Nostalgia & History > The best bran muffins -

Armed with my camera I was walking by the GM&O dining car while the southbound passenger train was stopped at Bloomington, Illinois. This scene caught my eye, and the camera's shutter. I ate many good meals in the GM&O diners including the best bran muffins I have ever eaten!! I recall a friend carrying a clear plastic bag with at least a dozen of them to take home.

I remember a friend and I talking about dinner trains, what if a railroad decided to run dinner trains with some seating instead of a passenger train with a single diner. What kind of a name would you put on that train? For example, on the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio, The Abraham Lincoln would become The Egg and Ham Luncheon. The Prairie State Express would become The Prairie Steak Express. Santa Fe's Super Chief would be the Super Chef and so on. Any more?

Roger Holmes

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Great photo!

In my early years at Amtrak I went to work in the Commissary in St. Louis after being bumped out of the ticket office there. I worked for Mr. Tony Cermak, a no nonsense tough as nails head of the Commissary. We were still housed in the former GM&O commissary building that was serving now as the commissary for Amtrak. We would supply food items, ice, beverages for the National Limited, Inter-American, State House and Abraham Lincoln trains.

In my time working there, Tony told me about working as a cook in the Navy on aircraft carriers and preparing meals for the multitude of sailors and staff. Then he went to work as a cook for the GM&O. His first task when he arrived on the diner, well in advance of train departure, was to start peeling and cutting the apples for apple pie! No canned food was used. No pre-prepared foods either!

Your photo brings back memories of Mr. Cermak. Thank you.

In 1979 I was introduced to the man in charge of the Amtrak commissary at 8th St. in Los Angeles. His name was David Baucom and he was from the U.P. He was nothing short of gracious and later when I went to work for Amtrak, I was told he had retired. I never met anyone who worked with him who had any negative comments about him. Matter of fact he was highly revered by everyone who remembered him.

Don't forget the real Sierra Railroad "Supper Chief"!

EMD2024 Wrote:
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> Don't forget the real Sierra Railroad "Supper
> Chief"!

In 1972 the Sierra Railroad launched the first dinner train in North America. Playfully mimicking the famous Super Chief, the Sierra Railroad launched the Supper Chief. Never before had a railroad offered guests such an opportunity to experience the charm and nostalgia of railroads as regular attraction. While the Supper Chief was discontinued when the railroad was sold by the Crocker Family in 1982, the train helped launch an industry that now has 88 dinner trains operating throughout North America.

KRK