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By Terry Miller
Oh the times they are a changin’ as Bob Dylan sang all those years ago. In reality the city of Arcadia is seemingly in the throes of several major projects that will alter the face of Arcadia as we have known it.
The major construction for the Gold Line is perhaps most evident as is the demolition of one block of old shops on Santa Anita to make way from Rusnak’s new showroom, something Paul Rusnak has been wanting for a long, long time.
The Gold line construction for the bridge over Santa Anita is moving swiftly and some long time residents are even remembering a train that use to pass through Arcadia years ago.
Businessman George Fasching has been adding his two cents every couple of weeks via the large sign he uses to advertise the car wash. This week, Fasching makes reference to the Super Chief
From the late 1930s to the 1950s, Hollywood adopted the Super Chief as the primary mode of travel as well as the subject of novels and motion pictures. In MGM’s The Hucksters, a brutal satire on the ad industry, Clark Gable says to another character: “Only talent agents and kept woman ride the Chief. But the Super Chief is an exclusive club for New York – Hollywood commuters.” According to local historian Michael L. Grace of Pasadena.
The Super Chief was also Santa Fe’s premiere all room Pullman sleeping car train that use to run daily from Chicago to Los Angeles. The Chief was Santa Fe’s other express extra all-Pullman fare train.
The Super Chief made the Santa Fe Railway a household word, according to Grace.
While the Gold Line may not have the romantic feel of trains such as The Super Chief, it will certainly take a significant number of people off the roads and freeways when the line is completed in 2015.