Lifeblood of the industry (coffee of course)

[Firelock76]

Folks, it ain't just the railroads that run on coffee, the US Marine Corps would grind to a halt without it! 

My favorite coffees?  Well, I like Maxwell House French Roast, maybe the other MH stuff isn't so hot but even Lady Firestorm's brother who's a bit of a coffee snob was impressed by it. For a real treat I love Moon Doggie "Dark Side Of The Moon French Roast."  It's a specialty coffee shop run by friends of ours in New Jersey.

www.MoonDoggieCoffee.com   Not cheap, but GOOD!

Anyone remember the old A&P "Eight O'Clock" coffee?  A&P's dead but the coffee's still around, just as good as when my grandmother made it.  Ahh, I can still smell the aroma of Grandma and Grandpa's house at Thanksgiving and Christmas!  The food and the coffee all rolled into one!

By the way, Lady Firestorm LOVES the smell of coffee but can't stand drinking the  stuff.  She's a "Southern Holy Water" junkie, you know, Coca-Cola?

[CShaveRR]

Norris, if you really want to run and join the railroad, don't let coffee keep you from it.  I went through my entire career and pre-career on the railroad without ever drinking the stuff.  And still don't.  Ever.

Notice I didn't say "touch the stuff."  When Iwas a yardmaster, it became part of my expected duties to make the coffee for the crews.  I had no complaints about that aspect of the job.  Ground coffee smells fine to me.

As for what gets me through, I'm with MC, except that Diet Dew is my poison of choice, and I require about two liters of something per day.

Pat has four large cups of coffee per day.  Two in the morning and two at night.  No, the nightcaps don't keep her awake.

[tree68]

mudchicken

Will NEVER get iced tea at Starbucks ever gain. Tastes like coffee washwater.

The problem with most coffee places is that they just run the water for tea through the coffee maker - which is well seasoned with coffee.  I'll dump out tea like that - I don't like coffee.

Coffee in glass story - during my first pass through USAF tech school at Chanute AFB, most of us ate at the chow hall (not many other choices at 5 AM, and it was essentially a mandatory formation anyhow).  The die-hard coffee drinkers would get theirs in the "milk" glasses - they held more.  Occasionally someone would drop an empty glass on the tile floor.  The entire chow hall would quiet after the first "ting," wondering if the "crash" would come on the second or third contact (usually the second...)

Lotsa caffiene story - during "ride time" with a local ambulance service whilst getting qualified as an advanced life support EMT, we responded to a "possible seizures" call.  Turned out to be two teens (14-ish) who had spent the day drinking coffee - they were virtually vibrating...

Downside of caffiene during rehydration:  Caffiene is a diuretic.  While I couldn't find any numbers specific to diet pop, regular soda is absorbed by the body less than half as fast as sports drinks.  Water is absorbed ten times faster than sports drinks.  So if you're drinking something like regular Mountain Dew, your body isn't absorbing the fluid very fast, yet it's being stimulated to excrete "excess" water...

 

[ACY Tom]

For many, many years I brewed coffee in a 32-cup percolator as a part of working my Amtrak sleepers. I used the Amtrak-issued Green Mountain coffee, but I didn't use exactly the amount prescribed by Amtrak (one of my secrets), and I always started with ice-cold water. In fact, I always put a bit of ice into the water to ensure that it would start cold. Offhand, I don't recall ever having a complaint, although I'm aware of complaints about others who made coffee by a different recipe. Our train has 6 sleepers, plus diners and lounges. With all those possible locations to find coffee, there were some Conductors who invariably sought out my car for their coffee.

I don't know whether those coffee makers are still used on any Amtrak sleepers. They were taken off my train and replaced by sealed machines in which the coffee quality can't be controlled by the on-site employee. This was due to tampering with the coffee by some teenagers when the attendant wasn't able to be there to prevent it, and resultant liability issues. Some folks just can't let things alone, and must ruin it for everybody else.

I never liked the new machine coffee, so in the last few years before retirement I started bringing my own assortment of teas (with honey), Folgers Coffee Singles, Alpine Brand Spiced Cider, and instant hot chocolate, which could be made from the hot water from the new machines.

Tom

[SD70M-2Dude]

D.Carleton

 

 

Murphy Siding

     I guess I'll have to give up my dream of running off and joining the railroad.  I don't drink tea or coffee.

 

 

 

Funny thing; I didn't start drinking coffee until I went railroading.

 

 

 

Amen to that, even as a teenager I detested the taste of coffee (loved the smell though) but once I started working nights regularly I started to have pick-me-ups before a trip.  But I too prefer tea, but strong with no sugar.  I usually make a thermos at home after I get called, and leave the teabag in until I have my first cup on the locomotive.  Looks like tar, but it keeps me alert without the strong buzz coffee gives me.  The other place I drink coffee is when I volunteer at the local Railway Museum, but that's because our water is a little sketchy and the boiling process and taste of coffee make it safe and palatable.

 

Regarding energy drinks, I tried Red Bull once and almost gagged.  Tasted so awful I spat it back out.  But I must be one of a minority, everyone else at work seems to love them.  But they can be dangerous, I know of 3 incidents (2 on CN, another at the Railway Museum) where a Red Bull-loving young man in his 20s has suffered a heart attack.  The one guy in Calgary was 21, and had been consuming 4-6 cans every day.  Call me crazy, but that's just insane.

 

Edit:  Forgot to mention that I only have hot drinks at night or during winter, during hot days I only drink cold water and lots of it.  Even working a yard shift at +25 C in overalls I feel fine.

[Semper Vaporo]

I had a co-worker that, when he arrived in the morning, would get his coffee cup and put two heaping teaspoonsfull of instant coffee into it... then go to the office coffee pot, (which the secretary had already perked when she arrived much earlier) and fill his cup with that.  When he returned to his desk he would toss 2 or 3 caffiene pills ("No-Doze" I think) into the cup and stir it with his #2 pencil and GULP it down.  Then do it all again, but the 2nd cup he would sip until about 9 AM when he would have another 2 cups in the same manner, but with fewer caffiene pills.  I never noticed that all that caffiene ever made him "active".

 

[BaltACD]

Semper Vaporo

I had a co-worker that, when he arrived in the morning, would get his coffee cup and put two heaping teaspoonsfull of instant coffee into it... then go to the office coffee pot, (which the secretary had already perked when she arrived much earlier) and fill his cup with that.  When he returned to his desk he would toss 2 or 3 caffiene pills ("No-Doze" I think) into the cup and stir it with his #2 pencil and GULP it down.  Then do it all again, but the 2nd cup he would sip until about 9 AM when he would have another 2 cups in the same manner, but with fewer caffiene pills.  I never noticed that all that caffiene ever made him "active".

Likely, without all the caffiene, he might have Z lined!

[rvos1979]

Never aquired a taste for coffee, and blood pressure issues mean I shouldn't have caffeine, so water and Gatorade it is, and the water has to be spring water, I can't stand the taste of mineral water. I usually get the Sam's Club packages for the semi.

I do miss the days of living on the farm, when we drank milk straight out of the bulk tank. To this day, I can't drink less than two percent, anything less tastes like chalk.........

[MidlandMike]

A couple of years ago we were traveling thru Vermont, and we stopped at the classic Waterbury station to take photos.  There was a Green Mountain Coffee flagship coffee shop occupying much of the station, and it was time for a break.  About that time my wife bought a Keurig coffee maker, and Green Mtn. carries the old A&P Eight O'Clock coffee among others.  I generally only drink a cup or two per day, so the Keurig is very convenient, and the variety is a plus.

[ChuckCobleigh]

zugmann

Stuff we have in our office isn't even fit to be tossed into the ballast. 

Best description of that kind of coffee was, "This is the stuff the pygmies dip their arrows in."

[mudchicken]

CShaveRR

 Ground coffee smells fine to me.

As for what gets me through, I'm with MC, except that Diet Dew is my poison of choice, and I require about two liters of something per day.

My hero! The CAT is getting a little spooked about some of the similarities?

Randy: Back in the bad old days, one of my co-worker's standard breakfast fare was a 32 Oz gatorade (gator juice) and a half dozen caked sugar white  mini donuts.

 

 

 

[n012944]

Tough times in our office, the company up untill a couple of months ago provied Eight O'clock coffee for the dispatchers.  In the current era of watch every penny or Hunter will be able to buy one more share of stock, we are now forced to consume Maxwell House.  Needless to say, many of us have started to bring in our own.  Starbucks Sumatra has been my brew of choice of late.

[SALfan]

tree68

Here in the north woods, finding sweet tea used to be a real challenge.  The expansion of the military base a few years ago brought lots of southern transplants, so sweet iced tea is a bit more common.

 

When we lived in the DC area and were headed home (south GA and north FL), we knew we were getting closer to civilization when we could find drinkable sweet iced tea - usually somewhere in NC.

Zug - be glad you never drank my mother's sweet tea.  You could almost stand a spoon up in the stuff.  Three big glasses and you didn't need to drive a car - you could run along beside the cars, and keep up with them.

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

D.Carleton

  

Murphy Siding

     I guess I'll have to give up my dream of running off and joining the railroad.  I don't drink tea or coffee. 

 Funny thing; I didn't start drinking coffee until I went railroading.

A guy who was an Amtrak engineer and wrote a column for another railfan magazine - John Tucci, I think he was - once wrote that caffeine is 1 of the 5 food groups for railroaders (others were fat and salt, I forget the rest).

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

mudchicken

[snipped - PDN] . . . Randy: Back in the bad old days, one of my co-worker's standard breakfast fare was a 32 Oz gatorade (gator juice) and a half dozen caked sugar white  mini donuts.

When I worked for a track contractor, the young fellow who I broke in ("mentored") and worked with for about 6 years liked Doritos and chocolate milk for breakfast . . .   Other than that, he was pretty darn good, and had a funny view on things.

- Paul North. 

[Murphy Siding]

   I have a coworker who downs 4 20oz. Diet Mountain Dew at work, plus one over lunch every day.  Do I need to mention that the only time he stops talking is when he's taking a drink of Dew? 

[NKP guy]

   When I was teaching I preached the virtues of coffee drinking to my students as a way to help them stay awake and do what needs to be done (rather like Power Milk Biscuits, promoted on "A Prairie Home Companion").  Not a few told me they didn't drink coffee because they "didn't want to put any drugs in my body."  Funny, they didn't consider beer a drug.  Also, having a baby at age 16 seems a worse thing to do to a young body than having a cup of coffee.  

   Best coffee I ever tasted:  the coffee served steaming hot at about 5 AM on the Great Lakes ore boat I worked on one summer.  The coffee was served in those classic thick white ceramic mugs that I seldom see in restaurants these days.  

   I also recall once, after boarding Amtrak's Three Rivers at Akron in the dead and bitter cold of a winter's night, finding my Attendant had a hot cup of cocoa waiting for me in my roomette.  Delicious and so very welcome as we sped on our way through the cold dark toward Chicago.

[NKP guy]

Murphy Siding

   I have a coworker who downs 4 20oz. Diet Mountain Dew at work, plus one over lunch every day.  Do I need to mention that the only time he stops talking is when he's taking a drink of Dew? 

 

 How many trips to the toilet does he make in a day?

[oltmannd]

I drink too much of whatever is free at work. It's not bad.  They have a bean grinder that measures out a pot's worth.  NS supplies the coffee mess unlike Conrail where we had to chip in several dollars a month.  

At home, it usually Dunkin. 

 

[smayham]

As an IT guy, I've always ascribed to the theory that we software engineers are merely vectors, turning caffeine into usable code!

[CShaveRR]

Paul, were you frothing at the mouth when you found that out?

I just finished by breakfast drink:  Diet Dew and orange-tangerine juice, proportions vary.

Norris, I most assuredly don't spend my time talking or in the bathroom!  I do, however, get headaches if deprived for any reason.

[tree68]

Starbucks ("Charbucks" or "St. Arbucks") is a couple times a year at most - too strong, bitter, and expensive.

My son's former father-in-law was treated to coffee from said emporium by his daughter once.  After figuring out how to order a plain coffee, he took one taste, said "burned," and dumped it out the car window.

convenience store chain called Wawa...

Outstanding sandwich shop, too...

[QUOTE]But after I burped a few times, it "Dawn"-ed on me - the teenage girl who was usually so busy texting had washed the pot with Dawn, but hadn't rinsed it (or only minimally).   [QUOTE]

Tip for those who use commercial-style coffee makers with glass pots:  Several ice cubes and some salt, swirled around the pot, will clean most of the deposits from the inside of the pot...

Our former trainmaster, now retired, was always first at the pot in the ticket office, with a styrofoam cup that he wrote his name on.  I gave him a mug (with "Corrosive" on it), but he wouldn't use it, as he was afraid he'd break it...

[Euclid]

Starbucks (and probably other coffee shops) burn the coffee in the roasting process to give it the illusion of rich flavor to those who don’t know any better.  As a coffee shop selling at a premium price to cover the overhead; they have to offer a product that is said to be of a higher quality.

If those coffee shops actually sold the highest quality Arabica coffee, I would stop making coffee at home.  But coffee shops are selling cheap coffee that has been burned to give it flavor.  I have never been able to get even half way through a cup of that stuff.  The flavor of really top quality coffee is so unusual and complex that many people drinking it blindfolded would not be able to identify it as coffee.   

[Deggesty]

The last few years that I worked, the company provided coffee pots (self-maintained) in various locations in the plant; two were in the cafeteria, and it seemed reasonable to most of us that you could always find coffee in at least one of them. However, some users apparently had no understanding that if you emptied a pot you were expected to start another pot. It was somewhat bothersome to have to start a fresh pot before you could fill your cup.

[switch7frg]

Does both the Amtrak "Chiefs" still use Green Mtn. coffee?

[54light15]

The last year or so that I was aboard the U.S.S. Guam, I spent most of my days walking around with a pipe wrench in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other. I must have drunk about 30 a day. I would hear constantly from senior petty officers, "Lewis, I need you to...oh, you're having coffee, never mind." I didn't do a hell of a lot of work.

The ship was in the yard in Philly between 1975 and 1976 and there was a coffee shortage in the civilian world. The engine room would be issued a 20-pound can of coffee every week wether we needed it or not. We had about 8 of them in a locker behind the reduction gears and in the course of us being in drydock and yard workers (we called them yardbirds) everywhere, every one of those cans disappeared.

Another time we were anchored off of Lynn Haven inlet in Virginia. The fishing was amazing there when the tide changed. Someone tossed in one of those 20 pound cans with holes in it to see what it would attract. About four big sharks went after it in a kind of coffee frenzy. This was just after "Jaws" came out, we were practically pissing ourselves watching that!

 

I absolutely hate Starchumps coffee! But what a business plan, charge over 4 bucks for a cup of foaming whatever and people line up for it. I once went in one to meet my girlfriend and ordered a large unsweetened iced tea. The guy kept saying "Venty?" Not being fluent in Starbuckanese, I kept saying, "yes, a large unsweetened iced tea, that's right." Eventually he realised I was speaking English and he got me what I ordered. Haven't been back since. Hard to avoid them here since every third store is a Czarbucks. 

[rvos1979]

Paul, you're thinking of Doug Riddell, Tuch never worked for Amtrak, and his tales haven't been published, as far as I know........

[ACY Tom]

Mountain Dew: Yes, I drank WAY too much of it during my working years & now I try to avoid it in retirement.

I don't know whether any Amtrak diners still serve the brewed Green Mountain coffee. Green Mountain was the standard for use in 10-cup Grimes Coffee Makers in lounge cars, but I don't know whether that has changed.

Doug Riddell is retired, but still active. Last I heard, I think he was working on a book on the Auto Train. A great guy & a true gentleman.

Tom

[Convicted One]

Ad then there is Kopi Luwak 

[BaltACD]

Convicted One

Ad then there is Kopi Luwak 

Clean, roast and prepare your own?