a second meal period. So we were all getting four hours a day for not stopping enroute. Now, by the agreement, you were supposed to have asked to go eat and been denied the opportunity, in order for the claim to be allowed. In reality, most guys just wanted the money and the dispatcher was never going to let you stop and eat anyhow so, guys just submitted the claim, day after day, without ever actually calling and requesting a meal period. Well, at some point, the UP got tired of how many meal claims they were paying out and annouced to us all that, "If you submit a claim for not getting to eat enroute, you darn well better have called and asked to go to luch because we're keeping track of who actually called". So, at first, everybody just started submitting the claim while on the Santa Fe, and still not calling, but then, the UP got hip to that and told us we better be calling on the ATSF as well and that the ATSF dispatchers would be keeping track of who called on their railroad. So one trip, I was comming home on the hottest train on the railroad, the CHLAZ. This train was guaranteed to make it from Chicago to Los Angeles in 48 hours or it was free! Well, I called the ATSF dispatcher and asked him if we could go to lunch at Victorville and he said, "Why, by all means, tie it down there guys and have a nice lunch". I think, at this point, he was darn tired of all of the UP trains asking to go to lunch on his railroad so he was going to get back at the UP. We pulled up to Victorville, tied it down and strolled up the block to a Mexican resturant and had a nice leisurely lunch before wandering back to our train. When we climbed back aboard, there was one very angry road forman on the engine asking just what we were doing and where we'd been. I explained that we'd been told, by the UP, to call and request a meal period and that we did. After that, the UP went back to paying the claims without all of the monkey games!
 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/22/16 14:07 by crackerjackhoghead.

About half way between Eureka and Willits CA, the Northwestern Pacific had a cookhouse at the Fort Seward depot where most train crews would stop to eat.  The consensus was that if we highballed the beans often enough, the company would use that as an excuse to shut down the facility.  The quality of the food depended on who was doing the cooking.  Suffice to say that due to the remote location, the company had a difficult time keeping cooks on board, let alone good ones.
 
I think my best memories were in 1987-88 working the all-night Southern local between Strasburg and Harrisonburg VA and stopping at the convenience store next to the tracks in Mt. Jackson on the return trip for coffee and snacks.  The clerk just couldn’t get over the fact that we were actually stopping a train at his store for coffee, and he always had a fresh pot on for us; probably was the most exciting event on his shift.
 
The best single memory was from WC days, switching in Tomahawk WI on a warm summer evening.  That’s one of those locations where houses and yards are built up right next to the track, and I made a comment to one of the outdoor grillers that his burgers smelled great.  Before I knew it, he had fixed up a couple of those delicious burgers for the hoghead and me, pretty typical response for the good folks of Wisconsin.  The only thing missing was a cold Leinie! 
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/22/16 00:39 by terrybaker.

When the Georgia RR was running mixed trains Atlanta-Augusta, the conductor would advise passengers (if there were any) to grab a bite at a nearby burger/BBQ stand while the train did some switching en route. Often happened at Union Point.

In the early '80s the agent at the Canton, MA, Staton would notify Spa Pizza in Stoughton when the MBTA train entered the Stoughton branch at Canton.  The Spa was across the street from the Stoughton Station and the pizza was delivered to the crew to enjoy on the dead head move back to South Station, Boston.  Unfortunately, in the mid-'90s Spa Pizza moved to a location about two miles south of Stoughton.  I don't know if they delivered to the station after the move.  Gerry

Called for a KC-Wellington Z train train about 8am, with a Conductor I really didn't know very well. I knew he had hired out back in the 60's, but got bad ordered for some health issues. Then after new drugs came on the market, that worked for him, after nearly 20 years, he got back to work WITH his seniority intact. Anyway, our "Z" came and went with another crew, and they had swapped us down to a DP'd grain train out of the old BN Murray yard in North KC. We waited forever to taxi over there, then were delayed for what seemed like hours, and finally departed. It looked like we would be on short time the whole trip, if we made it at all. We crawled through the Hannibal bridge, the Gooseneck, through AT Jct, through the fuel pad on the main line, and finally got out onto open water where we could wind it up for the Olathe hill. Time was dragging on, it was already early-mid afternoon, and when we got called, we figured we'd be in Wellington by now, if we had kept the Z. We were by Olathe, and cruising righ t along, when the Conductor comes over to my side, and on kinda short notice says "I want you to pull up to that Kentucky Fried Chicken just past Mooonlight drive and stop, I need something to eat". I'd brought food with me, and put up some resistance, because we were on short time, and I didn't want to block that busy crossing, just because he wanted to eat chicken. Then he says.."Look, I'm an epileptic, the medication works most of the time. But I'm hungry, and need to eat something NOW, you don't even want to see what could happen if I don't eat !" So, I took his word for it, and started pouring on the DB & the air, and got us squated down right beside the KFC. By the time I got stopped, he was running in the front door, and within about three minutes he was running back with a sack of food. He told the clerk to just scoop up whatever was fasted, and out he came back to the engine. So we blasted off again for Wellington. Later in the trip the DS called and told us he had a relief crew from Newton shadowing us, just in case we couldn't make it, and we had to stop and let them have it about five miles short of SK Jct at Wellington. This trip will always stick in my memory, because the next morning when I woke up, I turned on the Today show on NBC, just in time to see the planes flying into the World Trade Centers. By the time we got called to go back east, both buildings had come down, and the world was changing.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/22/16 09:58 by ddg.

Back in the 90's before the ATSF San Diego Subdivision was double-tracked through Irvine, there was a siding near Sand Canyon Rd. in Irvine.  If i recall, on the timetable it was called "Valencia"?  Right adjacent to the Sand Canyon grade crossing there is a burger place called Knowlwood.  Northbound freights out of San Diego would often run through Orange County in late morning or near the lunch hour.  ​On several occasions I saw a freight pull in on the siding, tie down hand brakes, and the entire crew go into Knowlwoods and eat lunch.  Sitting there with the HT on the table, just in case the DS called.  Not pick up and take out, but sit in the restaurant and enjoy lunch. 
That was not a long siding and more than once I saw a freight cut the crossing while waiting to meet an Amtrak.  Don't know if I ever saw them go to all that work jut to go to beans.

crackerjackhoghead Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

>
> Well, I
> called the ATSF dispatcher and asked him if we
> could go to lunch at Victorville and he said,
> "Why, by all means, tie it down there guys and
> have a nice lunch". I think, at this point, he was
> darn tired of all of the UP trains asking to go to
> lunch on his railroad so he was going to get back
> at the UP.
>  

That sounds like something Richard Browning would have done.

Whenever I started with a different railroad (there were many in 50 years) the first thing I wanted to know was where the resturants, fast food places, truck stops, quick marts, etc. were located near the tracks so we knew where to eat and find a bathroom. After working at one railroad most were all the same: look for runaround tracks, wyes, leads, switchbacks, head room on tails, backward connections, car lengths per track and which they rolled. Once, a guy knew the "lay of the land" it was pretty much what needed to be done, how soon and when do we go home.

exprail   

Bill Sharp's BBQ (Knob Noster) closed a number of years ago after Bill passed away--family did not want to run it.  Back when the MOP had agents in Warrensburg and Sedalia, the train crews would drop off their order, the agent would call Bill Sharp's, the train crew would stop on the "Bill Sharp" curve and Mrs Sharp would cross Highway 50 and deliver the food to the waiting train crew.  Nowadays, the crew sometimes stop in Knob Noster and visit the local Sonic Drive-In that is located on the site of the Knob Noster train station.

Marty Harrison
Knob Noster, MO

Vader,WA had a restaurant right next to the Seattle sub that crews used to stop at. CJ

Posted from iPhone

I always felt cheated when you got past a couple of towns with eateries and the DS called to tell you were going to the next barren station with no facilities at all and would be there for sometime so you might as well go get a bite to eat.

Posted from iPhone

Chico43 Wrote:
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>
> That sounds like something Richard Browning would
> have done.

That's funny that you mentione that. I don't remember who the dispatcher was that day but it his son, Steve Browing who had his girlfriend bring the pizza out.

On the J, there was a hot dog place in Barrington IL, and the home signals for the interlocking were right behind the dog joint. Regardless of direction, it seems that every time I was hirailing through Barrington it was lunch time. If you were going  RR West, you would have your track authority and simply pull up to the home signal, stop, get out and go get lunch.  Go back to the truck, eat lunch. Then when you were ready to go, simply call the Dispatcher for more track.
RR East, was the opposite, Hirail through Barrington, get to the Eastbound home, call for more track, once you got through the CP, give up the old authority and report clear the interlocking then go to lunch.
Once we were hirailing with scrappers who were giving prices for the rail we were about to replace. There had to be a dozen guys plus another 4 J guys.  We stopped RR East of the plant and told em to get out for lunch. Boy were they confused until we walked in the front door.

Frank

The Little Crane In Vader, Washington. Great food. Good prices. Very pleasant staff.

In Gold Bar, Washington, it is the Mountain View Diner. Good food and lots of it!

Rich

one year I was in charge and the pilot of the machine assisted by one of Amtrak's orange pumpkin GP-9s for a ditching program on the AC Line ... Amtrak contracted a St Louis company for their Jordan Spreader and opr who looked all of a 12 y/o kid who name I can't recall but he was from St Louis and was staying in a hotel in Philly ... Tommy was my engineer and what a character he was ... he was a portly very jovial fella who had the same hyper personality and was a stone cold ringer for Matt Foley (Chris Farley's SNL character) ... Doc was my cndr and was a Woodstock throwback who was so cool one would think he had liquid marijuana for blood in his veins ...

I had worked with Doc before but hadn't with Tommy who transferred from Septa a few years prior ... Tommy and Doc were polar opposites with Tommy being loud and boisterous and Doc quiet and reserved ... they worked great together and were one of the best crews I had ever worked with in 38 years ... one thing I can say about Tommy is HE LOVED PIE !!!

the job was a 12hr 7 day 3 month project ... it was a temporary project and the company was paying big bucks for the machine and their equipment opr and wanted someone they could trust to show up everyday and get the work done without any bullcrap to deal with ... so instead of advertising the job as temporary they asked if I'd work the job ...

this was one of those rare moments where for once I had the seniority to work all 3 months on an overtime night shift and since it conflicted with my regular day shift I was in line for getting the next day off with pay so it was a no brainer for me ... after the 4 year rehab and construction work for the AC Line was done in 1990 and trains were running our OT dwindled down to nothing so this was a time for me to collect and put away some major ducketts being it was all OT and I was getting paid for my regular daylight shift ...

we hadda TM Train Manager Steve Altman who oversaw the work making sure we got railroad on time and keeping track of all delays to ensure proper billing for the contractor ... Steve would pick up the kid at the hotel and drive over to Hammonton in south jersey where I would meet them and the crew who were vanned over from Race St ... Steve, I was told by the crew was a straight laced company man and I didn't know him, so I hadda play everything by the book or close to it which was really tough for me since I liked to improvise ... because of the large cost of leasing the Jordan Spreader for 3 months and with the limited time we had the machine and the scope of the work to be done in that 3 month time period, management was pushing production which meant we had little time to stop and eat and Tommy HADDA EAT especially PIE !!!

so Tommy hadda brainstorm and decided to turn the cab of the spreader machine into CHEZ JORDAAAANNNN ... he delegated duties to us for our meals ... Doc was to bring the portable throwaway grill ... I was to furnish the charcoal and plasticware and utensils ... Tommy was in charge of desserts and guess what it AAALWAYS was ... yeeuupp you guessed it ... PIE !!! ... we all chipped in for the meats ( everything from filet mignon to veal chops) and/or fish (salmon to lobster and shrimp) whatever was discussed to be on the menu for that night ... lemme say that we ate REAL GOOD !!! ...

since the railroad was single track with sidings, the disp would give us all main tracks and sidings out of service which was great ... we didn't have to worry about any signals and more importantly to him, not bother the disp ... Tommy and Doc stayed on the power and the kid (contract opr who looked every bit of 12) worked the machine while I stayed with him in the machine cab, so yours truely was the designated grill master ... I would set the grill up on the window sill inside the cab opposite the side the kid had to work that night ... at times there was more smoke coming out of the window of the machine cab than out of a ALCO unit ... we had ppl stopped at crossings yelling at us all the time including Tommy over the radio "damn that smells good" ... it was a real good 3 months for sure ... we got all the work done that was projected ... we made good money and we ate like kings ... I always LOVED my job but there were times when I was IN LOVE with my job and this was one of those times ...

Back when I worked for the I&M Raillink, my territory was between Kansas City and Ottumwa, IA. There wasn't much for places to eat near the tracks. We made the turn at Polo, MO on to the single track. The dispatcher called and said he had a westbound coming that wouldn't fit at Chillicothe. Neither would we. He told us we were to hold at Braymer and we'd be there for awhile. My engineer asked if we could stop at the west end of the siding before we cleared and grab a bite to eat. He agreed to our request. We stopped, with the front of our engine just off the crossing. There were lights but no gates. We walked a block away o a place called the Busy Bee Cafe. We walked in and sat down at a booth. The young waitress came over and dropped off menus. She came back a minute later and asked if we were eating in or carrying out. I looked at my engineer and then back at her and said "we better get it to go.  We don't want to leave our train double parked."  She looked at me like I had 2 heads and then at my engineer and back at me. I told her if she didn't believe me that she should look outside. She did and came back laughing. We got our burger and fries to go, got back on our train and pulled into the clear. 

After i went to work for the UP between KC and Marysville, there still weren't many options of places to stop and eat. One popular place, even to this day, is the Dairy Queen in Bonner Springs. I stopped there one day, walked across the street and made my order. The young clerk asked if it was to go.  Before I could answer, the older clerk behind her said "hon, he works for the railroad. He wants it to go."  Another time, we tied the train down and the whole crew went over to get food and ice cream. I asked the dispatcher first and gave him my phone number with the promise he'd call when he was ready for us. True to his word, and hour later he called. We got back to our train and took off for town. 

I remember on my very first student trip. I was sent out to Los Nietos (So.Cal, LA Basin) to break in with the PE Conductor that had got me hired on (RE Coe). After a few hours of switching the yardmaster sent us out on the La Habra branch to spot a car in La Habra. On the way back we went to lunch and left the engine sitting on the main. All during lunch I was worried about othe trains coming down the main. Little did I know that it was a "branch main" and didn't have to worry abour it......



V

SLOCONDR

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3743882,3744086#msg-3744086

On the Los Angeles Division of the Santa Fe, we had a list of restaurants that we could call and stop very quickly for, without it being noticed.  Just call ahead with your order and then stop.  The conductor would run in and pick up the food.  We even had a pizza place in Corona that would deliver to the tracks as we arrived.  On the Cajon Sub. if we asked the dispatcher, he would likely let us run across the street in Hesperia to one of the best Mexican restaurants around.  And, if he did not let us, and we were in a long line of trains grinding up the hill, we would just do it any way.  Once I called the dispatcher while operating a westbound train.  I said "I am getting very sleepy and need a cup of coffee from the AM-PM in Victorville."  Of course he allowed me to do so.  I only did this once, and I really did need the coffee.  I really was exhausted.  But walking across in the cold night air and then the caffeine did the trick.

​KC