From the time I was about two till I was seven, we lived in a house along a turnaround loop for the Line 16 and 74 buses running under the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) and later the Southern California Rapid Transit District (SCRTD—RTD for short). After passing our house, the buses made a left turn and went about two blocks, past our church, and parked next to a bank building to lay over until it was time to head out on their next run. They left the layover and turned left onto Lankershim, heading north.
I think what fascinated me so much about buses was the fact that they took people places. Going somewhere—anywhere—was something our family did very little of. When I saw people riding a bus, it meant that they were going somewhere. Could have been the dentist, could have been the grocery store, could have been work, whatever. It didn't matter. They were going somewhere. And I wanted to do that, too.
My Grandma McCormack never drove a car. Whenever she had to go (or wanted to go) somewhere, the bus was her ride. She lived less than a block away, so she was at our house often. I'm guessing that she must have noticed that I closely watched buses going past the house, and, knowing that she rode, I must have asked her about what it was like. One time after church, she asked if I wanted to take a bus ride with her. You didn't exactly have to twist my arm.
When we were ready to set out on our adventure, we walked over to Lankershim Blvd to wait for one of these to show up:
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| 1950s-era General Motors "old look" bus (RTD 2100 series). Photo by Southern Cal Transit Fans Facebook group |
In those days, RTD served Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino Counties. The entire RTD service area was broken into fare zones. The fare structure was 30¢ to ride through the first two zones, and 8¢ for each zone beyond that. A trip to downtown Los Angeles was 54¢—two initial zones plus three more. (Interesting because that 54¢ in 1965 works out to $4.32 today; today's fare of $1.75 works out to only 22¢ in 1965.) So much for adjusting for inflation...
Anyway, Grandma and I had a good time in downtown L.A. We ate lunch at Clifton's Cafeteria, walked along Hill Street, and I was able to see Angel's Flight operating among what little was left on Bunker Hill. (This was during Bunker Hill's renovation from the late '60s into the mid-'70s.) I asked Grandma if we could ride it, but she said in her soft-but-firm Texas accent, "Well, no. I don't think it's safe." Maybe she thought it was some sort of amusement park ride. Who knows? But that was interesting because despite the accidents that Angel's Flight has had since reopening in 1996 a half-block down Hill Street from its original location, it operated from 1901 till 1969 accident-free. Maybe being closed and moved a half-block did something to it. You never know...
Grandma and I took many bus rides over the years, even riding some of RTD's newer buses. One time we caught a ride on one of these:
This type of bus (RTD 6000 series) had a different type of engine from previous buses they had. It was a Cummins diesel engine that sounded like a semi-trailer truck, which was unlike anything that MTA/RTD had ever ordered. Grandma commented that it sounded "like a tiger roaring." Sometimes the things that get caught in your memory are funny.
A few years later, when I started going to Sun Valley Jr High, we had the 6000-series buses to take us home. A few weeks later, though, we got out of class and found these:
We didn't notice anything different till we climbed aboard. The seats were dark brown and orange, not light green. The interior was a light tan, not dark green. One of the kids commented, "Hey, this is a new bus!" And honestly, it was one of RTD's newest ones. I noticed that the bus number was 71xx. We always had ones numbered 60xx. (I thought that the new 1971 model buses had 71xx numbers because of the year. My theory went out the window when I realized that the 60xx numbered buses couldn't have been from 1960, and the GM old look buses numbered in the 2100s couldn't have been from 1921. They were too modern. Oh well.)
The rear window on the 7100s was partially obscured by some big thing at the top. Could have been some sort of oddball sheet metal tumor, but we learned that it was the air conditioning system. (You can see the top of it in the rear of the bus in the photo above.) Air conditioning on transit buses was a new concept in the mid-to-late '60s. But who cares? During my first week of junior high (fall 1971), the Los Angeles area was in a major heat wave that, by law, actually put us on a minimum school day. An air-conditioned ride home would have been a treat. Too bad those 7100s were still a while into the future. But at least they arrived.
Over the years as I got older, I ventured into Hollywood, downtown L.A., the far end of the San Fernando Valley, and other places and discovered different types of buses than I was used to seeing around North Hollywood. Who knew that there were so many different types within the same agency? Discovering this only fueled my interest even further. At one point, I kept a list of the buses I rode.
In 1975, RTD completely restructured the bus system in the San Fernando Valley and South Central Los Angeles. The idea was to have buses running on most major north/south and east/west streets, thus cutting down on the number of buses that riders needed to take. (Many of the RTD's previous routes were patterned after ancient streetcar routes and many made little to no sense. The so-called GRID systems fixed that problem to some extent. Rather than having bus lines that zigzagged randomly all over the place, lines were pretty much straight and only required one transfer if needed.)
Over the years, RTD acquired new equipment, added new routes, changed existing routes, deleted old routes, and eventually reintroducing something that hadn't been seen by folks in Los Angeles for an entire generation: light rail. We voted for its funding during the 1980s, and in 1990, it became a reality with the Blue Line between downtown Los Angeles and downtown Long Beach. The Blue Line was the rebirth of a former Pacific Electric line, following nearly the same route.
The 1990s brought the Red Line subway, which traveled from Union Station to Wilshire Blvd, then to Hollywood, and finally reaching North Hollywood by 2000. Additional light rail lines were also added, and to this day there are additional rail lines under construction or planned. Being a fan of trains, it's no surprise that once Metro started adding rail lines, I jumped right on board. To date, I've ridden every Metro rail line from end to end. With the $7 all-day pass loaded onto your TAP card, it's easy and affordable to spend the day exploring the city.
As SCRTD was created in 1964, the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission merged with SCRTD in 1993, creating the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA). Known as "Metro" for short, this agency handles both bus and rail transportation throughout its service area, which includes Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and parts of Ventura County (Source: Wikipedia).
For those who are interested in the various RTD/Metro buses used over the years, click here and check it out.
Throughout the years, 99% of my bus riding has been aboard SCRTD/Metro vehicles. Now and then I've taken a ride aboard a municipal system like Santa Monica's Big Blue Bus, or a local one like Thousand Oaks Transit.
A few years ago, I joined a Facebook group devoted to public transit in Southern California. It's a fun group, and they hold events where we can get together and ride the bus. Back in 2014, a bunch of us got together and rode all over downtown L.A., over the soon-to-be-demolished Sixth Street Bridge (read about my own adventure here). One member of the group owns a business where he rents out buses to TV studios for use in commercials, TV shows and movies. Recently, he held an open house at the yard where he stores those buses. It's in a rural area far from the city. We had a good time hanging out in the yard, cruising around the area, and even had our own "cruise night" to a local mall for dinner. Eight buses made that trip. I'm sure local motorists were wondering what was up because it's unusual to see a hodgepodge of buses traveling together. No two of the buses had the same paint scheme and were of very different types. (See the second picture below.) It was a bus gang terrorizing the city!
It was a fun day. There's nothing better than spending a day riding buses with a bunch of people who like buses as much as you do. For so many years, I thought I was some sort of a weirdo for liking something so...so off the beaten path. But I've learned that I'm not the only one out there. The chances are, no matter how "strange" a hobby or interest might be to you, there is very likely someone or a whole bunch of someones who like the same thing. You just have to keep your eyes and ears open to find them.
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| Angel's Flight car Sinai waiting for passengers at the bottom station on Hill Street. |
Grandma and I took many bus rides over the years, even riding some of RTD's newer buses. One time we caught a ride on one of these:
 |
| 1965 Flxible "new look" bus (RTD 6000 series). Photo by Southern Cal Transit Fans Facebook group |
This type of bus (RTD 6000 series) had a different type of engine from previous buses they had. It was a Cummins diesel engine that sounded like a semi-trailer truck, which was unlike anything that MTA/RTD had ever ordered. Grandma commented that it sounded "like a tiger roaring." Sometimes the things that get caught in your memory are funny.
A few years later, when I started going to Sun Valley Jr High, we had the 6000-series buses to take us home. A few weeks later, though, we got out of class and found these:
 |
| 1971 Flxible bus (RTD 7100 series). Photo by Southern Cal Transit Fans Facebook group |
We didn't notice anything different till we climbed aboard. The seats were dark brown and orange, not light green. The interior was a light tan, not dark green. One of the kids commented, "Hey, this is a new bus!" And honestly, it was one of RTD's newest ones. I noticed that the bus number was 71xx. We always had ones numbered 60xx. (I thought that the new 1971 model buses had 71xx numbers because of the year. My theory went out the window when I realized that the 60xx numbered buses couldn't have been from 1960, and the GM old look buses numbered in the 2100s couldn't have been from 1921. They were too modern. Oh well.)
The rear window on the 7100s was partially obscured by some big thing at the top. Could have been some sort of oddball sheet metal tumor, but we learned that it was the air conditioning system. (You can see the top of it in the rear of the bus in the photo above.) Air conditioning on transit buses was a new concept in the mid-to-late '60s. But who cares? During my first week of junior high (fall 1971), the Los Angeles area was in a major heat wave that, by law, actually put us on a minimum school day. An air-conditioned ride home would have been a treat. Too bad those 7100s were still a while into the future. But at least they arrived.
Over the years as I got older, I ventured into Hollywood, downtown L.A., the far end of the San Fernando Valley, and other places and discovered different types of buses than I was used to seeing around North Hollywood. Who knew that there were so many different types within the same agency? Discovering this only fueled my interest even further. At one point, I kept a list of the buses I rode.
In 1975, RTD completely restructured the bus system in the San Fernando Valley and South Central Los Angeles. The idea was to have buses running on most major north/south and east/west streets, thus cutting down on the number of buses that riders needed to take. (Many of the RTD's previous routes were patterned after ancient streetcar routes and many made little to no sense. The so-called GRID systems fixed that problem to some extent. Rather than having bus lines that zigzagged randomly all over the place, lines were pretty much straight and only required one transfer if needed.)
Over the years, RTD acquired new equipment, added new routes, changed existing routes, deleted old routes, and eventually reintroducing something that hadn't been seen by folks in Los Angeles for an entire generation: light rail. We voted for its funding during the 1980s, and in 1990, it became a reality with the Blue Line between downtown Los Angeles and downtown Long Beach. The Blue Line was the rebirth of a former Pacific Electric line, following nearly the same route.
The 1990s brought the Red Line subway, which traveled from Union Station to Wilshire Blvd, then to Hollywood, and finally reaching North Hollywood by 2000. Additional light rail lines were also added, and to this day there are additional rail lines under construction or planned. Being a fan of trains, it's no surprise that once Metro started adding rail lines, I jumped right on board. To date, I've ridden every Metro rail line from end to end. With the $7 all-day pass loaded onto your TAP card, it's easy and affordable to spend the day exploring the city.
As SCRTD was created in 1964, the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission merged with SCRTD in 1993, creating the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA). Known as "Metro" for short, this agency handles both bus and rail transportation throughout its service area, which includes Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and parts of Ventura County (Source: Wikipedia).
For those who are interested in the various RTD/Metro buses used over the years, click here and check it out.
Throughout the years, 99% of my bus riding has been aboard SCRTD/Metro vehicles. Now and then I've taken a ride aboard a municipal system like Santa Monica's Big Blue Bus, or a local one like Thousand Oaks Transit.
A few years ago, I joined a Facebook group devoted to public transit in Southern California. It's a fun group, and they hold events where we can get together and ride the bus. Back in 2014, a bunch of us got together and rode all over downtown L.A., over the soon-to-be-demolished Sixth Street Bridge (read about my own adventure here). One member of the group owns a business where he rents out buses to TV studios for use in commercials, TV shows and movies. Recently, he held an open house at the yard where he stores those buses. It's in a rural area far from the city. We had a good time hanging out in the yard, cruising around the area, and even had our own "cruise night" to a local mall for dinner. Eight buses made that trip. I'm sure local motorists were wondering what was up because it's unusual to see a hodgepodge of buses traveling together. No two of the buses had the same paint scheme and were of very different types. (See the second picture below.) It was a bus gang terrorizing the city!
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| Out at the end of the line waiting to head back to the yard. |
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| We rode old buses to the mall for dinner and back to the yard. Can you guess which bus I chose to ride to dinner? |
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| If you chose this classic Crown school bus, you guessed correctly. |
It was a fun day. There's nothing better than spending a day riding buses with a bunch of people who like buses as much as you do. For so many years, I thought I was some sort of a weirdo for liking something so...so off the beaten path. But I've learned that I'm not the only one out there. The chances are, no matter how "strange" a hobby or interest might be to you, there is very likely someone or a whole bunch of someones who like the same thing. You just have to keep your eyes and ears open to find them.
