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LA’s popular Angels Flight about to reach for heavens again

FILE - This Aug. 14, 1945 file photo shows the Angels Flight funicular seen in it's original location next to the 3rd Street Tunnel in downtown Los Angeles, Calif. The 298-foot funicular, closed since a 2013 derailment, is scheduled to reopen Thursday, Aug. 31, 2017, just in time to ferry thousands of holiday weekend visitors up and down downtown's steep Bunker Hill, something it first did on New Year's Eve 1901. (AP Photo) FILE - This Aug. 14, 1945 file photo shows the Angels Flight funicular seen in it's original location next to the 3rd Street Tunnel in downtown Los Angeles, Calif. The 298-foot funicular, closed since a 2013 derailment, is scheduled to reopen Thursday, Aug. 31, 2017, just in time to ferry thousands of holiday weekend visitors up and down downtown's steep Bunker Hill, something it first did on New Year's Eve 1901. (AP Photo)

By Associated Press August 31, 2017 1 min read

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Angels Flight, Los Angeles’ beloved little railroad, is ready to start reaching for the heavens again.

The colorful narrow-gauge railroad that carried Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling to the top of downtown L.A. in the movie “La La Land” is scheduled to reopen Thursday.

It’s been closed since a 2013 derailment.

Angels Flight opened on New Year’s Eve 1901.

Over the years it would ferry millions of riders from steep Bunker Hill’s Victorian mansions to shopping districts below.

It was closed in 1969 as the neighborhood underwent redevelopment.

High-rise offices, museums, luxury apartments and hotels now stand where the mansions used to be.

After reopening in 1996, Angels Flight was beset by periodic mechanical problems, including one that caused a fatal 2001 crash.

It’s being reopened now following extensive safety improvements.