Angels Flight

Angels Flight (or Angel's Flight) is a landmark funicular railway in the Bunker Hill district of Downtown Los Angeles, California. It has two funicular cars, Sinai and Olivet .

The funicular has operated on two different sites, using the same cars and iconic station elements. The original Angels Flight location, with tracks connecting Hill Street and Olive Street, operated from 1901 until it was closed in 1969, when its site was cleared for redevelopment. The second Angels Flight location opened nearby to the south in 1996, with tracks connecting Hill Street and California Plaza. It was re-closed in 2001, after a fatal accident, and took nine years to commence operations again, on March 15, 2010.^[3] It has been running safely since, except for another closure from June 10, 2011 to July 5, 2011, with 25 cents the cost of a one-way ride.

The original Angels Flight

Built in 1901 with financing from Colonel J.W. Eddy, as the Los Angeles Incline Railway, Angels Flight began at the west corner of Hill Street at Third and ran for two blocks uphill (northwestward) to its Olive Street terminus. Angels Flight consisted of two vermillion "boarding stations" and two cars, named Sinai and Olivet, pulled up the steep incline by metal cables powered by engines at the upper Olive Street station. As one car ascended, the other descended, carried down by gravity. An archway labeled "Angels Flight" greeted passengers on the Hill Street entrance, and this name became the official name of the railway in 1912 when the Funding Company of California purchased the railway from its founders.^[4]

The original Angels Flight was a conventional funicular, with both cars connected to the same haulage cable. Unlike most more modern funiculars it did not have track brakes for use in the event of cable breakage, but it did have a separate safety cable which would come into play in case of breakage of the main cable. It operated for 68 years with a good safety record.^[5]

The only fatality that involved the original Angels Flight occurred in the autumn of 1943, when a sailor attempting to walk up the track was crushed beneath one of the cars.^[4]

In November 1952, the Beverly Hills Parlor of the Native Daughters of the Golden West erected a plaque to commemorate fifty years of service by the railway.

The plaque reads:

— Built in 1901 by Colonel J.W. Eddy, lawyer, engineer and friend of President Abraham Lincoln, Angels Flight is said to be the world's shortest incorporated railway. The counterbalanced cars, controlled by cables, travel a 33 percent grade for 315 feet. It is estimated that Angels Flight has carried more passengers per mile than any other railway in the world, over a hundred million in its first fifty years. This incline railway is a public utility operating under a franchise granted by the City of Los Angeles. — ^[6]

In 1962, at its first meeting, the city's new Cultural Heritage Board designated Angels Flight a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument (No. 4), along with four other locations. Los Angeles was early in enacting preservation laws, and the first sites chosen each were "considered threatened to some extent," according to the history of the board, now the Cultural Heritage Commission.^[1]

Dismantling

The railway was closed in 1969 when the Bunker Hill area underwent a controversial total redevelopment which destroyed and displaced a community of almost 22,000 working-class families renting rooms in architecturally significant but run-down buildings, to a modern mixed-use district of high-rise commercial buildings and modern apartment and condominium complexes. All the components of Angels Flight were placed in storage in anticipation of the railway's restoration and reopening.

Reconstruction

After 27 years in storage, the funicular was rebuilt and reopened on February 24, 1996 a half block south of the original site. Although the original cars, Sinai and Olivet, were used, a new track and haulage system was designed and built, a redesign which had unfortunate consequences five years later. As rebuilt, the funicular was 91 meters (298 feet) long on an approximately 33-percent grade. Car movement was controlled by an operator inside the upper station house, who was responsible for visually determining that the track and vehicles were clear for movement, closing the platform gates, starting the cars moving, monitoring the operation of the funicular cars, observing car stops at both stations, and collecting fares from passengers. The cars themselves did not carry any staff members.^[5] Angels Flight was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 13, 2000.

Accident

On February 1, 2001, Angels Flight had a serious accident that killed a passenger, Leon Praport age 83, and injured seven others, including Praport's wife, Lola. The accident occurred when car Sinai, approaching the upper station, reversed direction and accelerated downhill in an uncontrolled fashion to strike car Olivet near the lower terminus.^[5]

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) conducted an investigation into the accident, and determined that the probable cause was the improper design and construction of the Angels Flight funicular drive and the failure of the various regulatory bodies to ensure that the railway system conformed to initial safety design specifications and known funicular safety standards. The NTSB further remarks that the company that designed and built the drive, control, braking, and haul systems, Lift Engineering/Yantrak, is no longer in business, and that the whereabouts of the company's principal is unknown.^[5]

Unlike the original, the new funicular used two separate haulage systems (one for each car), with the two systems connected to each other, the drive motor and the service brake by a gear train; it was the failure of this gear train which was the immediate cause of the accident as it effectively disconnected Sinai both from Olivet’s balancing load and from the service brake. There were emergency brakes which acted on the rim of each haulage drum, but due to inadequate maintenance the emergency brakes for both cars were inoperative, which left Sinai without any brakes once its physical connection to the service brake was lost. Contrary to what might be expected, the new funicular was constructed with neither safety cable nor track brakes, either of which would have prevented the accident; the NTSB was unable to identify another funicular worldwide that operated without either of these safety features.^[5]

Records indicate that the emergency brake had been inoperative for 17 to 26 months due to the fact that a normally closed hydraulic solenoid valve had been placed in a location where the design called for a normally open valve, and that the regular analysis of oil-samples was discontinued in May 1998, despite the fact that the company performing the tests recommending that the rising particulate level in the oil samples warranted the test occurring more frequently.

During the 17 to 26 months that the emergency braking system was not operating, the braking system was tested daily, but since the service brake and emergency brake were tested simultaneously, there was no way to tell if the emergency brake was functioning without looking at the brake pads or hydraulic pressure gauges during the test. The test was always performed with the Sinai car traveling up-hill, which meant that when the power was cut and the brakes applied (as part of the test), Sinai’s momentum caused the car to continue moving up-hill a short distance (slackening the cable) and then to roll back from gravity, jerking the cable tight.

If the emergency brakes had been functional, then they would have caught Sinai when the cable snapped tight, but without the emergency brakes, the force of the jerk caused by the daily test was directed through the spline (the part that failed) and to the service brake. In addition, it was found that the original design called for the spline to be made of AISI 1018 steel on one drawing, and of AISI 8822 steel on a different drawing, but it is unlikely that this ambiguity in the design contributed to the accident.^[7]

Besides the design failures in the haulage system, the system was also criticised by the NTSB for the lack of gates on the cars, and the absence of a parallel walkway for emergency evacuation. The funicular suffered serious damage in the accident.

Evaluation

The death and injuries could have been avoided if any one of the following had taken place:^[7]

• The 1996 renovation had included installing track brakes or safety cables.
• The biannual oil analysis tests had not been discontinued in May 1998 (which would have shown rising levels of particulate material in the oil and may have caused a full inspection of the system to take place).
• A single haulage system, similar to the first Angels Flight, had been used rather than the system that had separate cables for each car.
• The emergency brake hydraulic solenoid valve had been installed according to the design (as normally open).
• The technician installing the solenoid valve had contacted the engineer for a new design when the solenoid did not fit, instead of forcing it in with pliers (A valve with the dimensions called for in the design was no longer manufactured, and tool marks on the valve show that it was forced in).
• The daily brake test had included testing the service brake and emergency brake separately instead of testing them simultaneously (which made it impossible to confirm that they were both working).
• The daily brake test procedure had included looking at the brake pads and the hydraulic pressure in the emergency brake system to confirm it was operating.
• The pressure gauges for the hydraulic brake systems had been placed on the operator's control panel instead of in the equipment cabinet.
• The daily brake test had involved applying the brakes more gradually so that the up-hill-bound car would not have the momentum to produce slack in the cable and roll backwards, jerking the cable tight.
• The splines (the part that failed) had been designed to be extraordinarily strong to withstand the excessive force that occurred when the brake test was performed and the emergency brake was inoperative (which resulted in the force of the cable being pulled tight to be directed to the service brake through the splines, rather than to the emergency brake which was before the splines).

Repaired

 On November 1, 2008, both of the repaired and restored Angels Flight cars, Sinai and Olivet, were put back on their tracks and, on January 16, 2009, testing began on the railway.[8][9]  On November 20, 2009, another step in the approval process was achieved.[10] On March 10, 2010, the California Public Utilities Commission approved the safety certificate for the railroad to begin operating again.[11][12]

The City of Los Angeles commissioned conductor David Woodard^[13] to compose and perform a memorial suite, named "An Elegy for Two Angels," to honor Leon Praport and the funicular's quaintly named cars Sinai and Olivet. It was first performed by the 'Los Angeles Chamber Group' in 2001.

Reopening and Temporary Closing

Angels Flight reopened to the public for riding on March 15, 2010. The local media covered the event with positive interest.^[14] Only a month after re-opening, Angels' Flight had had over 59,000 riders.^[15] Today it connects the Historic Core and Broadway commercial district with the hilltop Bunker Hill California Plaza urban park and the Museum of Contemporary Art - MOCA. The cost of a one-way ride is currently 25 cents.

On June 10, 2011, the California Public Utilities Commission ordered Angels Flight to immediately cease operations due to wear on the steel wheels on the two cars. Inspectors determined that their 15-year-old wheels needed replacing.^[16] It reopened on July 5, 2011 after eight new custom-made steel wheels were installed on the two cars.^[17]

In arts and popular culture

Visual arts

• Angel's Flight is the title of a famous 1931 oil painting by Millard Sheets that hangs as part of the permanent collection in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. It shows two young women on the funicular's upper platform looking down on the nearby houses of Third Street, but the funicular cars themselves are out of the frame.
• Edmund Penney's 15-minute documentary, Angels Flight Railway, shot in 1965 and during the funicular's last days in 1969, is a lyrical memorial to the landmark railway.

Movies

• The Angels Flight debut on film was probably Good Night, Nurse! (1918), but it got its first real close-up in a 1920 one-reel comedy of errors, All Jazzed Up, in which a bride honeymooning in Los Angeles can't stop thrill-riding up and down on Angels Flight. Her husband leaps from one car to the other to reunite with her at the end.
• The opening scene of Impatient Maiden, directed in 1932 by James Whale of Frankenstein fame, is shot all around Angels Flight, including the Third Street steps and the Olive Street Station.
• A scene in Hollow Triumph (1948) features Paul Henreid escaping from pursuers on one of the cars.
• There is a scene in Robert Siodmak's 1949 film noir Criss Cross where the gangsters are planning the armored car heist. Angels Flight's cars can be seen through a window going up and down, first in daylight, then in darkness, to illustrate the passage of time.
• Joseph Losey's 1951 film M features Angels Flight in several shots.
• Angels Flight appeared several times in the opening scenes of the 1953 color film The Glenn Miller Story in full operation.
• In Cry of the Hunted (1953), Jory (Vittorio Gassman), a prisoner being transported, escapes and rides the Angels Flight to evade capture.
• Angels Flight is shown in Robert Aldrich's Kiss Me Deadly (1955) and The Indestructible Man (1956). It is also seen in detail in The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed Up Zombies (1965).
• Angels Flight is used several times in the 1961 Kent Mackenzie film The Exiles, which dramatizes the lives of several real Native Americans living on Bunker Hill in 1958 (when the film was shot).
  • The DVD of The Exiles also includes a short film, The Last Day of Angels Flight, taken on and around Angels Flight on the day it closed in March 1969.
  • The DVD also had the 1956 Kent Mackenzie short film called Bunker Hill: A Tale of Urban Renewal.
• Angel's Flight is a low-budget 1965 film noir about a Bunker Hill serial killer, shot on and around Angels Flight in both the downtown and Bunker Hill neighborhoods.
• In the 1966 movie, The Money Trap, Glenn Ford rides down Angels Flight while tailing the daughter of a suspect, with the camera showing the view as a passenger would experience it.
• In City of Angels it is seen in the background when Seth (Nicolas Cage) walks through the market near the end of the movie.

Television

• Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) and Della Street (Barbara Hale) ride Angels Flight in the 1966 episode of Perry Mason entitled "The Case of the Twice-Told Twist" in which Mason's car was stripped in a parking lot adjacent to the upper end of the funicular.
• Angels Flight was shown at the opening to an episode of Dragnet, with Jack Webb's voice-over: "...for five cents, ride the shortest railway in the world."
• The soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful featured Angels Flight in its closing credits.
• On October 13, 2010, Stephanie Forrester (Susan Flannery) and Brooke Logan (Katherine Kelly Lang) rode Angels Flight in The Bold and the Beautiful, .
• On November 23, 2010, NBC's The Biggest Loser featured the ride in part of a challenge in which the contestants have to either walk the stairs for 5 points or take the train for 1 point. The winner, accumulating 100 points, won a 2011 Ford Edge.
• On January 4, 2011, it was shown in the opening minutes of the Season 3 premier of Southland on TNT, with the character Ben Sherman running up the stairs parallel to the tracks.
• On May 3, 2011, a foot chase in the NCIS: Los Angeles episode entitled "Plan B" featured Angels Flight.

Fiction

• There are at least five novels titled Angel's Flight or Angels Flight, all with scenes that take place on the funicular and use it as a symbol of some kind.
  • The first novel was Angel's Flight by Don Ryan, published in 1927.
  • Angels Flight was both the name and locale of the 1999 Harry Bosch crime novel by Michael Connelly.
• Raymond Chandler fictionally visited Angels Flight in the 1938 novella The King in Yellow and the 1942 novel The High Window.
• Among other novelists who describe and mention Angels Flight in their works are John Fante, and Linda L. Richards in "Death was the Other Woman" the 1990 private-eye mystery set in 1930's noir Los Angeles.
• Angels Flight was in Piccolo's Prank, the 1965 children's book by Leo Politi.
• Angel's Flight was mentioned in the video game "L.A. Noire" as a landmark.
• "Angel's Flight" is the title of a 2009 Mercy Allcutt mystery by Alice Duncan.

Music and other

• There are references to Angels Flight in the song "Strange Season" on Michael Penn's 1992 album Free-for-All, and the cover features images of the line and a ticket stating, "Good for one ride".
• An Elegy for Two Angels, by David Woodard, a memorial suite honoring Leon Praport and the funicular's quaintly named cars Sinai and Olivet, performed on March 15, 2001.
• Angels Flight was also the name of a 1980's-1990's Hair metal band based in McKinney, Texas.
• In the game Tony Hawk's American Wasteland, Angels Flight is a gap where the player can grind up or down the rails, the gap being called "Angel Going Up!" or "Angel Going Down!"
• The game L.A. Noire features Angels Flight as one of 30 landmarks across the city. It is the location of the Street Crime side mission, "Shoo-Shoo Bandits"

See also

• Bunker Hill, Los Angeles
• Historic Core, Los Angeles
• List of funicular railways
• List of heritage railroads in the United States
• List of Registered Historic Places in Los Angeles
• List of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments in Downtown Los Angeles

References

External links

• Official Angel's Flight website
• An Elegy for Two Angels
• Angels Flight Virtual Ride
• Angel's Flight at the Internet Movie Database
• Stills from movies featuring Angels Flight
• KTLA News Clip covering proposed reopening on YouTube
• A ride on Angels Flight on YouTube
• memory.loc.gov. Official L.o.C. HABS/HAER/HALS website