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| Happy 20th birthday, L. A. Metro Blue Line (956681) | |
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| (956681) | |
Happy 20th birthday, L. A. Metro Blue Line |
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Posted by FYBklyn1959 on Wed Jul 14 20:35:36 2010 Yep, the first rail line in the L. A. area in 27 years opened on this date in 1990. I was there on day one and took a few pics: An opening day banner at Pico station (the north terminal until 2/14/91). I missed the train crashing through the paper banner :(    After a wait of well over an hour in mid-90s heat, finally I was aboard!  This is making the curve from Flower St onto Washington Blvd. This is where the junction between the Blue Line and the future Exposition line will be. Note the 1981 RTS-04 on the 68 at the left. To accommodate the bandwidth-challenged, I will put the 2nd part of these opening day pics in another post. |
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| (956691) | |
Part 2: Happy 20th birthday, L. A. Metro Blue Line |
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Posted by FYBklyn1959 on Wed Jul 14 20:52:10 2010, in response to Happy 20th birthday, L. A. Metro Blue Line, posted by FYBklyn1959 on Wed Jul 14 20:35:36 2010. Now in Long Beach: It looks like the Long Beach PD cop is giving me the evil eye, but I suspect he was just keeping an eye on cross traffic. I know that he didn't say anything to me, may have not even seen me. Back then, no one was hung up on photography much anyway. This pic (in fact, I think all of the ones in this post) are at Long Beach Blvd/Anaheim St, the south terminal until the Saturday before Labor Day, 1990, when the loop stations opened.  Long Beach Transit painted 10 (3516-3525) of their 1979 35-foot RTS-03s to match the color scheme of the Blue Line cars. They were used on a free shuttle from Anaheim station covering the loop stops (5th/LB Blvd, 1st/LB Blvd, Transit Mall (1st/Pacific) and Pacific (5th/Pacific). Even after the loop open and the shuttle was discontinued, those buses kept those colors until their retirement a few years later.   RTD was well prepared, with plenty of buses for those who didn't want to brave the heat waiting for trains to return to L. A. I stuck it out, though :) (that second pic, I cropped so it looked like the last RTS had a pantograph of its own) :) I may have posted it here as a joke awhile back.    The Blue Line was a hit from the beginning. The original plan was to have free rides only for the opening weekend (7/14 & 7/15), however, there were so many people (some may have been turned away, or stayed away due to the extreme heat), RTD, in a rare wise move, extended the free period for the rest of July. Didn't mean much to me, as I had a monthly pass (though with the Blue Line opening, I just bought a base pass, rather than a 2-zone express pass that I used to ride the 446 to get to work at USC), but it was a great gesture. |
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| (956700) | |
Part 3-the next day: Happy 20th birthday, L. A. Metro Blue Line |
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Posted by FYBklyn1959 on Wed Jul 14 21:06:56 2010, in response to Part 2: Happy 20th birthday, L. A. Metro Blue Line, posted by FYBklyn1959 on Wed Jul 14 20:52:10 2010. Both days of the opening weekend, there was a transit fair at the Del Amo station. I returned on Sunday the 15th (via car) to check out the displays. Most of the local transit agencies had a bus on display, there was an L. A. Sheriff's Dept. helicopter, etc. I think I posted the buses awhile back on BusChat, so I'm not going to again, but I got a few train pics that day...  This is a little bit north of Del Amo station, northbound train.    Alas, LACMTA isn't doing anything to celebrate 20 years of the Blue Line (and modern rail in L. A. county, except for this page on their site. For the 10th anniversary, they painted LRVs 109 and 148 in a retro Pacific Electric color scheme. Following is a pic of 109 in PE colors, taken by our very own Salaam (ironically, also taken at Del Amo station): 
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| (956701) | |
Re: Part 2: Happy 20th birthday, L. A. Metro Blue Line |
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Posted by Easy on Wed Jul 14 21:08:50 2010, in response to Part 2: Happy 20th birthday, L. A. Metro Blue Line, posted by FYBklyn1959 on Wed Jul 14 20:52:10 2010. Nice pics! I wasn't in LA back then, but it's amazing how little that part of Long Beach has changed. Although it's changing now. New housing/apartments have and are being built and new businesses have opened. Long Beach is finally seeing the benefits of the Blue Line 20 years later. |
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| (956710) | |
Re: Part 3-the next day: Happy 20th birthday, L. A. Metro Blue Line |
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Posted by Train Man Paul : Metro-North's Best Conductor FOR ALL 3 LINES!!! on Wed Jul 14 21:40:30 2010, in response to Part 3-the next day: Happy 20th birthday, L. A. Metro Blue Line, posted by FYBklyn1959 on Wed Jul 14 21:06:56 2010. Nice collection of shots!! :-) I like the scheme of the LRVs in the last shot!! |
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| (956711) | |
Re: Part 2: Happy 20th birthday, L. A. Metro Blue Line |
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Posted by Train Man Paul : Metro-North's Best Conductor FOR ALL 3 LINES!!! on Wed Jul 14 21:41:33 2010, in response to Part 2: Happy 20th birthday, L. A. Metro Blue Line, posted by FYBklyn1959 on Wed Jul 14 20:52:10 2010. More nice shots!! And yeah, that cop's got an eye on you!! :-D LOL |
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| (956713) | |
Re: Happy 20th birthday, L. A. Metro Blue Line |
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Posted by Train Man Paul : Metro-North's Best Conductor FOR ALL 3 LINES!!! on Wed Jul 14 21:45:23 2010, in response to Happy 20th birthday, L. A. Metro Blue Line, posted by FYBklyn1959 on Wed Jul 14 20:35:36 2010. Nice shots, once again!! Amazing how much times flies!! :-) |
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| (956829) | |
Re: Part 3-the next day: Happy 20th birthday, L. A. Metro Blue Line |
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Posted by FYBklyn1959 on Thu Jul 15 09:11:03 2010, in response to Part 3-the next day: Happy 20th birthday, L. A. Metro Blue Line, posted by FYBklyn1959 on Wed Jul 14 21:06:56 2010. I spoke too soon, MTA put up this tribute page, with a cool video. Musta missed it yesterday. |
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| (956832) | |
Re: Happy 20th birthday, L. A. Metro Blue Line |
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Posted by FYBklyn1959 on Thu Jul 15 09:17:55 2010, in response to Re: Happy 20th birthday, L. A. Metro Blue Line, posted by Train Man Paul : Metro-North's Best Conductor FOR ALL 3 LINES!!! on Wed Jul 14 21:45:23 2010. Thanks, Paul. Took them with a point-and-shoot 35mm camera (or might've even been my 12-year-old (at the time) 110 camera)! Very low-tech (the 35mm), didn't even have auto-advance, had to load the film manually (which caused me some problems a few times when the spool didn't grab the film and it retracted, meanwhile I was snapping away, unaware until I opened the film door) :( By 1994, I was able to get a decent camera (still point-and-shoot, but with auto-load, auto-advance, even a slight zoom, IIRC). Think it was a Canon, but I'm not 100% sure. Had it until it died in mid-2002. Strangest thing, I would turn it on, and it had power, but the lens door wouldn't open. If I had still been in Southern Caifornia at that time, I could've just made one call to my longtime friend, who is quite the amateur photographer, he would have put me in touch with a reputable repair shop and I might still be using it. But alas, I was in South Florida, where 99% if any potential camera repair places would be fucking third-world garbage ripoff artists, and I didn't have the time or inclination to look for the 1% honest, so I had to buy a piece of shit Vivitar which wasn't nearly as good. Struggled with that for 5 years until it died on me during a trip to NYC (had to buy a couple of disposables to finish the trip). Shortly after I returned, I got my current Panasonic Lumix and all is good again :) |
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| (956846) | |
Re: Happy 20th birthday, L. A. Metro Blue Line |
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Posted by Fytton on Thu Jul 15 10:23:36 2010, in response to Happy 20th birthday, L. A. Metro Blue Line, posted by FYBklyn1959 on Wed Jul 14 20:35:36 2010. I didn't realise it was that recent. My regular visits to LA ceased in 1993; I rode the Blue Line before then, but my faulty memory tells me it had been open for a fair number of years by then! |
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| (956853) | |
Re: Happy 20th birthday, L. A. Metro Blue Line |
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Posted by GP38/R42 Chris on Thu Jul 15 10:32:01 2010, in response to Happy 20th birthday, L. A. Metro Blue Line, posted by FYBklyn1959 on Wed Jul 14 20:35:36 2010. Wow, it's that long already!? I like the Blue Line. |
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| (957066) | |
Re: Part 3-the next day: Happy 20th birthday, L. A. Metro Blue Line |
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Posted by CentrolinerDD on Thu Jul 15 19:26:45 2010, in response to Re: Part 3-the next day: Happy 20th birthday, L. A. Metro Blue Line, posted by FYBklyn1959 on Thu Jul 15 09:11:03 2010. Thanks for the trip through the time machine. It is nice to see how much Los Angeles' rail network has grown in just two decades. |
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| (957200) | |
Re: Part 2: Happy 20th birthday, L. A. Metro Blue Line |
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Posted by FYBklyn1959 on Thu Jul 15 23:07:29 2010, in response to Re: Part 2: Happy 20th birthday, L. A. Metro Blue Line, posted by Easy on Wed Jul 14 21:08:50 2010. One thing I noticed, no pics from the "west coast transit photography king". That is an event he would not have missed. I wonder if he was not living in L. A. in July 1990. |
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