Ralph Cantos Collection

By Ralph Cantos

Pacific Electric car no. 5144 sparkles in the mid-day sun on this very sad day, May 31, 1953. This is the last day of rail service along Santa Monica Blvd. east of Fairfax Ave.

As evident by the billboard on the corner of Santa Monica and La Cienega Blvds. touting the 1953 Plymouth with NEW HY-DRIVE transmission, and the 1953 Mercury Monterey convertible racing no. 5144, times for traction lines all over America are only going to get worse, and it did!

Soon after the the Santa Monica Bl line abandonment, the #5144 would operate on the Hollywood Blvd, line for about another year. By the end of 1954, no. 5144 was in "dead storage" at Torrance Shops. By 1956, this beautiful Hollywood car, with years of productive service life left in its car body, would find its way to Terminal Island and be stacked like fire wood with almost 100 other sister Hollywood cars.

Ralph Cantos Collection

Ralph Cantos Collection

By Ralph Cantos

By 1929, the Los Angeles Railway was desperate for a fare increase. The PUC granted a 2-cent fare increase on the provision that the LARy improve the "Spartan accommodations" of the "interurban cars" used on the LARY E line.

Running from Eagle Rock on the north to Hawthorne on the south, the E line was almost 20 miles long. It was the longest on the LARy. Running time was almost 2 hours from end to end. The average operator could only make 2 round trips in an 8 hour day. The M line would later be changed to become the 5 line; it was a real "bladder buster".

So to get the 2 cent fare increase, the LARY took 35 cars from the last order of H-4s, numbers 1416 to 1450, and put them through South Park Shops. When the first car, no. 1444, emerged from the rebuilding in 1929, several improvements were very apparent. The former open end sections were enclosed with brass sash windows. Interiors of the cars were given new improvements as well. The old wood slat seats were replaced with soft leather walk over seats. New interior lighting over each seat was placed in a smooth white headliner.

To make sure that the traveling public would recognized the improved DELUXE CARS, the 35 cars were given a new attractive green and cream paint scheme with gold pin striping. The car numbers were and LARy logo were also in gold paint. The roof was painted silver. The first cars to be rebuilt came out of the rebuilding with the standard slat roof mounted route sign.

Soon however, the rebuilt cars were given a new recessed Hunter roller sign box. The rebuilt cars were now classified as H-3....

Los Angeles transportation historian Wally Shilder found a short 16mm real estate promotional film from 1931 which showed DELUXE CAR no. 1449 passing the camera. No color photos of the green and cream H-3 cars were known to have been taken. So, ERHA-SC president and computer wiz John Heller took a single frame of the film and Photoshopped it with the resulting beautiful image. The green paint job lasted only about 5 years. By 1935, all the H-3s had been repainted back into the standard yellow and brown LARY paint job.

Ralph Cantos Collection

Bill Volkmer Collection, Ralph Cantos Collection

From traction fan Bill Volkmer comes this interesting photo taken some time between the May 1955 rail abandonments and the end of the W line rail service in late 1956.

There is not much information that came with this photo, so traction expert Jeff Moreau filled in the information blanks.

The camera looks north along North Broadway at Avenue 20. Los Angeles Transit Lines car no. 1450 (working the post-1955 abandonments on the W line) is inbound to downtown Los Angeles. Another H-class car is just behind no. 1450, and a Big Bertha emergency truck is parked to the left right of no. 1450.

There must have been a fire situation nearby as the crew of the Bertha truck is in the process of setting up a "fire hose grass hopper" so the W line cars can proceed towards downtown, and Washington and Rimpau Blvds. The track heading to Lincoln Park has not been tended to as yet. The track turning to the left at this location was used to access the Division 3 car house. The overhead wire has already been removed, but the switch point is still in place, and probably in good working order.

LATL car no. 1450 would later finish its 35 years of service working the S line, and would be preserved at OERM, along with sister H-3 class car no. 1423.

Bill Volkmer Collection, Ralph Cantos Collection

Steve Crise and Ralph Cantos Collections

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION ! Traction Fan Garry Starre did this very photo interesting comparison of what happens to PCCs after they left Los Angeles. Cars #3001, #3072, #3100, & #3165 have done very well in retirement at OERM. However, the 133 LA PCCs that were sold to Cairo, wound up in "PCC Death Camps" and were turned into "Rolling Zombies"....

Steve Crise and Ralph Cantos Collections

Steve Crise Photo, Steve Crise Collection

Red Car California Fruits & Vegetables, a brand of Paul E. Stone, Grower and Shipper, Exeter, California.

Courtesy Beachwood Market, Hollywood, California.

Steve Crise Photo, Steve Crise Collection

Ralph Cantos Collection

In this 1972 view, one of LA's once beautiful PCCs shows the terrible effects of three years of battle on the mean streets of Cairo. As the years passed, more and more of the cars would succumb to fatal injuries, until none were left. By 1981 it was all over for the PCC street fighters.

Ralph Cantos Collection

Steve Crise Photo, Steve Crise Collection

Steve Crise of the Pacific Electric Railway Historical Society lead a group nighttime photography shoot at the Orange Empire Railway Museum on April 20, 2013. Here is his image of Los Angeles Transit Lines PCC no. 3100.

Steve Crise Photo, Steve Crise Collection

Steve Crise Photo, Steve Crise Collection

Steve Crise of the Pacific Electric Railway Historical Society lead a group nighttime photography shoot at the Orange Empire Railway Museum on April 20, 2013. Here is his image of Los Angeles Railway no. 525.

Steve Crise Photo, Steve Crise Collection

Ralph Cantos Collection

Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority PCC no. 3148 rests on standard gauge trucks at Fairbanks Yard in Long Beach, part of a demonstration tour showing PCCs on the still-popular Long Beach Line of the former Pacific Electric.

Ralph Cantos Collection

From Ralph Cantos:

LAMTA PCC "WHITE WASH" #3148 at Fairbanks Yard, Long Beach: For about 10 days in February 1960, the LAMTA pulled a publicity stunt by operating PCC #3148 up and down the Long Beach Line. The #3148 rode on a set of borrowed San Francisco Muni standard gauge trucks from MUNI PCC #1024. The MTA was hoping to give the traveling public that rode the beloved 50 year old RED CARS the impression that they wanted to retain rail service on the line. Even though the the BLIMPS were beat to HELL from years of deferred "maintenance", the passengers that used the line wanted rail service retained, be it with the ever spacious and trusty BLIMPS, or what ever rail car the MTA could come up with.

In truth, the MTA really didn't give a DAMN about retaining rail service along this very historic route. Even as these "tests" were going on, the MTA was drawing up plans and negotiating with General Motors to build 65 custom "new look" transit buses for the replacement motor coach service. Thirty five of the buses would have automatic transmissions for the local service, and thirty of the new buses would be stick shifts for the planned "Freeway Flyer" service.

The MTA knew that the displaced rail car passengers would not be pleased with standard city transit buses, no mater how new they were. So the MTA using its considerable clout, persuaded GM to build "special custom Los Angeles only" buses. The automatics would be numbered #5225 to #5255. The sticks shifts would be numbered #5500 to #5534. What made these bus so special is that on the out side they looked like the standard two door city transit bus. However, the interior was another matter. The displaced rail passengers would be treated to deluxe, all forward facing high back seats mounted on a raised floor. This type of interior was typically used on GM's up scale "suburban" type buses.

After all the "BS" the LAMTA spewed out to the the LA and Long Beach press about wanting to retain rail service, they set the abandonment date of April 9, 1961, proclaiming that the PE/SP would not renew the lease on the tracks and right of way. The MTA had the power to force the PE/SP to make the tracks available if they were really sincere about retaining rail service. BUT the LAMTA was created to do what Metropolitan Coach Lines and National City Lines could not do because of PUC intervention, and that was to do away with ALL rail transportation in Los Angeles. When the MTA finished off the the San Pedro / Watts and Long Beach lines, they went after the PCC operated rail lines R-S-J-V and P lines. And as good old Paul Harvey would always say, "And now you know the rest of the story".

Ralph Cantos Collection

Photo attributed to L. T. Gotchy, Jack Finn Collection

Pacific Electric car no. 1245 heads up a Special four-car consist as it meets up with a Special two-car consist lead by no. 1240 at Ganesha Junction in Pomona on Sunday, October 1, 1950.

Photo attributed to L. T. Gotchy, Jack Finn Collection