The Southern Pacific may have still been friendly to passengers in 1949, but its coffee shop menus were a single card rather than a folder. If it seems like SP wasn’t pampering the coach passengers who frequented the coffee shop car, remember that in 1949 the menu folders it used in most of its full diners were printed on much flimsier paper than were found in most railroad dining cars.
Click image to download a 363-KB PDF of this menu.
The menu itself has a reasonable variety, including plate lunches centered around corned beef hash, halibut, chicken a la king, and veal cutlets. With vegetables, dessert, and beverage these were $1.20 to $2.00 ($14.40 to $24.00 in today’s money). The a la carte side had several sandwiches, a few soups and salads, and several desserts.
I’m pretty sure the coach passengers didn’t give a rat’s you-know-what about the single page coffee shop menus, nor did the dining car patrons grouse about the paper the menus were printed on. Prices were 1/3 lower than comparable eastern roads, and second helpings were offered free of charge. IIRC, the dining car stewards had wide latitude to comp certain passengers free meals if the occasion warranted it. A pretty classy operation I’d say, until those damned automat cars showed up.