Just Think How Popular The Grove Station Will Be

REQUIREMENTS FOR BUILDING a better Los Angeles rail system: 1. A map. 2. A set of markers. A nice set, of course. Maybe Crayolas. 3. $38 billion. Continuing to cure LA's 20th-century transportation hangover with the most robust 19th-century treatments, The Transit Coalition offers this fancy hand drawing of 11 possible train lines. These new or improved lines, given an ideal political climate obtainable only through a Stargate, would be complete by 2026. Sure, the map has been posted more than a year. But I still admire its judicious use of graph paper, its willingness to ignore the pillars still marking the Red Car right-of-way across the LA River, and its ability to get me from Atwater Village to Glendale Galleria in only two stops. Long live the imaginary LA grid.

All Aboard! Last Day of Red Car to Atwater

THIS BIT OF HISTORY comes from photographer Alan Weeks, snapped more than 50 years ago during the waning moments of Red Car rail service at the Subway Terminal Building (now the fancy Metro 417 apartments), 4th and Hill Streets in downtown Los Angeles. Note the sign on the right pointing to boarding lanes for Edendale (now Echo Park, Silver Lake), Atwater (now Atwater Village), Glendale, North Glendale and Burbank. Also note the sign at left announcing the final day, June 19, 1955, of the Los Angeles-Glendale-Burbank Red Car: "Service will be operated with buses. Rail service will be discontinued. Subway Terminal will be discontinued as a passenger station." And the people rejoiced. Thanks to the Metro Transportation Library and Archive Collection for sending another gem. More historic Red Car maps and photos here.

Connecting Atwater to Points Beyond

MY FASCINATION WITH DEFUNCT Los Angeles transportation systems continues, with this gem of a map from the Metro Transportation Library and Archive Collection. Click the top or bottom half of this Burbank-Glendale Line map to see amazing detail of Pacific Electric Railroad conveniences gone by. In fact look along the top border of the bottom half for a handwritten note, "high bridge," referring to the long-gone Fletcher Drive trestle. And hey, there's the lost city of Tropico again! Red Car Project [Flickr]

Fancy a Train Ride to the Beach?

Fletcher Drive Trestle, originally uploaded by Atwater Village Newbie.

BACK IN THE DAY, a Pacific Electric Red Car floats along a steel bridge over Fletcher Drive in Atwater Village. From transportation photographer and prolific publisher Donald Duke, courtesy Metro Transportation Library and Archive Collection. UPDATE: More coming! The Metro Library has been quite accommodating with my Atwater Village train history research. I'll try to post 2-3 more photos and one amazing rail map before the weekend.