Last weekend, a group of about 20 people chatted and drank wine on the sidewalk outside a small but packed gallery on Wilshire Boulevard. Inside, there was a display of black-and-white photographs ...

If a subway would work anywhere in modern Los Angeles, conventional wisdom said, it was along Wilshire Boulevard.

But for decades, San Dimas — now a suburban foothill community of around 33,000 residents — has been a railroad town without any train service. Southern California’s once expansive Pacific Electric ...