First use of disposable cups and last use of proper crockery in buffet cars

[RPI]

It was actually quite common across the catering industry a generation and more ago. If the individual operatives weren't doing it then the manager was. Bars especially, where putting your own purchased drink in, not ringing it up on the cash register (there were fiddles to make it look like you were), and pocketing the proceeds was rife. Simplistic mechanical cash register displays on the front could be wound back with a sharp pointed instrument.

If the steward was putting their own coffee into recycled Maxpax cups, it was likely better quality than what was in there first time round. It was an appalling coup by some salesman from Maxwell House to inflict that on rail passengers as "coffee".

I'm talking of stewards taking 5lb of bacon and sausages onto the train!

 

[Rescars]

Hence the rubric which used to be printed on restaurant car menus in an attempt to combat this: “request and retain a receipt; if no receipt is given then there is no charge for your meal”.

Also in red capital letters "GRATUITIES NOT INCLUDED"!

 

[DarloRich]

Good shots of buffet crockery usage in Get Carter which is from 1970

 

[Ashley Hill]

I can dimly remember a court case concerning a steward caught selling his own sandwiches on train. The court decided that this wasn't illegal - possibly on the basis he wasn't stealing them from B.R..

I can remember an incident where a whole buffet crew were arrested on arrival at Paddington. Two were detained overnight,one of which who had been suspected of fiddling (the one they were after) was charged the other released without charge. The one who was charged was dismissed by BR but I don’t know if he went to court or not. He later had his own catering company.

 

[6Gman]

I did have a GNSR fork which my father liberated (that word again, so in my case it pre dates my railway employment) from the old restaurant at the east end of Edinburgh Waverley some time in the 1960s just prior to that facility closing. Obviously the cutlery spread well beyond the original geography but unfortunately I am now unable to locate said fork.

Digressing from the original topic but staying with historical artefacts, my original 1978 issue Guards watch was of LNER origin, unfortunately it had to be sent for repair and strangely never returned to my possession!

I have an LMS clipboard somewhere in the house "liberated" from Rail House, Crewe in the 1990s.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

I'm talking of stewards taking 5lb of bacon and sausages onto the train!

Some steward was challenged as to why he had several white loafs and large blocks of cheese in his carry on bag.

He insisted he was merely carrying shopping for his house bound mother , - the unconvinced senior BR manager asked if his dear Ma was fond of cheese ? !!!!