There was a restaurant in the old IC station for awhile in Mattoon IL. We would get a seat by the window n watch the trains go by below.
Pairis Il has a small café you can watch the grain train go by of a morning. Sometimes you might see a coal drag come through.
Lawrenceville IL had a diner I use to watch the B&O/NYC crossing from. Diner and the NYC are both gone.
Terre Haute IN there was either a White Castle or Snappy Burger [gone now] next to the C&EI. I’d get a bag of grease burgers n a coke n watch’em.
There was also a tavern on S 1’st, where I had lunch sometimes, along an industrial spur, you could watch the switching into a chemical plant and the paper and tie plants and a grain elevator. Tavern, elevator, n tie plant are still there.
On N. 25’Th there was a bar you could watch the PRR movements from with lunch. Both are gone now.
The City Market in Luling, TX by the SP Sunset route, about 50 miles east of San Antonio (and a bit west of Flatonia.) Outstanding BBQ - ribs, sausage, brisket. Good view of the main track. I’ve eaten there on occasion for the last 30+ years. The ex-interlocking tower (Tower 40, I think) for the SP and SAAP is across the tracks and down the highway a few blocks. Unfortunately, TR#1&2 go through at night.
That brings back memories !! Sambo’s used to have a deal where if you bought one of their thermoses, every time you ate at a Sambo’s they’d fill up the thermos with coffee for 10 cents. I went on a car trip with my parents in 1973 across the northwest from Minnesota to Washington State, then by boat to Prince Rupert BC and back through Canada to Winnipeg then home to Minnesota. Sambo’s had great coffee, that (and the pancakes) were their big selling points. We ate at Sambo’s all the way going west, getting a refill at each stop. Some of the restaurants were close to the former GN lines IIRC. I remember freight yards in Montana that were still full of GN freight cars.
BTW I remember being in a restaurant near the Winnipeg depot with a friend of mine having supper just after dark in Feb 1983 when the Canadian pulled out behind FP’s and crossed the road was right near the restaurant. Where I was sitting I had a reat view of the engines with the yellow strobe light flashing and all those lighted stainless steel Budd cars rolling slowly along. Quite a sight!!
The mention of White Castle reminds me of something.
On South Broadway in downtown Saint Louis, situated between a railroad trestle and a major trans-Mississippi River bridge is my favorite White Castle restaurant. Being that it’s in a run down industrial neighborhood and frequented by a modest cross section of dubious lowlifes (the perfect setting for any White Castle operation), the big picture windows along the south wall of the restaurant afford an ample view of MacArthur Bridge. And don’t be fooled, quite a goodly number of freight trains and a few Amtrak schedules use that ancient, grossly oversized structure daily.
Enjoying a couple of sliders, a cup-o’-joe, and watching the trains go by delivers a lot of pleasure and entertainment for a rock bottom price!
Rachel’s Restaurant in the Camak, GA depot on the Georgia Railraod was always a favorite of mine. It closed around 1990.
We used to rush over after early release from high school in the late '70’s to get our meat and veggies. In my early teen years(mid '70s) I would get a group of my buddies together to ride train 103, the Super MIxed, from Thomson to Camak(11 miles). If it left Augusta early enough we would usually get to Camak in time to eat at Rachel’s. To cap it off, we would ride 108 back to Thomson.
As far as current restaurants:
Capers in Kennesaw, GA is hard to beat
Dalton Depot in Dalton, GA is nice, but I haven’t been in awhile
I cannot remember the name but it is located in the town where Conrad Hilton began his hotel operations. Anyone know this location??
San Antonio, no not Texas but New Mexico just south of Socorro. This is on the BNSF, ex Santa Fe Albuquerque to El Paso line, affectionately call the Horny Toad by railroaders. There was a small cafe at San Antonio on a street which paralleled the track. They had the best hamburgers and many other luncheon enticements, including mexican dishes. You could set off your motor car and walk 200 feet to lunch and there were two setoffs because they were needed for rail operations, yea sure. Somehow we always managed to be near San Antonio at luch time.
My favourite…ok only one I have ever been to was The Steaming Tender. Located in the old station in Palmer MA you can sit outside and watch the NECR or CSX or enjoy the ambience of an old RR station and wtch out the windows.
Back in the early 1970s, Pueblo Union Station (Pueblo, Colo.) had a small lunch counter that was open even after the passenger trains came off. The old gal who waited on customers was a real grouch, possibly because the bulk of her clientel were railroad men. The hamburgers that were served there were nothing to write home about, but OH MY GOD, said waitress made the world’s best chocolate malteds! They were the tastiest I’ve ever had!
It’s ironic you should mention Pueblo Union Station as it does currently have a snack shop on the north end of the station that you can buy sandwiches and other assortments there. My sister-in-law goes there occasionally for lunch and on nice days you can sit outside and watch the trains on the “Joint Line” mainline. I’ve been inside the depot once and it’s impressive. I can only imagine what that place would have been like back in the day when passenger trains were running into town. The depot restaurant must have been quite a place; I think they do use it occasionally for meetings and parties; stuff like that. It’s a crying shame there isn’t passenger service on the “Joint Line” now that could call on Pueblo Union Station. It’s a great structure and hopefully the state of Colorado will someday get their act together and get some sort of commuter or Amtrak service on that route and use Pueblo Union Station again.