Los Angeles is a city still falling in love with its history, still learning to recognize, appreciate, preserve and revitalize its past. Its efforts are, therefore, still hit-or-miss. For every triumph (the resurrection of Clifton's Cafeteria on Broadway, for example--in fact, the whole 'Bringing Back Broadway' initiative), there are losses and missed opportunities. Take the Subway Terminal Building pictured above. It has been beautifully restored for luxe apartment usage. Well done. But the original subway terminal, which routed thousands of rail cars a day during the 1920's - 1950's, remains a ghostly, moldering wreck deep below the luxurious building.
Last year, my sister and research associate began telling me there's an old "Red Car" somewhere on the Subway Terminal Building property, at surface level. She had learned about it via an old PBS program hosted by the one-and-only Huell Howser. "I'm sure there was," I told her, "when Huell filmed the program years ago. But it wouldn't still be there now." "Why not?" "Well...they wouldn't just leave a historic old Red Car rusting away outside the terminal building."
Except...they did.
Last year, my sister and research associate began telling me there's an old "Red Car" somewhere on the Subway Terminal Building property, at surface level. She had learned about it via an old PBS program hosted by the one-and-only Huell Howser. "I'm sure there was," I told her, "when Huell filmed the program years ago. But it wouldn't still be there now." "Why not?" "Well...they wouldn't just leave a historic old Red Car rusting away outside the terminal building."
Except...they did.
In early January of 2016, I finally popped into the enclosed surface car-park area at the southern base of the terminal building. And I found a historic LA rail car protected by bars and barrel-wire, but otherwise, apparently, left to rot. Rail car #1435, as I learned from my research, was not one of the "Red Cars" but one of the earlier "Yellow Cars," part of LA's first extensive intra-urban rail network. Around the turn of the millennium this genuine, vintage Yellow Car was purchased from a collector in Northern California and returned to the terminal building as part of a push to revive LA's downtown trolley and rail system.
A noble gesture, and, given the many ways in which Downtown LA has been revitalized in the past couple of decades, rather visionary too. But despite many advances and revitalizations downtown, we have yet to bring back trolleys. And so car #1435 sits neglected in its little cage, rather splendidly vandalized by talented graffiti artists, an unheralded and in many quarters utterly forgotten gem of Los Angeles history. Rubbish blows about its great metal wheels, and rats scamper about it.
Is this the end of the line...or could Yellow Car #1435 still have a new beginning?
[UPDATE:] 02/16/2016 - According to information released at "Night on Broadway" (01/30/2016) and by the Los Angeles Downtown News (02/15/2016), supporters of reviving a DTLA streetcar line continue to push forward. The LA Streetcar Project as presently designed will include a 3.8 mile route that loops around the downtown district anchored to a "main spine" on Broadway. Projected costs are $281.6M, and projected resources are not sufficient. Ernst & Young has been hired (to the tune of $1.49M per annum) to find resources to make up the $144M funding gap. While it's encouraging that the project hasn't been abandoned, the large financial gap is rather discouraging, and E&Y's option to extend its contract for an additional two years hints this will not be a speedy streetcar revival--but one, no doubt, worth the wait.
A noble gesture, and, given the many ways in which Downtown LA has been revitalized in the past couple of decades, rather visionary too. But despite many advances and revitalizations downtown, we have yet to bring back trolleys. And so car #1435 sits neglected in its little cage, rather splendidly vandalized by talented graffiti artists, an unheralded and in many quarters utterly forgotten gem of Los Angeles history. Rubbish blows about its great metal wheels, and rats scamper about it.
Is this the end of the line...or could Yellow Car #1435 still have a new beginning?
[UPDATE:] 02/16/2016 - According to information released at "Night on Broadway" (01/30/2016) and by the Los Angeles Downtown News (02/15/2016), supporters of reviving a DTLA streetcar line continue to push forward. The LA Streetcar Project as presently designed will include a 3.8 mile route that loops around the downtown district anchored to a "main spine" on Broadway. Projected costs are $281.6M, and projected resources are not sufficient. Ernst & Young has been hired (to the tune of $1.49M per annum) to find resources to make up the $144M funding gap. While it's encouraging that the project hasn't been abandoned, the large financial gap is rather discouraging, and E&Y's option to extend its contract for an additional two years hints this will not be a speedy streetcar revival--but one, no doubt, worth the wait.
Leslie Le Mon is the author of "Downtown Los Angeles in Photographs 2013," "Downtown Los Angeles in Photographs 2014 - Broadway," and "Highland Park in Photographs 2015". She has lived and worked in the LA area since 1992. If you have any information about the fate and future of rail car #1435, please email her at [email protected] or comment below.
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