Railroaders' Nostalgia > CP Jack in the Box . . .

.   .   .   one thing all railroaders had in common was knowing where convenient food was available. I worked the former First Watson Road Switcher running on BNSF's Harbor Sub for a long time and knew you could stop at Entenmans outlet store with twelve cars, Red Robin forty cars, In n Out forty three cars, etc. Before the ban on cell phone use westbound pool crews out of Barstow to Los Angeles would regularly call in an order to a Mexican restarant in Hesperia that was only a couple hundred feet off the main for burritos and such. One of my favorite jobs to catch was the sporadic "coil train". A few times a year California Steel Industries would import a ship load of steel coils into the Port of Los Angeles. When this happened BNSF would put on a local to haul the coils from the Port of LA to the CSI plant in Fontana until they all made it to CFI. This was a great job normally with SAT SUN off and a 0700 on duty time and only a short, although heavy, twenty car train. ON BNSF, locals were advertised all miles that it could possibly operate because a "LOCAL" could only operate within these limits, if it went outside the "advertised" limits an extra days pay was involved. The coil train was advertise a round trip Watson to the Port of Long Beach, round trip between Watson and the Port of Los Angeles and round trip Watson to Kaiser which added up to 228 miles ( for you non railroaders, a hundred miles equals a "basic" days pay, you do the math ), a good paying job which was NORMALLY tied up in under eight hours as even though it was advertised a round trip, you always vanned back to Watson from Kaiser. I would ALWAYS bid this job and USUALLY got the bid. On a day in OCT 1998 we were eastbound in Riverside, CA, on the BNSF San Bernardino Sub knowing we would be stopping a couple miles ahead at a Contol Point for a bit so knowing there was a convenient Jack in the Box at the La Sierra over pass in Riverside we made a combination burger, taco and Kodak moment with this location near the former east end of MAY siding, becoming known as CP Jack in the Box.
JB



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/08/19 08:44 by 3rdswitch.

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I had many a burrito from Casa Delicias in Hesperia. Call it in at Frost and it would be ready when you got there. If they were busy, they'd put the rails orders to the front of the line and, if you were really in a hury, tell them what you were paying with and they'd meet you trackside, with correct change!

Nice shot and backstory.  I sure wish BNSF would have stayed with H1.
GK

There have been some great Casa Delicious stories posted here over the years. We had a "CP Jack" on the UP LA Sub too, in the City of Industry (and a less famous one in Pedley). Apparently the CofI one went away when it was double-tracked through there as there was no longer a reason to stop there to stay off crossings.

On UP's San Pedro branch at South Street there was a fried chicken place and a donut shop. Another frequented donut shop was on Valley Blvd. in Colton next to the Santa Fe main. Pretty terrible donuts, probably because they fried them in the same oil they used for various Chinese dishes. We used to call it the "Fish House" on account of the slightly fishy smell of the donuts.

I'm sure 3rdswitch spent many a beans on the Harbor Sub in Lawndale/Redondo where there was (is) a Costco, Tomboy's Burgers, a Winchell's donut shop, Four Brother's Burgers, and a couple other food options. I used to live in this neighborhood and saw the train paused there often while the crew was at beans. Seemed like it was usually when they were on the return trip to Watson and if the train was long, it was Tomboy's where they could stay off crossings, and if it was short or light power, they might venture down to the places on Inglewood Ave.

The subdivision I work on now is a food desert. Very few places, and a miniscule probability that you will stop near one of them anyway. I have to pack a lot of food on road trips these days.

Joe,

Excellent story  and nice image!!  Great to hear about your adventures out west!!!.  Keep them coming!!

Pat

   Back in the Southern Pacific days, the day Pomona Switcher would do the work on the Chino Branch.  At the time, there wasn't much on that branch, Brockway Glass and a grain place down at Chino were the only regular places getting cars.  Most of the area between Brockway glass and Chino was strawberry fields, and on the way back from Chino, we would stop and buy fresh strawberries from a little Japanese woman who had a stand along the tracks.
   You would have thought we'd stopped the "Super Chief" to buy her strawberries!  She was totally amazed at the idea we'd stop that big train at her humble stand, even though we just consisted of a switch engine nad a shirtail of cars!
   Those right-out-of-the-field strawberries were sure good though!

Brian Black
Castle Rock, CO

>>Those right-out-of-the-field strawberries were sure good though!

Fresh, field-ripened Strawberries are infinitely more appetizing than most of the ones that appear in stores.  

tehachcond Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>    Back in the Southern Pacific days, the day
> Pomona Switcher would do the work on the Chino
> Branch.  At the time, there wasn't much on that
> branch, Brockway Glass and a grain place down at
> Chino were the only regular places getting cars. 
> Most of the area between Brockway glass and Chino
> was strawberry fields, and on the way back from
> Chino, we would stop and buy fresh strawberries
> from a little Japanese woman who had a stand along
> the tracks.
>    You would have thought we'd stopped the
> "Super Chief" to buy her strawberries!  She was
> totally amazed at the idea we'd stop that big
> train at her humble stand, even though we just
> consisted of a switch engine nad a shirtail of
> cars!
>    Those right-out-of-the-field strawberries
> were sure good though!
>
> Brian Black
> Castle Rock, CO


We used to stop the Leesdale local at Somis and one of the crew members or two would pick up a flat of strawberries daily!

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I stopped at the Daylight Donuts in Dalhart one morning and the Chinese guy that owned it followed me out repeating “you stopped train? You stopped train?” His wife spoke English and was shaking her head.

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