Beaneries on the Missouri Pacific

[peggyrothschild]

At crew change points where the trainmen were away from home the MP had both dormitories and restaurants for the crews to rest and eat. These were run by private contractors. Here’s a list with some comments on a few.

Kansas City East beanery
I mostly worked second or third shift at Neff yard and ate at the east Beanery a few times. I always ordered breakfast no matter what time it was and remember they had a great steak and eggs with potatoes and coffee that was very reasonable. The Neff yards employees I knew favored the east Beanery over the west one so I never ate there.

Kansas City West Beanery

Horace, Kansas
Horace had a small cafe within walking distance of the depot and YMCA where the crews stayed. I know there was a counter that probably sat six or seven and maybe s few tables and chairs. I’d ridden the local from Hoisington to Horace and stayed in the YMCA. We were called for 7:00 am so I probably had breakfast there and the conductor told me to order a sack lunch for the trip back. I remember it was a thick ham sandwich, potato chips and an apple.

Where else?

[princessclyne69]

I recall a place called the I-GN Cafe, to the best of my knowledge, across from the HB&T Milby St. roundhouse and engine facility in Houston. That yard was originally for servicing passenger engines operating out of Union Station, but in the late 70s the MoPac wreck train was housed there, and any road power operating in and out of the HB&T yards was serviced there, so Santa Fe and Rock Island power could be found there also.

Never set foot in the cafe, but all those years ago it was probably patronized by arriving crews. Amtrak crews used to be put up at one of the two hotels right up Texas Av. from Union Station, both of which I believe are now gone.

Ron Merrick

[clemmie_doris12]

I spent my share of time in the beaneries and dormitories at Neff Yard in KC. They might have been great when they were built in the late ’50s, but they left a lot to be desired by the late ’70s and early ’80s. I’m not sure when the dormitories were closed down. I would guess by the middle ’80s. I think the east end beanery lasted longer than the other facilities, but that is mostly a guess.

The east end was generally home to the rear end crews from Jeff City, Carthage and Osawatomie. The west end was home to the head end crews and usually both ends of crews from Falls City. This was directly related to where these crews would be once the trains were yarded and the power taken to the diesel shop. The east end was behind the general manager’s office and just south of the rip track. Crews from the east and south would usually yard their train in the 300 yard which put the caboose on the opposite side of the rip track from the beanery and dormitory. The west end facilities were across from the diesel shop and near the west end of the 200 yard which is where crews from the north yarded their trains.

All of the buildings were of concrete block construction with a brick exterior. The dormitory rooms were pretty spartan and you had to share restroom facilities and recreational devices (TV) with the other individuals staying there. The TV was usually a piece of junk that only got a handful of over-the-air stations. The worst part of staying there was the noise. A pin dropped on the floor at one end of the building sounded like a piece of steel pipe at the other end. Imagine what it was like when the crew caller came and banged on the door of crew members that were being called. The HVAC systems were pretty poor, also. The west end was especially bad. It was a single story building in the shape of an L. It was always hot on one end and cold on the other. The only difference between seasons was which end was hot and which was cold.

The beaneries were OK. Generally, the food was good and they were open 24 hours a day. I would say that quality-wise, the east end was a little better due to its proximity to the general manager’s office. They were operated by contractors that were smart enough to know that you had better do well for the guys that were authorizing payment.

I could tell lots of stories concerning the shenanigans that went on at these facilities. When business was good, there were more crews than the dormitories could handle. The overflow was sent to a motel/hotel facility that was a definite upgrade in comparison. There were several tricks that were employed from time to time in order to avoid staying at the dormitory. And, there were plenty of escapades that involved crew members and those that were employed to work in these places. Keep your eyes peeled for an upcoming story in “The Eagle.”

[peggyrothschild]

There was a contract beanery south of Dupo that would furnish the meals ‘on the fly’ in the same manner as train orders were given. Location if I remember correctly was Illmo. I’ll try and get more details on this and add it later.

[merlina]

I have some black-and-white photos of “hooping up lunch” at Illmo in the early 1980s. Will post at least one if I can figure out where they are. There was a stand patterned after a train-order stand, only with flat metal plates instead of forks. The crew ordered lunch by radio and sack lunches were placed in two cardboard boxes, one for the head-end crew and one for the caboose crew. One of the boxes was placed on each metal plate. Each box had a bail made out of twine and a member of the crew at each end of the train would put his or her arm through the bail, empty the cardboard box of its contents, and toss the box out along the right-of-way to be retrieved by a member of the beanery staff. Not sure whether that service was provided to MoPac crews, Cotton Belt crews or both, or why lunch was provided on the fly.

Pat Hiatte

[alexortiz25]

The Illmo beanery serviced the MoPac crews only. I recall railfanning in the area and hearing on the scanner the crews call in their food orders. Though normally I believe their food orders were called in from either DuPo or P.Bluff when crews marked up.

The crews would call the beanery on the radio as they were approaching so the cook had time to get their order out for pickup.

Once I witnessed the food order getting hooped up backwards. That is to say the headend got the rearend’s food. Entertaining radio chatter ensued.

[peggyrothschild]

Here’s some information from Norbert Shacklette on Illmo:
“Meal orders were filled out at Dupo, Poplar Bluff. Salem & Paragould. C&EI Crews out of Salem elected to take a dollar allowance. Railroad paid for it. Breedlove who was in Labor Relations was part owner

It was in brown paper bags except for the drinks which were in Styrofoam cups.”

[Dennis Faircloth]

Illmo Beanery

Prior to the early 1960’s, crews operating between Dupo and Poplar Bluff, and Dupo and Paragould, AR, changed at Gale, IL. In June 1950, a previous agreement (dating to 1927) was revised outlining separate crew pools for trains running through Gale. A side letter to this agreement stated that MP would continue the practice of furnishing crews “on trains first and second 67, 65, 361, Gulf Coast Blocks 360, 72, and 60 with two meat sandwiches, pie and coffee or milk not to exceed a cost of 80 cents, when the engines of such trains do not have to be serviced at Gale or the train does not have to be switched.”

In the early 1960’s (prior to 1964 but I do not have an exact date), MP elimated Gale as a crew change point and established the beanery at Illmo to provide lunches to crews operating Dupo-Poplar Bluff and Dupo-Paragould. At this time, lunches were handed up to all trains. This service was for MP only, it did not involve Cotton Belt. When the C&EI was folded in, crews in the Salem-Poplar Bluff pool also got lunch. The practice continued into the UP era until the implementation of the St. Louis Hub Agreement in November of 1999, when it was specifically written out of the agreement. In 1993, the owners were Bob Camp Jr and BL Wheeler. Camp was a 43-yr employee with MP and UP before retiring in 1988. Wheeler was a retired engineer.

Crews phoned their orders in at Poplar Bluff or Dupo, giving their train symbol. As southbound trains came over the Thebes Bridge, or northbound trains crossed the Frisco at Rockview, they would call their symbol and location over the radio on the road channel. The beanery staff were listening to the road channel with a scanner. The lunches were prepped, bagged and put into baskets, which were set onto the swinging platforms as seen in the photos. Headend and rear end crews snagged the baskets, extracted their lunch bags, and tossed the baskets to the ground.

I cannot provide photos with MP locos getting lunch at Illmo, but here are two of my photos of a northbound UP train picking up lunch in 1991. This should help illustrate the operation. Also an uncredited photo from Facebook taken on a Mopac train in the 1970s.

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