It’s a quiet weekend. Yesterday was spent cleaning the house and doing desk stuff (as well as starting Season 2 of “The Tudors”). Today, after finishing the cleaning (and a few more hours of “The Tudors”), we’re going to Fiesta Hermosa, dinner, and then to the Hermosa Beach Playhouse to see “The Green Room” (where we’ll meet up with shutterbug93). Tomorrow we’ ( Read more... )

I’m sure he thought he was doing the railfan community a service. But he was an idiot.

We’ve been hearing more and more about this engineer at the controls of the Chatsworth Metrolink. He was sending text messages to railfans. He was letting them ride in the cab. He was letting them operate the controlsEverytime I hear them, I go “Idiot ( Read more... )

• Hey larymotrmn! You might be interested in the San Fernando Valley Historical Society meeting on Thursday night at 7:30pm 7:00 pm at the Andres Pico Adobe (map). The speaker is David Coscia on “Pacific Electric Railway and the History of the San Fernando Valley”. I think we need some shills in the audience to keep him honest :-).
  
  
• Hey cast album and theatre ( Read more... )

The following will certainly be of interest to larymotrmn, zarchasmpgmr, jumbach, and the other transit and rail fans on my FL. March 3, 2008 will be a bittersweet golden anniversary. As noted in the February 17, 1958 edition of the LA Times (page 1, page 2), March 3, 1958 was the date that the original Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority took over control of rail and ( Read more... )

Today's lunchtime perusal of the LA Times brings an interesting article about a transportation forum recently held at the Peterson Automobile Museum. The forum, which discussed the proposed “Subway to the Sea”, was focused on how to fund the project. Everyone showed support for a subway, including representatives of Santa Monica, West Hollywood and ( Read more... )

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Hey, larymotrmn!

Take a look at this article from the Sacramento Bee. It looks like another OERM boy has done good: Paul Hammond is now Chief of the California State Railroad Museum.

[An observation while waiting for the tea to cool...]

Allied Model Trains in Culver City is closing its big store.

This weekend, Allied Model Trains is closing, to be reopened in a smaller space across the street in July. The original owner is retiring, and a former worker, together with some competitors, is taking it over. Land is too valuable, ( Read more... )

Recently, I’ve been playing on the freeway. No, I’m not referring to my commute home. I’m referring to the LA Times Bottleneck Blog (syndicated on LJ as bottleneckblog). There seem to be a bunch of folks on this blog that only see black and white: if it isn’t a fully built out underground rail system for Los Angeles, it is no good. Busway... no good. HOV lanes ( Read more... )

CNN is reporting that Tara Rose McAvoy, the reigning Miss Deaf Texas, was walking Monday near railroad tracks when she was struck by a Union Pacific train. According to witnesses, the train sounded its horn right up until the accident occurred ( Read more... )