Mopac china and silver holloware after Amtrak

[peggyrothschild]

People would ask me where I got my Mopac china and silver holloware so here’s some background.

When the Mop got out of the passenger business they gave the Boy Scouts all the Eagle china and the silver holloware pieces to the Mopac Women’s Club. I was told the Women’s club set up tables in the MP General Offices lobby and sold the silver pieces by the pound. I’d bought many of my silver pieces from older employees and when I asked where it came from I was told the Women’s club sale. Interesting I picked up a couple of I&GN pieces, Gulf Coast Lines and Iron Mountain this way….one has to scratch their head how this this older stuff got commingled with the modern Eagle holloware.

Years ago I was reading the Post and there was an ad selling Eagle china. I called the guy and he had small pieces for $20 and larger for $25. I drove over and we went down to his basement. One room had Eagle platters, plates of various sizes stacked 20-25 pieces high. I asked him where it all came from and he said the Boy Scouts. They didn’t want it or didn’t know what to do with it so he ended up with it. Downing Jenks, at one time was president of the Boy Scouts of America so I assume he made the decision to donate the china to them. I can’t imagine what a bunch of 11-17 year olds would have done with the china over the years!

[bargetanika]

Charlie, my dad bought a retired caboose from the T&NO in 1963 for our property, I’ve told the story before here.

At the time, the B&O was selling off their emblazoned chinaware via ads in the magazines. We bought a bunch of it to keep in the caboose. I’m sure it went with the caboose when the property was sold. I never saw it when we were clearing out the old house and settling the estate years later.

No telling what happened to it. Probably the the same thing that I know happened to my traded-off glass insulator collection…… Target practice.

[benjamintickell53]

The story about Mopac Women’s Club selling by the pound is interesting and new information. I had heard that the china went to the Boy Scouts. Back in the day, I had written a number of letters to J.W. Cornett, supt of dining cars, asking to buy china, silver, Eagle tablecloths, etc. Most other railroads were willing to sell their surplus stuff, often at what now seems like bargain prices. Not MoP, unfortunately — the answer was always NO!

Some years later, I became better acquainted with Wylie Cavin, who had at one time been an eating house inspector, then dining car inspector, possibly a dining car steward briefly, and then wound up as the operator of the restaurant in the Little Rock station until it closed in November 1968. The restaurant never had any MoP china or silver when I ate there in the mid-60s, but Mr. Cavin managed to amass a huge collection of mainly MP silver with a few pieces of china, including some pieces of the original Eagle china with the gold band rather than the mustard colored pin stripe around the border. He also had a healthy stack, perhaps a dozen or more, of both the steam and diesel service plates, which at one time had been on sale in the news stand at Little Rock for $3.00 each.

Eventually Mr. Cavin began selling some of this stock, and I was able to purchase a few items (being in college at the time, it was necessary to divide my limited cash between trains and girls.) When picking out items to purchase, I looked through stacks of silver platters, perhaps 40 or 50, and dozens of the older “pagoda” pattern hollow ware. With the latter items, most were marked Missouri Pacific, but a few pieces were marked “Mo Pac and Iron Mountain”, and some were marked I&GN. I always assumed that this pattern might have been the style in use when the Sunshine Special started. Hindsight being 20/20, I now realize that if I had borrowed money to purchase his entire collection, I might now be retired after making my fortune on ebay.

Like Charlie’s experience, in several other cases where I have come upon large amounts of MP silver at flea markets or antique shops, it could usually be traced back to the sale at St. Louis, or to some charity auction in St. Louis which took place about the same time. Ultimately, I suppose a lot of the stuff wound up on the collector market, but it definitely took convoluted routes to get there.

Bill Pollard

[peggyrothschild]

Bill
I have a little more to add to the story but this involves the Texas Lines china. One of my first bosses on the Mopac had been the Superintendent Stations and Claims Prevention in Houston in the 1960s. One of his duties was to go to the major derailments and try and oversee what was salvageable during the cleanup operations. When he learned I was interested in collecting old MP china to told me he was a few pieces that came off the diners assigned to the wreckers. He bought some cheap China and traded the cook for the old railroad China. He had a few pieces of I&GN that was the Bismarck pattern and some pieces of Gulf Coast Lines. He didn’t have either of the service plates so I traded him the steam and diesel plates for the IGN and GCL pieces.

My Mission saucer came off the wrecker out of San Antonio. I later found a cup on eBay to match it.

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[mopac]

Charlie this was very interesting reading. I have been wanting to get some of the Mission pattern items

Bill Basden

[peggyrothschild]

@cole7015 wrote:

Charlie this was very interesting reading. I have been wanting to get some of the Mission pattern items

Bill Basden

Bill
It’s not rare, several pieces show up on eBay when I do searches. It was not back stamped.

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