River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1906-01-18
A New Train to southern California

a NEW 1Ta10 TO southern California.
Chicago and Los Angeles shook hands
last week for the first time. The formal
lntl oductlon was made by-lne Northwest
ern, the Union Pacific and the San Pedro
railway companies, and now the two cities
and warm friends. Heretofore the two
have been separated by deserts and Death
Valley and the Devils Playground, but now
an opening through these obstacles has
been made, and IL is for the first time pos
slble to look westward from the city on
Lake Michigan andse e at the far end of
the steel ribbons the sparkling blue waters
OF the Pcaific ocean.
The first transcontinental train over this
new route from Salt Lake to Los Angeles,
the Los Angeles Limited, left Chicago at
ten o'clock at night on Sunday, Dec. II,
and reached Los Angeles Wednesday after
noon. The distance of more than 1900
miles, which had always before, by the
roundabout Frisco route, required eighty
SIX hours, or four days and three nights,
was made by this new train in sixty-eight
hours.
"a straight line is the shortest distance
between two points," and the new Los
Angeles Limited train, over the North
western from Chicago to Omaha, over the
Union Pacific from Omaha to Salt Lake,
and over Senator Clark's new line from
Salt Lake to Los Angeles, is as straight
line between the east and the west as
Will ever be known across America
1t is not great many years ago-not
SO long ago, in fact, that it does not still
stand prominently in the memories of the
grandtathers of America-when a trip from
sea to sea meant making faces at tedious
months of hardship, wild animals, treach-
erous rivers, sharp rocks, thirst, starva-
ton and death itself.
Today it is possible to step into a pal
wheels in, Tb,aoc.o {
the year, to see farms and railway sta
tons and mountain ranges Dash by with
klnetoscopic fashion; to eat three meals
from an excellent menu of oysters and
strawberries and turkey and vines and.
on the third afternoon, to stand in the
balmy atmosphere of Los Angeles, Cal
ifornia
to observation car. Darkness is cast out
by means of brilliant electric lights which
make coy every berth in the sleepers. At
the rear end of each train is new style
combination buffet, library and observa-
ton car. In one corner is a bulletin board
upon which, tweee or three times each day,
is posted bulletin of the latest tele-
the Union Pacific having adopted this
unique scheme some months ago. The
train is sister to the overland limited
excepting that it cuts the wind at more
rapid gait.
it was in such luxury that the thirty
four newspaper men from all parts of the
country, including New York, Chicago,
Cincinnati, Pittsburg, Minneapolis, St.
Denver, Des Moines and Norfolk, made
the trip on the new train in its initial
run, with E. l.. Lomax, general passen-
ger agent, and Adolph barlow, advertis.
ing agent of the Union Pacific Railroad
and ether railroad officials as hosts; it may
be imagined that it was always fair wealth.
er from the Mississippi to the Pacific and
return.
The first three days of that Maiden trip
of this superior train of cars, were spent
in getting to southern California. The
next four were delightfully."- and graph
ically written upon thirty-four minds by
means of side trips out from Los Angeles,
and then there were three more in com
ing home.
Grades have been reduced until the
hard to catch the clicks of the rails in
trying to count them. And where curves
have seemed imminent, the builders of
this road have paid many millions to bore
through the solid rocks, thus clinging to
the straight line theory with admirable
foresightedness. The outlay in this con-
struction has been tremendous, but the
result has chopped OH eighteen hours from
Salt Lake .tc the sea, and proportionate-
ly as much in bringing fresh California
fruits to the middle west, and in taking
Nebraska products to the coast either for
consumption there or for shipment to the
orient.
Returning home, Christmas tree was
illuminated on board the train, and on
Christmas night formal banquet in the
dining car, with all present CARRIED in tux
edo, became the novel feature OF the day.
And. Christmas, the guests of the rail-
roads declared, next to being spent at
home. was pleasantest on board the Los
Angeles Limited. N. A. HUSE.
Policy honesty is the rankest form of