The art of transit

by ,

photo by Metro, via Metro Transportation Library and Archive’s Flickr page

I thought the above photo of Red Line construction, taken in the 1990s, was appropriate for today’s Art of Transit. As you may have heard by now, the Metro Board of Directors on Thursday selected the route and station locations for the second and third phase of the Westside Subway Extension, thereby formally ending the environmental study phase of the project and moving it closer to actual…gasp…construction.

The photo below shows a freshly-delivered subway car. I’m not sure where or when it was taken. Anyone in ReaderLand know?

This photo was taken on one of the stations along Vermont Avenue — I’m guessing it’s either Wilshire/Vermont or Vermont/Beverly.

To see many more subway construction photos, several sets can be found here at the Metro Library’s expansive Flickr collection.

To submit a photo for the Art of Transit, post it to Metro’s Flickr group, email it to sourcemetro@gmail.com or Tweet it to @metrolosangeles with an #artoftransit hashtag. Many of the photos we’ve featured can be seen in these galleries on Flickr.

Categories: The Art of Transit

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4 replies ›

  1. Both are wrong that car was sent to colorado along with 502, 503, 504, 505, 506 for testing before coming to LA, the car you are thinking of for the fair and shows is the machup which is still at the redline yard covered up. Colorado had a 1 mile track for testing

  2. I agree with Erik. Notice that there is paper over the operator’s window, that is further evidence that it is pre-roadshow.

  3. Given that it is car 501 (the first) and that it has a special drawbar attached to its coupler, I am looking at the wall and the overhead lamp and thinking Pistola, Italy at the then-Breda Factory

  4. The photo of the Red Line car on the surface probably came from the subway car roadshow in the early 90’s. They had an exhibit at the LA County Fair, and at various other locations. Although this was not in a roadshow setting this was probably where they dropped off the first car for the roadshow.

    The second photo is pretty clearly Beverly, since Vermont/Wilshire has that two story station design.