Author Archives: cph

Southern California’s “Secret” Libraries – The Southern Regional Library Facility (SRLF) at UCLA

(An occasional series describing a less-well known library or archive in Southern California, and its relevance to transportation history) To be an effective transportation (or other kind of) historian, it is often necessary to access older documents in print or microfilm. Not everything is on the Internet (yet…) However,  old books and periodicals can be […]

From Los Angeles to the Inland Empire: A History of RTD Line #496

It used to be a lot easier to get from Los Angeles to Riverside or San Bernardino than it is now. RTD #496, and its predecessor #60 connected Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley with the Inland Empire. Just hop on the bus, and within a couple of hours, you’d be some sixty miles […]

French Dips, Diesel Smoke, and Student Loans

Everyone knows that the best French Dip sandwiches in LA are at either Phillipe’s or Cole’s, right? Maybe. But there existed a third French Dip restaurant of little-known historical significance. It was located in a large building at the southeast corner of Figueroa and Santa Barbara (now Martin Luther King), just south of Downtown. Probably […]