When I used to travel back from London Euston to Birmingham New St in the 1980s I often ate a meal on the evening train. I have receipts which show coffee was charged for.....BUT as I was travelling on a second class student railcard ticket the deal was pay for unlimited coffee and I could travel for the rest of the journey in the first class restaurant car. I've no idea if my travelling companions on full first class tickets had to pay for their coffee!
I think you are correct, in BR days I cannot recall any free catering being offered at all. Menu items were individually priced, and that included the coffee. These were the days when BR even charged for timetables!
There was no distinction between ticket class and what the restaurant car charged, all paid the same, the stewards had no interest in what sort of ticket you had, which were examined separately. My recollection of London to Liverpool/Newcastle services was that a lot of the restaurant car usage anyway was BR management staff travelling to Crewe or York on passes.
One recollection was an early morning St Pancras to Sheffield, seated opposite in a 1+1 were two first-time American business travellers, who seemingly had seats booked in the restaurant car by their London office. They were so impressed by the BR breakfast and said how marvellous it was compared to airlines they were used to - but then were more than a little surprised to be presented with a bill for it at the end.
Actually I do remember a BR "free" arrangement, it was if an adult was dining their children under (what was it, 10 years old?) ate for free. One morning, sat at a 2+2 table, I was joined for breakfast by a mama plus two boys, aged say 9 and 7, who both devoured more than mama herself, the latter telling me that it was a great bargain for them which they always did and enjoyed. By the time I had also also passed across some of our little corporate marketing trinkets I chanced to have in my briefcase (another long-disappeared item) the two lads had done quite well.
I never travelled in Silver Standard, but colleagues did, and said that on the key morning service on which day returns etc were not valid anyway it was undesirably squashed with all seats taken compared to the rest of the second class (it was then) in adjacent coaches. I believe they got a newspaper and one cup of coffee. Not sure if it was Maxpax.
