Nostalgia & History > #99 Breakfast

One morning my dad and mom took me with them to San Francisco for my dad to attend the American Welders' Supply Association convention.  Just so happened that they booked the trip to SFO on The Daylight to and from the convention.  My grandfather was the conductor on 99.  I guess around Chatsworth we decided to have breakfast.  I had bacon and scrambled eggs with hashbrowns and toast.  I will never forget how SP food tasted.  No contemporary restaurant can ever match it!  Anyone else here ever have breakfast on The Daylight. (or a hamburger on The Lark)?

Whistlepeg, you really got me goimg with this post, I LOVED visiting the dining car in my kidhood.  Recall, in all it's foggy, fragmented memories, tells me I always had hotcakes (pancakes to me) on the train, because only then did I get real butter and real maple syrup.  I'll never get over the fact that my farmer's daughter Mom served margerine, syrup made from Karo (anybody remember that sugar sludgre?) with flavoring, and, to top it off, powdered milk....which, of course, made me love railroad breakfasts all the more.  As a kid, of course I loved burgers.....still do, and, as an old man now, still a kid as well!  To take your question and double down on it, I had burgers on the Starlight, and, on the Lark too, though, with it's later departure tme, usualy had already had dinner, so I still went to the Lark Club for coffee and a dish of vanilla ice cream....in the days when the SP still served the best of everything on board.  The Lark Club traditionaly opened at 7PM, two hours before departure, so that passengers could bring guests aboard for dinner before departure, sort of like the ocean liners of the day, and yes, there were "all ashore that are going ashore" messages for those guests.  I wonder how many other trains did that?  Please do stir up these memories any time, and thanks for this one.  AA

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA

We had margerine and Karo also, in the '40s, when there was a war going on and it was all that was available...

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

MojaveBill Wrote:
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> We had margerine and Karo also, in the '40s, when
> there was a war going on and it was all that was
> available...                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Bill, You are correct about the war years....I still remember my pride that I got to mix the color dot into that grey-white mess that did look butter color when mixed correctly, and I recall rationing too.  BUT, my lament is not about the war years, but clear through the post war years of the late '40s and '50s, a completely different time, as we both know.                                                  Sorry for that distraction from this excellent thread.  I remember boarding the Daylight in SF, and we would head back to the triple unit diner as soon as passengers got settled down, probably before reaching south city and Bayshore yard.  Both dining rooms would be packed for breakfast with approximately 130 total seats, each car served by 8 or 10 waiters.  A 20 car Daylight, with 13 coaches and 2 Parlors,  would total be over 650 seats....the dining car staff kept very busy all day.                                                        The decline of SP passenger service has completely overshadowed the greatness that was once the rule of the day on the SP.  Service on the secondary trains of the day was no less professional and dignified.  Preparation and service on those old heavyweight diners adheared to the same high standards, though one had less elegant menu choices to select from.  I feel blessed to have experienced those days, and not just for train travel.....incomprehensible today that I coud safely travel around San Francisco Muni unaccompanied as a thrid grader, for example,  which was commonplace back then. 
AA



































 

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/25/16 17:28 by agentatascadero.

This is a great thread! My first train ride was on the northbound Coast Daylight at age 4, fifty-six years ago in 1960. 
My grandmother took me from a visit with her in Los Angeles back home to my parents in Northern California. That 
all day trip was what started my love for riding trains. I still have clear memories of boarding at LAUPT and entering
the parlor observation car with its heavy curtains and swiveling recliner chairs. I remember that we were ushered nearly
immediately into the diner and seated for breakfast even before the train left the station, and having (of course) pancakes
and syrup for breakfast while navigating lots of switches on the way out of LAUPT. That Daylight was still a great long train,
even in 1960, and there were a lot of people in the diner at breakfast and also in the lounge we passed through. I think
it was at least three cars up to the diner from the observation car, although some of that may have been transiting through
parts of the triple-unit diner itself.The observation car was still painted in the orange, black, and red "Daylight" scheme, although
I also recall seeing some  simplified stainless silver and red letter-boarded cars in the consist as we walked the length of the train
on arrival at San Francisco Third and Townsend station. 
 

As a reservation agent for the SP in LA, when making a booking for the Lark, we would remind the passenger, that the diner would be open for service early and he could take on board dinner guests.   Remember the Lark was 95% business mans travel up to the end of the 1950's  and so business could continue in the Lark Triple Unit while sitting in LAUPT.

This was smart on SP part, for it enclosed revenue for food and drink. 

mundo Wrote:
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> As a reservation agent for the SP in LA, when
> making a booking for the Lark, we would remind the
> passenger, that the diner would be open for
> service early and he could take on board dinner
> guests.   Remember the Lark was 95% business
> mans travel up to the end of the 1950's  and so
> business could continue in the Lark Triple Unit
> while sitting in LAUPT.
>
> This was smart on SP part, for it enclosed revenue
> for food and drink. 

GEE,This would be nice fot our current passenger train operators.

Uncle Joe,Seffner,Fl.

In the mid 60's. I was working for the SP in Los Angeles as a trainman.  Many times, I worked the baggageman's job on trains 75 and 76 between LA and Santa Barbara.
Out of LA at 900pm and into Santa Barbara about 1130pm, lay over until Southbound 76 arrived about 445am.  After unloading mail and baggage at Santa Barbara, Ventura, and Oxnard, I would walk back thru the RPO car and the coaches for breakfast in the diner.  Who could forget the crisp snap! of the morning newspaper handed to you opened by the dining car steward.  After I got to know some of kitchen staff, I would tell the chef, Johnnie Cummings, to "put them in the country", and there was no telling what treats and delights would appear in my breakfast.  One memorable morning, as we roared thru Moorpark, the waiter placed my morning meal before me - eggs sunnyside up, beneath two peach halves crowned with a brown sugar glaze in the oven, and cinnamon toast too!  I always felt a bit guilty when I would see families struggling to feed their group in spite of what seemed to be very high dining car prices, while employees on duty got a large discount, if they were even charged.  Ah, the memories!

Norm

Norman Orfall
Helendale, CA
TIOGA PASS, a private railcar

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