Steam & Excursion > Anything planned for LAUPT 75th Anniversary

We woulds like to know? It would be during the National Train Day weekend.


Chris

Nope, we would have heard by now....

Darn. I was hoping every available steam engine on the planet would visit the station in May. :(

Sorry folks.L.A.Metro owns LAUPT.Don't expect a warm fuzzy feeling from an organization that removes the seats from their concources and generates a non welcomming feeling for their patrons.I for one personally will never travel L.A.Metro or Metrolink through LAUPT ever again.L.A.Metro just doesn't have any class what so ever.I'll take Amtrak Surfliner #763 to Santa Barbara if i need to take the Coast Starlight north of L.A.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/07/14 18:12 by msdgbar.

Was thinking about that the other day, it's a bummer that LA can't pull anything off after what New York did for the 100th anniversary of Grand Central. Was hoping for a repeat of the 50th with UP 844, SP 4449, and adding ATSF 3751. That would have been great.

Nathan

atsf121 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Was thinking about that the other day, it's a
> bummer that LA can't pull anything off after what
> New York did for the 100th anniversary of Grand
> Central. Was hoping for a repeat of the 50th with
> UP 844, SP 4449, and adding ATSF 3751. That would
> have been great.
>
> Nathan

Perhaps you should try comparing apples to apples. I was living in New York State when Grand Central Terminal turned 75 years. I don't remember anything special happening to celebrate the occasion except for a 75th anniversary calendar. Wait until LAUPT turns 100 before making the comparison.

msdgbar Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Sorry folks.L.A.Metro owns LAUPT.Don't expect a
> warm fuzzy feeling from an organization that
> removes the seats from their concources and
> generates a non welcomming feeling for their
> patrons.I for one personally will never travel
> L.A.Metro or Metrolink through LAUPT ever
> again.L.A.Metro just doesn't have any class what
> so ever.I'll take Amtrak Surfliner #763 to Santa
> Barbara if i need to take the Coast Starlight
> north of L.A.

I too don't like the "welcoming" that LA Metro has at Los Angeles Union Station, but it become a necessary, unfortunately, do to the homeless and rifraf that were there. I have been taking Metrolink to LAUS since 1993 and have never felt unsafe while waiting there until a visit back in November. I felt very unsafe due the homeless that see you as their source of income. A trip on December 27th, after the new "preferred seating for Metrolink and Amtrak riders" went into effect, felt very strange, but at least I felt safe again.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/07/14 22:59 by BNSF6400.

I was there for the 50th with 844. We had a good time along with the Daylight crew.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

There is a plan in the works for a weekend in May, but it might not be the one you're thinking of. That's all I can say for now.

Cheers,

-John

I was hoping for something like this with the Union Pacific 844 and Santa Fe 3751. I cam dream can't I!

Chris

---

One evening, a year or two ago, upon returning from a Pacific Railroad Society excursion, I decide to walk though LAUS before driving home.

As I approached the area where the information booth is located I witnessed a confrontation by an apparently homeless woman and a female security person. The woman was about a head taller than the security person. Suddenly she punched the shorter security person resulting in a bloody nose. As this occurred several other security personnel arrived and detained the attacker.

In due course the LAPD arrived and took the attacker into custody removed her in a blank and white.

OCV

YES, "something" is being planned for LAUPT's 75Th! I and some LA City Council folk have been pushing for it for the past three years. However, METRO now owns the station and has assigned some of it's bureaucracy to continue the planning. In my opinion they are moving slower and more secretly than I would think prudent, so what the prototype rail participation will be is just a guess. Amtrak is a likelihood I've been told. I contacted: Metrolink (not METRO), UP, 3751 and City of Portland (4449) about 2 years ago and got warm responses, but whether METRO has actually followed-up is unknown. The METRO library and Graphic Design Office are looking for LAUPT memorabilia for its library and display, but so far one of the major collectors of LAUPT items was asked to "donate" his collection outright, which he refused to do, although lending the collection for exhibit is certainly a possibility. METRO, in my opinion, seems to be reinventing the flanged wheel (on salary) rather than working with the already established fan community. The Chinese Community has expressed an interest in telling the story that the station was sited where it is--some distance from downtown--so that old Chinatown would be leveled--which ironically was settled by the Chinese who built the railroad. The Tongva Native Americans have expressed an interest in getting recognition, too. I don't think they were ever paid for the land the station occupies. Combining the 75Th Birthday with National Train Day is one concept that was being "studied". As it turns out, Saturday, May 3rd is the exact day the station opened in 1939. A joint LAUPT 75 and NTD celebration would mean that NTD in LA would be a week earlier than the rest of the country. I suggest that all interested TOs email their feelings to the LA City Council Attn: Councilman Tom Labonge, Amtrak Government Affairs in DC and LA METRO's Board of Directors Chair Tom Leahy (look up their email addresses on Google).



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 01/09/14 06:28 by railwaybaron.

The 3rd and 4th of May are Fullerton RR Days.

Chris

How about free public METROLINK excursions on May 3rd between LAUPT 75 and Fullerton RR Days?

Some months back, May 17th was proposed.

One has to watch not to have it on Cinco d2 Mayo, account it just jam packs the entire area.

The Chinese want recognition for what...??? That the city took what was Chinatown to build a train station...Where else were they to build Union Station...???
And I am not exactly sure what the Tongva Native Americans have to do with Union Station...???

Owen Hardy
Barrel Arbor, TN

The_Watchmaker Wrote:
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> The Chinese want recognition for what...??? That
> the city took what was Chinatown to build a train
> station...Where else were they to build Union
> Station...???

Quite a lot of places. Farther to the west by a few blocks was the original proposal, if I recall. The original non-union stations had been a few blocks south of City Hall. It is a fact that it ended up where it did specifically to "clear the China Town slums", with the strong backing of one or more city council members that were more dedicated to clearing slums than to providing transportation.

Of course that doesn't mean that it didn't end up in a good place, at least before the 10 freeway came along and cut the center of the city in two.


> And I am not exactly sure what the Tongva Native
> Americans have to do with Union Station...???

Neither am I, but they should probably take it up with Spain, since the Spanish government was the one that divided So Cal up into land grants.

Hey maybe UP could divert the Big Boy 4014 to Fullerton for RR Days?

Just to continue the new tradition of working something about Big Boys into most every post!