The same giant red ‘R’ that greeted thousands of motorists every day from the top of the former Rainier Brewery made a reappearance yesterday as Sound Transit (ST) shared its progress restoring the historic landmark sign, which will live on through a ST public art project as the first letter of the word ‘Rail.’

The sign will appear on the side of the Link light rail operations and maintenance facility, located in the SODO neighborhood of Seattle on the site where the Rainier Brewery bottling plant formerly stood. Crafstpeople at Western Neon in SODO are helping to build the new sign. We’ll plug in the just-completed red neon that will illuminate the eight-foot-tall “R.” The maintenance and operations facility site includes a storage yard for light rail vehicles, a maintenance shop to service light rail vehicles, a shop for equipment that will maintain the light rail tracks, an operations control center, and a rail operations and dispatch area.