On a bright September afternoon, a train stops at Central Avenue in Temple and two men climb down from the locomotive. It's break time. They hustle down the street to Kerley's Market and soon return with brown paper sacks stuffed with lunchmeat, chips, soda and white bread.

Folks on Temple's east side say railroad engineers up and down the line have stopped at Kerley's for decades.

On a gray October day, two meat cutters in white aprons exit Kerley's clutching large sacks stuffed with chuck roast, hamburger, sausage and chicken and slide Clementine Frazier's order into her SUV's back seat. Ms. Frazier drives to Temple from her Killeen home every two weeks. She visits her mother and stockpiles fresh meat for her husband.

"He's a carnivore," Ms. Frazier said, sporting a smile that could have been in a toothpaste commercial. "You'd think we got nine kids."