Train Whistles at MSS

We stayed 5 nights at MSS this past April/May. Going back again Sept./Oct. We NEVER once heard a train whistle even though we were facing the tracks and seldom had the air on while in the room. The year before we were on the same side just a little lower and I had to get a room change as I have Tinnitus and the whistle would set my ears to ringing. Does anyone know if the trains have STOPPED the whistle blowing or were we just somehow lucky on this last trip? I meant to ask at check-out but used the TV and forgot to stop by desk and ask.

Has anyone stayed after May 5th and heard a whistle?

Why did the trains blow their whistle in the first place, is there a crossing nearby?

 

I've stayed at MSS several times, most recently last December, and don't recall ever hearing a train whistle! I did hear a little train "noise," but it never bothered me; in fact, I kind of liked getting the heads-up to look out the window. Then again, I've always liked trains; it's "people noise," like loud talking and thump-thump music that drives me nuts.

 

We just checked out on June 1st. We're in a suite, so always an even numbered (faces the tracks) room. It is nothing that bothers me, but now that you mentioned it, I don't remember hearing a whistle this trip. I have always heard them in the past.

 

Been going to MSS for 25 years now, except for a few years when they had closed down, and always heard the whistles when facing the tracks EXCEPT for this past trip. ???

 

TKO, if that comment was aimed at my post. It's almost 20 years we have stayed there and no, I did not hear any whistles this trip. We always have in the past.

 

Sorry Joe, I think those question marks I put at the end made it look like I was referring to you. I was not, but I can see how it might appear that I was somehow questioning what you said.
It was meant to be a statement of what I had done and just don't understand why all of a sudden no whistles. Thank-you for sharing your info.

 

Checked out this morning. I was up early and heard the train whist around 5:30. 1st I've ever heard.

 

I was put on the top floor of the Cal on my last solo trip this past March. The room was facing the rail tracks and on two mornings I heard the whistle of the train ( it was a mellow, lower whistle, not loud or shrill). I stood and watched, fascinated because it was loaded with M1 Abrams tanks and also a shitload of Humvees and such. The loaded cars seemed to stretch for miles.

The whistle is not irritating at all imho, but I can understand it disturbing the sleep of some people. I can't sleep in Vegas anyway.

 

I work on the railway in the UK, and over here the times that trains will sound the horn is if there are workers trackside or if there is a whistle board which are usually found on approach to a crossing over the railway tracks

 

wait a second. you mean there is still a real train near MSS?
I thought that "Station" is just a historical name.

 

Hey, don't they want to put a station in the area for their new high speed train to LA?

I also heard whistles at times. I was at MSS at the beginning of March and once and a while heard them, but only during the daylight hours. Not sure if they blow them at night but as someone else mentioned I think they blow it if they want to get the attention of someone on or near the tracks or another train.

yeah, so fun to watch the trains go by sometimes, once I watched for a good 10 minutes and that train still had cars behind it. At the end it also had another engine to help pull it all.

 

I always found MSS noisy the six or eight times I/we stayed there. Having said that, I'll take the exterior intrusions to the drunk idiots banging about the hallways at MGM Grand and Flamingo and the like.

In all this, however, it's relative. I was less bothered by noise when we lived in So Cal. It's freakin' deadsville up here, particularly at night. It freaked me out when we first got here: All that silence bodes like some horror flick.

 

The Plaza (originally names the Union Plaza) sits on the site of the old Union Pacific terminal for Las Vegas. I'm sure Boyd or whoever the original owner was picked up on that theme when designing and building the Main Street Station so close. I don't believe Station Casinos ever had anything to do with the property? I could be wrong.


With regards to the train-whistle... I'm pretty sure they do that just to piss people off, you know a little extra toot past midnight for the fun of it!!!

 

Posting from memory now, so if not quite factual, don't jump down my throat.

The MSS building was originally a Holiday Inn. Then the guy who operated Church Street Station, a very successful operation in Florida bought the place. He brought in all the antiques, railcars etc and went belly up in a year. Boyd acquired it and is coming up on their 20th anniversary. I think the Church St Station guy named it Main Street Station and Boyd just went with that name.

 

Sounds good! I wasn't sure if it might've been part of the Station "fleet" of properties at one point or not

 

You are pretty much correct Joe. Not sure when the building was built or if it was a Holiday Inn (come to think of it maybe I remember it as a Holiday Inn) but I remember when it first opened as a place similar to church st. station in Orlando. They even had a rosie O Grady's in the building next to the parking lot. If you google church st. station and look at the pictures you will notice that the façade is similar to the façade facing Main St. The main problem is that they didn't have a casino license so didn't have much to draw them in (may have worked now with the downtown revitalization but at the time it tanked). I remember Jackie's Travel and Vacations Hawaii using the hotel portion to house overflow guests. The whole 1st floor area was dark and they created a boarded up walkway to get to the elevators. Eventually they gutted out the whole 1st floor and acquired a casino license and made it what you see today.

I visited church st. station in Orlando in the 90's, like Disney downtown it is a place for adults to party and enjoy the city. Most of us didn't think it would work in vegas since most of us at the time were more hard core downtown gamblers.

Wow, only 20 years? Hard to believe since it seems like it was there for many decades.

Sorry for going off topic (train whistles) but Joe reminded me of the place many years ago.

 

haha, I remember Church Street Station, and King Gator's...

 

nice meeting you Joe! SAt. at the Boars head.Do you remember John's Handle?

 

Nice meeting you Joe, Sat. at the Boars Head Bar. Do you remember John's Handle?

 

I could be wrong on the years, but I believe I first stayed at MSS in 1991 when it first opened or in 1992 when it closed due to money problems. Then Boyd bought it and reopened it with the same name around 1996. So next year should be it's 20th year as a Boyd property, but it was open for a very short while about 5 years before Boyd reopened it, Stayed at GN when MSS was closed, but we would walk down there just to look in the train car windows. The current Players Club was a restaurant in the early days.