Angels Flight, scheduled to reopen on Labor Day after a four-year closure, is looking better than ever in these new images from Hunter Kerhart.

Improvements to the world's shortest railway include a new evacuation stairway which flanks the tracks.  The walkway required by the California Public Utilities Commission as a condition for reopening the beloved funicular.

Additionally, both boarding platforms and the twin vehicles - Sinai and Olivet - are receiving fresh paint jobs.

Despite its iconic status, Angels Flight has struggled to remain open during its 116-year lifetime.  Originally opened in 1901 to shuttle wealthy residents of Bunker Hill to the Downtown business district below, the funicular was shuttered prior to the urban renewal of the 1960s.  After 27 years in storage, the railway was reopened in 1996 a half-block south of its original location at the California Plaza complex.  In subsequent years, a series of accidents have resulted in multi-year closures, the most recent occuring in 2013.