How ANGELS Fly

Angels Flight

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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. The railway was closed on May 18, [17] [18] [19] when the Bunker Hill area underwent a controversial total redevelopment which destroyed and displaced a community of almost 22, 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.

Olive Street, Los Angeles.

At this location the Kastners maintained a private museum "The Bandstand". The Bandstand featured antique coin-operated musical instruments where one of the cars Sinai was on display in the museum. Olivet was stored in the garage of the building. They were stored at this location for 27 years at no charge in anticipation of the railway's restoration and reopening, which according to the city's Redevelopment Agency, was originally slated to take place within two years. After being stored for 27 years, the funicular was rebuilt and reopened by the newly formed Angels Flight Railway Foundation on February 24, , half a block south of the original site.

As rebuilt, the funicular was 91 meters 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. On February 1, , 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. 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.

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 that was the immediate cause of the accident since it effectively disconnected Sinai both from Olivet' s balancing load and from the service brake. There were emergency brakes that 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. 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 its ill fitted solenoid was burned out.

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 uphill, 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 uphill a short distance slackening the cable and then to roll back from gravity, jerking the cable tight. If the emergency brakes had been functional, 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 steel on one drawing and of AISI steel on a different drawing, but it is unlikely that this ambiguity in the design contributed to the accident. Continued testing could have resulted in an inspection to locate the cause of the unusual wear.

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. The death and injuries could have been avoided if any one of the following had taken place: On November 1, , both of the repaired and restored Angels Flight cars, Sinai and Olivet , were put back on their tracks and, on January 16, , testing began on the railway.

The new drive and safety system completely replaced the system which was the cause of the fatal accident. Like the original Angels Flight design and most traditional funicular systems, the new drive system incorporates a single main haulage cable, with one car attached to each end. Also like the original design, a second safety cable is utilized. To further enhance safety, unlike the original design, each car now has a rail brake system, as a backup to the main backup emergency brakes on each bull-wheel.

Another added safety feature is an independent evacuation motor to move the cars should the main motor fail for any reason. Angels Flight reopened to the public for riding on March 15, The local media covered the event with interest. The cost of a one-way ride at that time was 50 cents, 25 cents with TAP card.

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On June 10, , 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 fifteen-year-old wheels needed replacing. On September 5, , one car derailed near the middle of the guideway. One passenger was on board the derailed car, and five passengers were on board the other car.

How the Angels Fly Songtext

There were no injuries. Passengers had to be rescued from the cars by firefighters. The brake safety system had been bypassed with a small tree branch. The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause of the September 5, , accident was the intentional bypass of the funicular safety system with Angels Flight management knowledge; and Angels Flight management continuation of revenue operations despite prolonged, and repeated, unidentified system safety shutdowns. The NTSB also noted a problem with the basic design: The axles do not turn to follow the track, resulting in the wheel flanges grinding against the rail, causing excessive wheel wear.

This problem, combined with safety system problems which caused unwanted track brake deployment, resulted in a derailment. Plans to bring the railway back into service began in January These enhancements were made by ACS Infrastructure Development through an agreement with Angels Flight Railway Foundation in exchange for a share of the funicular's revenue over the next three decades.

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Angel's Flight reopened for public service on August 31, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For the Michael Connelly novel, see Angels Flight novel. Angels Flight Railway Sinai and Olivet. National Register of Historic Places.

The renovation had included installing track brakes or safety cables. The biennial oil analysis tests had not been discontinued in May 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.

But if the brake fluid had been changed as instructed in the maintenance manual, this would not have happened. The technician installing the solenoid had obtained a properly fitting part when discovering the solenoid did not properly fit the valve, instead of forcing it in with a tool the installed valve was a newer design, for which the older solenoid was dimensionally incompatible, and tool marks on the solenoid 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.

Archived from the original on September 16, Retrieved June 8, Cable Car Guy Blog. Archived from the original on March 22, Retrieved March 18, Retrieved September 6, National Transportation Safety Board. Prof Roger Wotton, from University College London, found that flight would be impossible for angels portrayed with arms and bird-like feathered wings. But if they do just glide, how are the wings folded, unfolded and held rigid?

Why Do Angels Fly?

Their power to capture the imagination is so strong that a survey last year revealed that most Americans believe in angels. The study by the Pew Forum on Religious and Public Life found that 68 per cent of the 36, adults polled thought that angels and demons were at work in the world. The reduced density of the bird skeleton provided a light but strong frame. But angels have normal-sized bodies and cherubs and putti are often given additional weight, portrayed as chubby babies with tiny wings.

They also lack the powerful muscles which allow birds to beat their wings. Fairies come under similar scrutiny in the paper - Angels, Putti, Dragons and Fairies: They are generally shown with insect wings, often those of damselfly or butterflies. Both insects have complex flight mechanisms with major muscles in the thorax, the chest region, which power the flapping of wings.

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