ehbowen
Engineer
I remember hot canned food vending machines; not on the railroad, but at my father's workplace in the 1960's. Spaghetti-O's and such. I remember those cans came out wicked hot, so you had to be careful!
But how did "Hot tray meals" and waffles work? Were they TV dinners that the machine heated when you ordered them?
I'm too young to have ever used an SP "automat" car, but I believe the "hot tray meals" were in a refrigerated vending machine; you inserted change, opened the door, and took the tray to a self-service microwave oven and pushed the button. At least, that's the way it was supposed to work; my understanding from travelers' reports is that the vending machines were in such a constant state of disrepair that the standard procedure was to hand your money to the attendant, who would then open the machine with a key and hand you your item. He expected a tip for doing that, of course...