UP Commissary Supply Cars

This page was last updated on November 18, 2024.

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THE MIXED TRAIN

Issue 2022 - 4

The Union Pacific had major Commissary locations at Omaha (which was the headquarters), Denver, Ogden, Los Angeles and Portland; as well as a number of very small offices along the rail system. Some of these smaller offices (which could be manned by only two jobs) would be at locations like Grand Island, North Platte, Cheyenne, Kansas City, Salina, Ellsworth, Green River, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Green River, Huntington and Pocatello. These smaller offices handled a limited supply operation and were specialized to that location and the passenger trains that traveled though. Jim Ehemberger recalls the office at Cheyenne (which had two or three jobs) handle the resupply of pressed wooden logs used in the diner stoves and bundles of clean linen to be loaded on the sleepers. In some cases it would supply food items on an "emergency" bases as required by the passing diners on the trains.

These types of operations were common to most of the smaller Commissary offices. The task of the Commissary Department was to supply the dining cars, online (depot) restaurants and resort areas kitchens with all the needed food items & supplies. For refrigeration require food items the Commissary had a fleet of PFE cars to use. One example would be the meat items sold on the diners, almost all the meat items were purchased in the Omaha market. The Commissary would hold a weekly bid by which the Omaha area packing houses would place bids for meat products requested by the Commissary. One item that was popular on Union Pacific menus was the 16 ounce strip steaks. The Commissary would ask for bids to provide (for example) a lot of 1,000 16 ounce strip steaks packaged in boxes of 10 steaks per box. All of the packing houses would supply a bid and the winning bid would ship the boxes of steaks to the Commissary's cold storage location - the steaks would be frozen. In turn the Commissary would send the steaks to the other Commissary offices along the system via PFE reefer cars. A reefer car would go to each location stocked with the number of boxes of steaks it required along with all the rest of the refrigerated or frozen food items.

This bid and shipping supply system happened every week of the year. For some of the other major food groups, other Commissary offices handed those supplies for the system. One example would be potatoes, which would have a purchase office located in Pocatello and the same bid and shipping process via PFE would be done for the movement to all the other Commissary supply locations. The Commissary also handled all of the non-refrigerated food items and related supplies such as linen, service ware, canned goods, concomitants, fuel supplies (pressed wooden logs for the stoves in the diners) and paper products. Just about anything required in a kitchen or dining room of any diner car, online restaurant and resort restaurant was provided by the Commissary Department. To get all of these supplies from one of the Commissary offices to other Commissary locations and/or online locations; all of these supplies were handled on the trains - both freight and passenger.

An example of the system of transportation of these non-refrigerated items, here is a listing of baggage cars used to transport items between Commissary locations during 1943. This supply system was under a great deal of pressure that year due to the war effort and rationing. During that year the Commissary Department has six standing baggage cars movements that were used in passenger service to provide supplies along the railroad system.

Car 1: This baggage car would be loaded from the Omaha Commissary to outlaying locations in Nebraska and Kansas in a "drop off' or "less than carload" operation. The baggage car would be added to train #21, the "Pacific Limited" at Omaha departing at 11:20 pm on every Wednesday. Arriving at Grand Island at 2:55 am the baggage car would be removed and spotted for unloading. After unloading the items for Grand Island, the baggage car would be added to a freight train for the trip to Kansas City at that office. After unloading the items for the Kansas City office, the baggage car would be added to local/mixed train #55/355. Items would be unloaded at the Salina and Ellsworth offices arriving in Denver on Monday or Tuesday and spotted at the Denver Commissary. That following Saturday, the Denver Commissary would load the baggage car for placement on train #16, the "Columbine", departing Denver at 4:00 pm with arrival at Omaha Sunday morning at 7:50 am to be spotted at the Omaha Commissary located just west of Union Station.

Car 2: This baggage car would be loaded at the Omaha Commissary bound for the Los Angeles Commissary. On every Tuesday the baggage car would be added to train #15, the "Columbine" that departed Omaha at 6:10 pm. On arrival at North Platte at 1:55 am the baggage car would be switched to train #21, the "Pacific Limited" that departed at 5:45 am. The train would arrive at Los Angeles on Friday at 7:30 am and spotted at the Los Angeles Commissary. That following Wednesday the Los Angeles Commissary would load the baggage car for movement back to Omaha on train #22, the "Pacific Limited", departing at 7:30 am with arrival in Omaha on Friday at 6:45 pm to be spotted at the Omaha Commissary for unloading; and then sent out on another supply run or released to the general pool.

Car 3: This baggage car would be loaded at Omaha Commissary bound for Ogden. The baggage car would be added to train #15, the "Columbine", every Tuesday departing Omaha at 6:10 pm. Arriving at North Platte at 1:55 am where it would be transferred to train #24, the "Pacific Limited", departing at 5:45 am with an arrival in Ogden on Thursday at 3:00 am and spotted at the Ogden Commissary. The following Sunday the Ogden Commissary would load the baggage car bound for Cheyenne on train #24, the "Pacific Limited", departing at 12:30 pm arriving at Cheyenne on Monday at 2:20 am and spotted for unloading at the Cheyenne office. The baggage car would be released to the general pool.

Car 4: This baggage car would be loaded at the Ogden Commissary bound for Los Angeles being placed on train #23, the "Pacific Limited", every Sunday departing at 9:30 am with an arrival at Los Angeles at 7:30 am. After unloading at the Los Angeles Commissary the baggage car would be released to the general pool.

Car 5: This baggage car would be loaded at Ogden Commissary bound for Las Vegas being placed on train #23, the "Pacific Limited", on every Saturday departing at 9:30 am with arrival in Las Vegas at 11:59 pm. After unloading at the Las Vegas office the baggage car would be released to the general pool. Car 6: This baggage car would be loading at the Portland Commissary bound for Huntington departing every Thursday on train #26, the "Pacific Limited", departing at 9:00 am with arrival at Huntington at 11:05 pm then spotted at the Huntington office. After unloading the baggage car was released to the general pool.

It should be noted that the Ogden Commissary was the major location of the laundry which cleaned most of the linen products used on the passenger trains from the diners to the bedding supplies in the sleepers. The dirty linen would be dropped off either via the passenger trains traveling thought Ogden or by the Commissary supply baggage cars. The Ogden plant also preformed any repair work that would be needed on any linen item. The cleaned linen would then move to every part of the system to all Commissary locations that supplied clean linen for the passenger trains traveling thought that city. The large number of laundry bags were as popular on the Ogden platforms as mail bags; and in some cases more laundry bags than mail bags. Supplies from the "hub" Commissary locations would be handled by truck to outlaying locations; however, with gas rationing, most traveled as "company mail" on messenger baggage cars on scheduled trains. And as for the Utah Parks locations, during the war years these parks were closed to the public with a number of them used by the military as recovery hospitals with supplies mainly provided by the military. After the war the Commissary supply baggage cars would operate on generally weekly base or on an "as needed" base between the major five Commissary locations.

Some supplies still was handled by freight trains such as the pressed wooden logs for the cooking stoves and PFE reefers for the movement of the fresh food items. With the end of the war and the lifting of gas rationing, the trucks returned to handle deliveries to many of the outlaying site locations.

With the railroad selling off the resorts in the 1960s, along with the closing of many of the passenger station restaurants, improvements on onboard storage of food items and the slow reductions of passenger trains the volume of food stuffs provided by the Commissary decreased. The five Commissaries locations now could easily handle all required supplies from local venders as the trains passed through each of the locations. By 1970 some of the locations closed and/or scaled back its operations. With the beginning of passenger operations by Amtrak on May 1, 1971, the Commissary locations were reduced to Omaha and Ogden. Omaha would handle the remaining passenger equipment (business cars and special trains) operated by the railroad; and Ogden would handle the supplies for all the online outfit gangs. In 1973 the Commissary moved from Omaha to Council Bluffs ("Fox Park") and by 1990 all Commissary operations were handled by the Council Bluffs offices and is still in operations today at that same location.

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