Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
StumbleLetter to the editor:
Trains used to carry in fun-loving tourists
Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2009 | 2:04 a.m.
I loved Brian Greenspun’s Sunday Where I Stand column, “Let’s have a train that goes where we want to.” His reminiscing took me back to the late 1950s, when I worked in advertising in Los Angeles. Come Friday night or Saturday morning, I was ready for a break, and where should I go but Las Vegas?
I would drive my car to Union Station in downtown Los Angeles, park it in the lot, go into the train station and purchase my round-trip ticket. It was that easy.
There were guys on the train traveling alone; guys and gals looking forward to a good time, maybe viewing some of the latest shows; guys with their mistresses; and gamblers ready to beat the Vegas odds.
After the conductor collected the tickets, the playing cards would come out and a hot game of gin rummy would start in the club car. Oftentimes a game of craps would take place in the aisle. Passengers would break out a good book and start reading while other passengers would just relax and view the countryside. You could tell these were fun-loving folks going to Vegas to relax and have a good time in Sin City. This was a wonderful way to forget the job back in Los Angeles.
The train stopped at the station where the Plaza now is. We either took a bus or taxi to a hotel on Las Vegas Boulevard or stayed downtown.
What a great trip. No car-driving hassle in the hot weather and worrying about the car breaking down and being stuck in the middle of the desert. The highway between Los Angeles and Vegas was very narrow and dangerous.
To sum up, a Southern California tourist got a break from the grind of work and had a short but relaxing vacation.
Ah, the good old days.
Discussion: comments so far…
Comments are moderated by Las Vegas Sun editors. Our goal is not to limit the discussion, but rather to elevate it. Comments should be relevant and contain no abusive language. Comments that are off-topic, vulgar, profane or include personal attacks will be removed. Full comments policy. Additionally, we now display comments from trusted commenters by default. Those wishing to become a trusted commenter need to verify their identity or sign in with Facebook Connect to tie their Facebook account to their Las Vegas Sun account. For more on this change, read our story about how it works and why we did it.
Only trusted comments are displayed on this page. Untrusted comments have expired from this story.
No trusted comments have been posted.
Post a comment
Most Popular
- Viewed
- Discussed
- E-mailed
Everything Under the Sun
Blogs
The Kats Report
Clint Holmes is a big deal at Cabaret Jazz and 'The Carlyle!'; Playboy's furry-ous closing; Elvis is a 'Legend'
Joe Pesci remembers his own honeymoon in Vegas -- meeting the Rat Pack (1 Comment)
Las Vegas Philharmonic says search for new music director to begin 'immediately' (1 Comment)
With Shenandoah project stalled, Wayne Newton hits back legally (7 Comments)
Where does a Playmate play when she turns 21? Vegas! (3 Comments)
Ice Ice Billy
The road to six-toed cats and Mayor Bubba
The Kats Report
David Itkin tells L.V. Philharmonic officials he's on his way out (14 Comments)
- Locally owned and independent since 1950; Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, best news website in the nation & DuPont Award for broadcast journalism
Ah....yes, let's spend like a hundred billion dollars so that Tony can enjoy a train ride.
This year we are generating a $2 trillion deficits and will generate trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye can see.
We pay around $800 billion in interest each year.
They expect that to go up to $1.5 trillion in about 6 years which will make bigger than our defense budget.
If you want a fancy train to feel good then how about buying stocks and bonds in a train company. Let them dole out the money to build and run the train and then charge the passengers a fare to support all that cost.
Of course, they would not work.
The passengers would be paying around $1,500 per round trip.
Stop the insanity....stop the spending.
Take a flight from LAX to LAS for about $80.
I miss outrunnin injuns from a stagecoach!
PvtRock said.......
"Ah....yes, let's spend like a hundred billion dollars so that Tony can enjoy a train ride."
Hmmmmm.......I didn't realize that building a bullet train from Southern California to Las Vegas was going to cost a hundred billion dollars....Wow! The things that PvtRock knows that most other people don't know......amazing!
I wonder where the "rock" got his information from......a hundred billion dollars! Wow! Wow!
Darn that Harry Reid! Darn that Obama! Darn that Democrat controlled Congress! What's next? Health care reform? How dare them.....
Hey you jerks...Tony was only reminissing about the good old days...I used to do the same and it was Great, that is before Jan Jones got the brilliant idea about the Fremont St. Experience and closed off all the streets including Fremont. People used to come from all over the world with their cameras to see the Neon lights. The Union Plaza was the Hub with the train station right there or you could stop at the strip at the Starduct. Taxi's were right there on Fremont st. to take you anywhere...it was all wide open either way. Blame Jan Jones and her cohorts for the great downturn...this started the downslide for the big corporate hotels coming in!
Wow! Wow! Lobo is willing to pay all the cost of the train for he thinks is going to be so darn cheap.
Thanks Lobo!!!!!!!
PvtRock said....
"Wow! Wow! Lobo is willing to pay all the cost of the train for he thinks is going to be so darn cheap.
Thanks Lobo!!!!!!!"
Sorry "little pebble," but apparently you must not be able to read or maybe you're unaware of what you said....
I was just questioning your statement that a bullet train to Southern California is going to cost a hundred billion dollars...
You said and I repeat:
"Ah....yes, let's spend like a hundred billion dollars so that Tony can enjoy a train ride."
I take it by that statement that you're saying the cost will be "a hundred billion dollars." Care to stick your foot in your mouth again? Maybe you will try to run and hide rather than admit what you said...
My "little pebble of a friend," you should quit talking just to be talking.... It gets you in trouble!
Lobo....or low ball....which is it???
How much do you think it will cost?
I doubt it will ever be built.
But if they did I am sure that it will much closer to $100 billion then the number that some pol is feeding to you while you drink your koolaid.
mag-lev guys just don't get it. The days of spending like a drunken sailor are over.
PvtRock....PvtRock....
What are we going to do with you? You simply don't get it and unfortunately you never will...
Do you have a link or two to back up your 100 billion dollar estimate? Probably not!
With your attitude we would never have built the Great Transcontinental Railroads & we wouldn't have built the Interstate Highway system in this country. If you had your way, it would be 1825 or 1830.
You're the best friend that the word "NO" has ever had..."NO.....NO.....NO....NO" is your first, last and middle name.
To you, and your fellow conservatives, progress is simply standing still....Great progress is walking backwards....
I'm reminded of what Woodrow Wilson said about conservatives. He said:
"Conservatives are people who sit and think and sit and think, but mostly sit."
I saw a beat up old pickup truck with a cap on it in a Walmart parking lot with Dumb-As-A Rock's rhetoric posted on the back windows!
I bet it is his old truck, polluting the air as he pollutes the air here.
Also, I was wondering how he could shop at Walmart where everything comes from China, a socialist country???
Dumbo, you need to pick one side or the other.