Northern District

Ralph Cantos Collection

By Ralph Cantos

This 1942 photo taken at the Santa Anita Racetrack's "horse car spur" shows Pacific Electric cars nos. 1370, 1226, and 1237. The train had just arrived from 6th and Main Street Station. Shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 by the Japanese, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order no. 9066 in February.

When that order was sighed, thousands of Japanese Americans were "rounded up" along the West Coast of California. Many of them were taken to PE's 6th and Main Street Station where they boarded 3-car trains for a short trip to the Santa Anita Racetrack. At the track, temporary shelter was provided until they could be registered and identified. From here, they boarded an armada of buses — the majority, PE WHITE Motors model 798s — for the long trip to the Manzanar relocation camp to sit out the remainder of World War II.

The use of PE interurbans and buses for this purpose, was not one of the finest moments in PE's 50-year history. But World War II did provide the PE with some of its finest hours in that same 50-year history. Southern California would have been up the proverbial "creek without a paddle" had it not been for the PE and LARY's vast rail and bus system.

It was public transit's finest hour, never to be repeated after the war ended.

Ralph Cantos Collection

By Ralph Cantos

As was always the case on New Years Day on the PE, it was "all hands and cars on deck."

New Years Day 1940 was no exception. With the exception of the 100s (and, later, the PCCs), just about every class of PE's vast assortment of interurban and suburban cars put in an appearance on the Northern District to handle the deluge of passengers headed to the Rose Parade.

Even the trusty fixtures of the Venice Short Line, the handsome 950s, would head to Pasadena.

The Valley Sevens were no exception to the migration of "out-of-towers" called upon for Rose Parade duty. In this photo taken on New Years Day 1940, Western District no. 742 heads up a three-car train as it rolls along the Northern District's "4 track main line."

Compared to the other as-yet-to-be-modernized Hollywood cars (nos. 600 to 734), the Valley Sevens were real speedsters. As built, the Hollywood cars had a breathtaking top speed of 28 miles per hour. You would have to drive a wooden stake into the ground with fluttering white flag next to an unmodernized Hollywood car to see if it was actually moving. The Valley Sevens could clip along at brisk 45 mph, so the passengers aboard this train will arrive at the Rose Parade in record time.

This would be the Valley Sevens' final event in this configuration. All 15 Valley Sevens were modernized into the new "Butterfly" paint scheme in late 1940. The rest of the Hollywood cars were brought up to Valley Seven performance standards as part of the modernization program.

In later years, the 742 would become a fixture of the Northern District. With the September 1951 destruction of the Northern District by foolish freeway construction, the 742 and 27 of its sister Hollywood cars would head for Buenos Aires for further service where they would have a long and prosperous career.

Northern District passengers would have to settle for slow, pokey replacement bus service in the name of progress...yeah right!

Ralph Cantos Collection