TRAVEL TALES : FLIGHT TO NOSTALGIA FOR A PITTANCE.

Byline: Carol Bidwell Daily News Staff Writer

What can you buy for a quarter? A few minutes on a parking meter? How about a ride into Los Angeles' history on what's billed as the world's shortest railway?

For 25 cents, you can take the same one-minute ride Angelenos took for the first time in 1901, when Col. J.W. Eddy, an engineer, opened Angels Flight, a two-car funicular railway that hauls passengers from Hill Street up steep Bunker Hill.

The railway was dismantled in 1969 and its pieces were locked away for 27 years while the city's redevelopment agency revitalized the Bunker Hill area. After a $4 million renovation, Angels Flight reopened in February, a half-block south of its original location.

In the 10 months since it began operating again, more than 500,000 people have ridden on Olivet and Sinai, the two 40-passenger cars. (Both cars have new undercarriages and Sinai has been modified to accommodate passengers in wheelchairs.)

For Yolanda Anaya of Montebello, who rode the downtown railway recently with her nephew, Gary Dominguez of Pico Rivera, the 315-foot ride - from the bustle of Hill Street, with its Grand Central Market and Fourth Street Red Line subway entrance, to the glass-sided skyscrapers of the California Plaza restaurant-and-office complex - was a nostalgia trip.

``This was here when I was a little girl,'' Anaya said. ``But this is the first time I've ever ridden it. It's really fun.''

It's not only Los Angeles-area residents who are enjoying the rebuilt Angels Flight.

``I had a customer from New York and he bought a lot of stuff,'' said Pauline Martinez, who sells Angels Flight souvenirs in California Plaza. ``People are really raving about it back there, I guess.''

And although the ride is fun for kids, it's the adults who seem to enjoy it the most, she said.

``They go up and down four or five times,'' Martinez said. ``They're more childish about it than the children.''

It was transportation, not fun, that Col. Eddy had in mind when he built the railway. The town's commercial district lay to the east, just below Bunker Hill, and some of the town's most prominent families - the Crockers and the Bradburys among them - had built elaborate Queen Anne and Eastlake mansions atop the hill. But the climb was a steep one, and Eddy's railway made the trip a breeze.

Construction began Aug. 2, 1901. Eddy designed the railway as a funicular, a railway with cars fitted with steel wheels that ride on a fixed guideway made of steel rails on an incline. The cars are attached to cables that pull the cars up the incline. Although the cables are powered by electricity, the cars counterbalance each other - one going up while the other goes down - reducing the amount of power needed to run the two-car system.

The Angels Flight cars operate on a three-rail track, sharing the center rail at the upper and lower portions of the incline. At the center of the run, the cars switch onto two sets of parallel tracks as they pass each other - with just a few inches to spare - halfway up the hill.

Angels Flight originally opened Dec. 31, 1901, a kind of New Year's Eve present to the city - and all those Bunker Hill nabobs who would no longer have to hoof it up the hill. More than 2,000 passengers rode the railway on its first day of operation, each paying a penny for a one-way ride.

The railway changed hands several times in its 95-year history; the city purchased it for $35,000 in 1962, just a few years before it was mothballed. When it was dismantled, each part was numbered, providing a blueprint for the system's eventual reconstruction. The system is now owned and operated by the nonprofit Angels Flight Railway Foundation.

It costs about $290,000 a year to run the railway system, but it would take about more than 1 million riders to pay the annual operating costs. So, the foundation relies on corporate and individual donations to keep things running, said John Welborne, foundation president.

There are no plans to increase the ticket price, he said.

``Angels Flight was a nickel for so long (from 1914 to 1969) that a quarter seems to be the modern equivalent of that,'' Welborne said. ``We could raise it to 50 cents, but that's a lot of money to some people. You take a family with three kids; they can ride up for $1.25 and back down for another $1.25. It's affordable, and we want to keep it that way.''

Bunker Hill's uphill climb

Angels Flight in Los Angeles runs up the side of Bunker Hill from Hill Street, between Third and Fourth streets. The cars operate from 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. Passengers pay their fares - 25 cents each way - at the California Plaza station, at the top of the hill. About 350 ``commuters'' who work in California Plaza offices use the cars to get to work each day; they pay $1 for five rides.

The Angels Flight Railway Foundation is negotiating with the plaza's new owners for space in one of the office buildings for an Angels Flight museum and gift shop. John Welborne, foundation president, said he hopes the museum can be open by mid-1997.

Information: [phone].

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Photo, Box

Photo: For 25 cents, passengers can ride Angels Flight from Hill Street up steep Bunker Hill. Opened in 1901, the railway was dismantled in 1969. After a $4 million renovation, it was reopened in February, a half-block south of its original location.

Box: Bunker Hill's uphill climb (See Text)