Greg Scholl Wrote:
=======================================================
> I too remember Kelly's cafe as we ate breakfast
> there on June 5, 1968, before chasing 483 and 493
> from Chama eastbound.
> I cannot recall what motel we stayed in that
> night in Chama. We had chased 498 from Durango to
> Pagosa Jct(Gato) the day before, and I guess Dad
> figured the road was too poor or did not go
> through so we headed for Pagosa Sprs and then to
> Chama, as the train arrived after dark I believe.
> I believe Kelly's was the location for a famous
> Philip Hastings photograph taken inside the cafe
> showing the name on the window, and you see steam
> in the Chama yard. One of my favorite Hastings
> Photos.
> Ah Good times in NG land for a teen!!!
> Greg
That pic was taken through the window of what is now the "Boxcar Café".
Vera worked there when it was the semi-official railroad beanery. They had a contract to be open when the crews were in town - day or night. I don't know when it stopped being a restaurant, but by the 1970's it was a gift shop. It was a store until the mid-1990's when it became a restaurant again.
By 1980 Vera had her own place down the road across from where she later built her new place. Once she moved across the street, her chili mellowed noticeably, but is was still the best.
Kelly's burned (twice!) in the winter of 1981-2. Vera was long gone and down the road aways by then.