|
|
| Re: Not so fast (Re: New LACMTA code of conduct allows photography) (962112) | |||
 |
|||
| Home > SubChat | |||
|
[ Read Responses | Post a New Response | Return to the Index ] |
|
||
|
Re: Not so fast (Re: New LACMTA code of conduct allows photography) |
|
|
Posted by FYBklyn1959 on Fri Jul 30 22:15:57 2010, in response to Re: Not so fast (Re: New LACMTA code of conduct allows photography), posted by Easy on Fri Jul 30 16:20:46 2010. Doesn't really matter to me as I'm not really into interior pics, plus I got some of the Blue Line early on:   The above 3 were taken on June 26th, 1990, a few weeks before the Blue Line officially opened. They had a series of preview rides in the month of June. Basically, they were running the full schedules to get the T/Os used to things, so on selected days, they allowed the public on certain segments. The 26th was the last of the rides, they went from Pico (then the north terminal) to Washington. The Saturday before, I rode from Artesia to 103rd Street (I think). The other segments, which I didn't ride were Vernon to Firestone, and Del Amo to Anaheim (the initial south terminal) For the record, none of the people in the second pic objected to my taking a pic :)    These last 3 pics I took after service had started. Was in early February 1991, before the 7th St/Metro Center station opened (on 2/14/91). They started running trains down to 7MC 2 weeks prior to the opening, again to acclimate the T/Os. They would fumigate at Pico n/b and run light to 7MC, take the recovery, then run light to Pico and load up. Was weird catching a train at Pico on Track 2 (s/b track), before, the train would dwell at Pico on track 1, then crossover to track 2 just south of Pico Blvd (I think I posted a pic of the crossover in my Blue Line 20th anniversary post a few weeks ago). Anyway, it was relatively early on a Saturday morning (around 9 AM maybe), I was in the 2nd car, and I was the only one there! The entrance to Pico station was at the front (I think now you can enter from either end, but I'm not 100% sure about that), so people tended to board the first car. Same thing for Grand station. San Pedro boarded from the rear southbound, so some ppl may have boarded, but on this occasion, I got off there to do some bus spotting at nearby Division 2, located at San Pedro St & 16 St, right by the Santa Monica Freeway. Div. 2 had been closed as an operating division from September 1985 to December 1990 (not sure why, maybe a cost-cutting move by RTD), but it wasn't necessarily dormant during that time. I think the cash counting department was there for awhile (it's since moved, IIRC). Also, the RTD Police were based there for awhile, and during parts of 1986 and 1987, it actually hosted Division 1 buses, while that facility (on Alameda & 6th St) was being renovated. At the 12/90 shakeup, they started operating limited service at D2, weekday-only helper runs on the 420 and 424 (these were express lines to the SF Valley via the Hollywood Freeway, which had previously operated solely from Division 8 (Chatsworth Division in the RTD days, now West Valley division). RTD wanted to cut down on the deadhead time on runs originating in downtown LA, so they gave those runs to D2. D8 transferred 31 1984 Neoplan AN440As (3441-3471) to D2 to run this service. But 31 revenue buses in a yard that could hold 150 (strictly my guesstimate) leaves lots of room for other buses. So they staged newly arrived buses there, on this occasion, I was checking out the brand new Flxible Metros (2800s). They also stored some out of service buses there. Finally in June 1992, Division 2 became a full operating division once again, and has remained so. |
|
|
|