Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums Showcase and Stories, Petroliana The History Highway, Dining Cars Cafe

It has been awhile since I have posted a feature on Oldgas, so let’s see if anyone is interested. Before you write this off as drivel, let me assure you that there is a service station involved, as well as race cars and race track. So don’t lose heart Petroholics. Check back as the story unfolds and if you eat here, you‘re sure to get gas.



It’s 1946 and you’re traveling down Highway 101 in the center of middle-of-no-where California. The world war has ended and you’re celebrating your release from the Uncle Sam by taking a trip with your family from the Bay area to Santa Barbara, California. You haven’t seen much since you left Salinas some 300 miles to the north several hours ago, but out of the twilight glows a neon sign. You shake your head to make sure you’re not falling asleep as you approach the neon sign and your unbelieving eyes reveal a pair of railroad cars sandwiching a building on the side of the road.

This can’t be real! Who in their right mind would build a restaurant like this in the middle of no-where’s-ville California. Yet there it sits, Mullen’s Dining Cars. Who is this nut case and what the heck was he thinking when he forever stranded these train cars at this out of the way siding just north of Buellton, California?




Stick around and you’ll find out.


[This message has been edited by the poor mans museum (edited 03-22-2006).]

(I FALL OFF MY CHAIR....)

CURT, YOU'RE ALIVE! YOU'RE BACK! COOL DADDI-O! AND WOW! A DINING CAR STORY! I LIKE DINERS AND HAVE EATEN IN SIMILAR STYLE PLACES IN MY MANY HUNGRY TRAVELLING YEARS ALONG THE ROADSIDE. MULLEN'S LOOKS LIKE A DOUBLE SIDED DELIGHT! MAN, I WISHED I LIVED BACK THEN. TAKE US BACK CURT, DOWN THE CALI ROADSIDE AND FEED US THE NOSTALIC MAIN COURSE AND GIVE US GAS FOR DESSERT! CAN'T WAIT! GREAT TO SEE YOU BACK!

~DOC @ TAG.WEST

I for one, have been going through withdrawls waiting for the next chapter of your history lesson. I'm glad to see them and you back. How is the book coming? Well, I hope.

Thanks for asking about the book Bob and forgive me while I drift off to the siding for a minute.

I just got word last week that my book will be released on May 26, 2006. We will be doing a book signing on Memorial Weekend at Andersen's Pea Soup Restaurant in Buellton for the public and then a community book signing on June 5th, hopefully at the Dining Cars Cafe (still to be arranged).
I will be contacting Mr. Potts to find out how I get the books on Oldgas so that this site gets a bit of the action too.

Here's the cover



There will be pictures of...service stations, motor courts with service stations, diners with service stations and stories abou t service stations and Buellton, which was known as "Service Town, USA" because of all of the service stations. Otherwise, not much of interest to gas geeks (did I mention service stations). Also a few really sexy gas pumps and race cars.

Nice to see you back!I loved your last feature on here.That was about the time I started visiting the site.I can't wait for more.Keep up the excellant work.
Tom

WOW its Curt! Hey there Curt hows it going, where ya' been and all the rest. When we were in your neighborhood last september I'm thinking I saw that rail car restaurant building!? Does it still exist? Man it looks familiar as does the Split Pea Soup!
Welcome back from exile, work, vacations or relaxation. Where ever ya' been Welcome. Larry

I'm loving it Curt... I was stationed at March AFB in Riverside CA in the early 60's and used to drive home to Seattle on leave... up that highway... You are bringing back fond memories. I always stopped at Andersen's.
Thanks for the memories...


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Frank

I've been in rehab (that's writers rehab not AA).

Yes Larry the Dining Cars are still there, but you're making me get ahead of my story so let's go back to 1946 for awhile.

Dining Cars Continued

Ed Mullen’s wasn’t completely out of his mind. He had worked as a steward on a real dining car and he knew that the old cars were surplus that could be had for virtually nothing. All he had to do was haul them up the coast from Los Angeles where they originally ran and find a piece of property to put them on. Some twenty years earlier a crazy Dane named Anton Andersen had made a name for himself in the town of Buellton selling split pea soup from a tiny diner. Why wouldn’t the novelty of two dining cars sitting at the side of Highway 101 between Los Angeles and San Francisco attract a following?

The ten acres just north of town was relatively cheap allowing Mullen’s room for expansion if his business succeeded, so why not give it a try? No, Mullen’s wasn’t crazy, he was just ahead of his time and a little too far out of town. When people were reaching Buellton they were looking for the pea soup place, not a pair of dining cars. If they were arriving from the south they had already stopped and eaten at Andersen’s. If they were coming from the north they blew by the dining cars as if it were a mirage, never expecting to see such a place in the middle of nothing. By the time they hit the brakes they were in the middle of Buellton and there was the pea soup place along with a lot of other choices for food, gas and restrooms.



By the middle of 1949 Mullen’s decided to give it up and let someone else have a try. He leased the restaurant to Louise Lane, who despite her connection to Superman, didn’t last long either. From there it was a succession of attempts to make the novel idea work and a series of train wrecks in the form of failed businesses in the dining cars.



Stay on track, there's still more to this Dining Car story.

Good to see that you found your way back to Oldgas.... Love the local history stuff.

The staff of the dining cars waiting to serve the rush of customers. Note the neon bowtie on the ceiling (still works).



I know, I know. I promised you a service station. It's coming!

[This message has been edited by the poor mans museum (edited 03-08-2006).]

Ladys and gentlemen please Welcome Curt Cregg, Writer, author, collector and Historian , Applause , Applause, Welcome back Curt, Looking forward to the next chapter

Curt,
I always thought those were TROLLY CARS from Los Angeles !
Dick

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**PUT A LID ON IT**
1qt CAN RE-LIDDING

Dick Bennett knows his history. Here is the dope on the dining cars from my friend Dick Shelley.

"Let me add a bit history about the two streetcars. These are Type-B Huntington Standards, designed by the engineering staff of Henry Huntington, owner of the Los Angeles Railway. These were built by St. Louis Car Co., and messured 44' 7" long. They are unique in that they have five window ends. #643 and #644 (that make up the restaurant) were part of a 100 car order that entered service in 1911in Los Angeles; and ran until the early '40s when they were sold for scrap. I would guess that Mr. Mullens bought them from the scrapper. Probably more information than you wanted, but....."

And now for some more of the story...

[This message has been edited by the poor mans museum (edited 03-09-2006).]

There is a old dining car on a rail that is still open as a taco place in Emporia Kansas... I will get a pic next time I am there. I was supprised to see how much room is in one of those cars!


Travis E. Towle
Topeka, Kansas

785-357-1004

While we wait for the next exciting episode of Curt's 'The History Highway, Dining Cars Cafe'
Old Gasers can relive The Lompoc T Club -
The Original Rat Rod Racers , another of Curt's histories.

It includes racers with UNION , SHELL and GILMORE'S lion on their sides..link...
http://www.oldgas.com/shoptalk/ubb/Forum4/HTML/001103.html

Robert

The Buellton Speedway at the Dining Cars Cafe



One of the more interesting ideas proposed to Mullen’s came in 1950. It didn’t involve the dining cars, but the property behind them, although it held promise for improving business at the diner.



The Lompoc Model T Club, along with some Buellton race drivers persuaded Mullen’s to lease them his land for an oval race track. The club had been sanctioning races in Lompoc since 1936 building race tracks where ever they could convince landowners to let them run for a season.

With the return of the young war veterans, the old T cars fell out of fashion as the young bucks started building hot rods out of the 32 and 33 Ford’s with their flathead V-8’s. In addition to the faster cars, series racing had become increasingly popular in California and the T-club wanted to create their own series of central coast tracks. Several of the Buellton boys had been running their cars over to Lompoc so they were happy to participate in the development of a track in their own backyard.



From this grandstand view the Dining Cars are in the upper right side of the photo. The straight line running across about the top third of the picture is Highway 101. This location is about a mile north of Buellton on the west side of the highway in Santa Barbara County, California. You may be able to find it on Google Earth.

We're not done yet so stick around!

[This message has been edited by the poor mans museum (edited 03-11-2006).]

Curt,
Can't believe there was so much history right in my back yard while I was living in Lompoc! Thanks for bringing us a snapshot in time.
Chuck

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Chuck

Sign Wishlist: Sunset, Clipper, Habor, Indian motorcycle, Powerlube

The Beginning and the End

Mullen's tried and failed at the Dining Cars even as the a highway expansion began in Buellton in 1948.



By 1955 another entreprenuer was willing to give it a try, this time with the addition of a Seaside Service Station. George "Jack" Chester was an experienced service station owner, but was new to the diner business. He hoped that gasoline would attract diner business when he advertised "Eat Here, Get Gas". Unfortunately all he heard was the wind blowing throught the mostly empty diner.



With more plans for highway expansion in 1955, the California State Highways Department all but ended the prospects of success at the Dining Cars Cafe when they blocked access from the access road that was the earlier Highway 101.



The barrier stopped the traffic and ended the decade of the Dining Cars in Buellton, although they would stay parked at the siding for years to come.

What has happened to the Dining Cars today?

[This message has been edited by the poor mans museum (edited 03-17-2006).]

Okay Curt, I've held my breath long enough, What the **%! happened to the dining cars? LOL. Between the rain,sleet&sun here,now making us wait atleast four days to get the answer is way over the top. Have a good one, buddy.
Bob

Hey Curt,
Great series!! I've been past that dining car cafe many times. Once a few years back we stopped to check on a secluded restaurant just up a ways on the same frontage road and also checked out the dining car joint. I could tell it had been out of use for some time but never knew the history. It was still there last July.

Keep up the good work!! Thanks again.

Paul

Sorry Bob. I just had to make sure you guys were still awake out there in cyberspace.

Maybe this will wake you up?



Dining Cars Derailed?

For nearly fifty years the almost abandoned Dining Cars have sat at the side of an empty highway. When Mullen's sold the unique property it was bought by the Smith family. Mrs. Smith was a hairdresser. She opened a hair salon in the small house next to the cars where they resided. Many women from Buellton made their way to the house next to the cafe to have their hair done and swap the local gossip.

A For Lease sign sat in front of the cars for many years with the hope of finding an enterprising entrepreneur to take a chance on the Dining Cars again. Unfortunately, the site violated the three basic rules of real estate, "Location, location, location" and no one was willing to risk it. Occasionally a film crew made use of it, but nothing of widespread fame or notoriety.

Even into the eighties the abandoned gas pumps graced the empty parking lot until some local petro-holic made off with them for their collection. More recently a developer began building houses behind the Dining Cars on the property where the Buellton Speedway once ran. Local rumors suggest that the Dining Cars may be moved soon to make way for more houses and finally leave the station in Buellton.

In the meantime, my friend, and owner of our local tool and party rental company persuaded the owner to allow him to use the dining cars to celebrate his wife’s birthday. The cars had been unused for fifty years and needed a thorough cleaning, but one of the biggest surprises was the neon ceiling; it still works!



I helped him with the 50's props by supplying the car hop, a juke box and other little things. He supplied the real waitresses in period costumes.



For one night the Dining Cars lived again in Buellton. People were so stunned to see them lit up that they actually pulled off the freeway and back tracked to see what was going on.

I'm featuring the dining cars on our Buellton History website right now so if you'd like to know more click on the link.

www.buelltonhistory.org



[This message has been edited by the poor mans museum (edited 03-17-2006).]

Curt, the wait was worth it. I'm hoping that someone will step in and turn the cars into a going enterprise again, before another look into our past is gone. The story as always was/is perfect. Thanks!

Bob

Check out these prices.



Personally, I'd go for the #4.

Nice job Curt, I hope the cars servive . It would be great to see them restored . Thanks

Thought I'd give this post another bump back to the top while also posting a pic of Mike's Bar & Grill I took the other week while out shooting pics for "Found Along The Way".

Nice little place serving food but then what would you expect to find in an Illinois town named "Sandwich"?
Ken

Curt, I just stumbled on to your marvelous posts with a Google search. I have stopped to admire the Cafe Dining Cars several times after first spotting it in about 1992. At that time there was a for sale sign out front. When I got home I called the number and spoke with a gentleman who told me that the parcel was large, and the asking price was high enough to crush any idle thoughts of buying it. I noticed the new homes out back on my last visit a year or so ago, so it looks like it eventually sold.

It is great that you were able to bring the place back to life for a day! If this ever happens again I would love to be there for the event.

After my last visit I dropped an email to Huell Howser and sent him a picture or two of the cafe; I never heard back. I think I will write again and send him the link to your thread. Seems to me that the cafe would make an interesting stop on one of his programs.

Curt, thanks to you we now know the history of Mr. Mullen's enterprise, the dates of operation and other fascinating stuff. Thanks so much for sharing all of this.

Steve Schell
stfrsc@juno.com