Tribute

REOPENING CELEBRATION, 4/15/10 A celebratory day indeed! A special event in which all the personnel and organizations who donated the $3.5 million necessary for Angels Flight's resumption of public service were feted! Here are the people who saw to it that Angels Flight was back in business, none among whom was more responsible than the President of the railway, John H. Welborne. It was he who stayed at the helm through years of effort, bringing together the teams and the individuals (and the monetary donations) who restored the cars, the tracks, the cables, the drive assembly and their installation, he who [...]

ACROSS THE FINISH LINE: OPENING DAY! Today, if vindication or "redemption" was needed, it was given! All the countless thousands upon thousands of hours of sung and unsung effort behind the scenes finally paid off. President Welborne had led his teams of experts -- Bragg Crane, Murray Latta, TIG/m, Dave Charlebois' team of finish carpenters, R & R Electric, Integrated Mechanical Systems and all the others -- to this triumphant day. The press was there of course, and more important: the families whose members had included the private owners of Angels Flight through the years were there to be represented, and [...]

The Left Coast Mystery Writers Descend On Angels Flight! Saturday was full of surprises. Hundreds of mystery writers came to Angels Flight during their lunch break, a part of their itinerary. Officially known as the Left Coast Crime 2010 conference, this year's attendees met at the Omni Hotel, and the emphasis was on mystery writer Michael Connelly, prolific author of the Harry Bosch mysteries. A very recent title: "Angels Flight," in which private eye Harry Bosch finds out who stashed a dead body aboard one of Angel Flight's cars! A large area just south of the Station House was set aside [...]

Getting Ready to Reopen Today is one of the most important days in the run-up to reopening: general cleanup, long-standing barricades (nine years!) finally come down, and Angels Flight begins to look like Angels Flight! It starts out with cleaning off the Arch pillars. Legal Notice The name "Angels Flight" and the images of the Angels Flight® Railway and cars are copyrights and registered trademarks of the Angels Flight® Railway Company and are used with permission. The content of this website, www.picturetrail.com/afrp (this "Site"), including but not limited to the text and images displayed herein and their arrangement (collectively, the "Materials"), [...]

ENTERING THE HOME STRETCH, 3/4/10 Finally: All the government's directives -- including the ones issued at the last second -- have been implemented. The Drive Assembly is fine-tuned and ready to go (just as it was back in April '09), as are the tracks, the cables, the cars, and all safety and surveillance systems. The car operators are ready to take tickets, make change, operate the gates and turnstyles, and keep the cars transporting passengers! It's time for the final cleanup, time to get things ready for the public! Today a cleaning crew comes in to polish up the Station House, [...]

The CPUC Comes Around for Gate Inspection, 2/23/10 This time, the CPUC crew came around to take a look at the new gates that they had determined to be necessary for passenger safety. Legal Notice The name "Angels Flight" and the images of the Angels Flight® Railway and cars are copyrights and registered trademarks of the Angels Flight® Railway Company and are used with permission. The content of this website, www.picturetrail.com/afrp (this "Site"), including but not limited to the text and images displayed herein and their arrangement (collectively, the "Materials"), are copyrighted © by Leonard Auslender, whether or not they bear [...]

THE HOME STRETCH? INSTALLING THE END GATES At last the end is in sight. After a prodigiously difficult three-year restoration project, with countless slowdowns, challenges and difficulties, The California Public Utilities Commission issued one more directive at the end of 2009: put gates on the ends of the cars. In the last album you saw part of the fabrication process at TIG/m in Chatsworth. In this album you see the beginning of the installation process. Legal Notice The name "Angels Flight" and the images of the Angels Flight® Railway and cars are copyrights and registered trademarks of the Angels Flight® Railway [...]

FABRICATING THE END GATES, 1/19/10 Following an accident and subsequent multi-year shutdown of the Railway, an entirely new Drive and Control System was designed and manufactured to replace the system used between 1996 and 2001. In addition, many new safety features, such as a second cable and redundant braking systems, including car brakes, were added. Containment of passengers in the event of a collision has been achieved by eliminating the possibility of the two cars colliding (as happened in 2001) and by continuing the practice of operating the cars only with seated passengers. By redesigning the system as a true funicular, [...]

10/14/09: Air Conditioning for the Drive Assembly As you might well imagine, the Drive Assembly puts out heat, and during the summer the heat in the Machine Room can get intense enough to trip safety mechanisms and shut if off. So an air conditioning unit, with its accompanying ductwork must be installed to keep the Drive Motor cool enough to operate safely even though the Machine Room's temperature goes up. It was on this day that author Michael Connelly who writes the popular Harry Bosch mystery novels, was being interviewed aboard Sinai by Val Zavala of PBS' SoCal Connected, about his [...]

Final Adjustment of the Cables, 6/2/09 Today's projects start out on a cool morning under a cloudy sky. Two things remain to be done. First, Sinai, the car on the northward track, must be adjusted. It must park level with The Arch's electric wheelchair lift that allows disabled passengers to board via a special entrance at Sinai's top end. The car must be level with the concrete platform at the top of the lift so that the passenger does not experience an uncomfortable bump rolling from the platform to Sinai's "porch." The next project is to adjust the rollers on the [...]