Railroad Boosters on the Final A Line Run
The Railroad Boosters are captured by photographer Roy Finley in this June 30, 1946, image aboard Los Angeles Railway’s final A car southbound at 7th and Hill – at 4AM. In the image, from left to right: Ray Younghans, Jack Ferrier, Sotsdust O’Rielly, Wayne Melching, Ralph Shears, Phil Goldman, Jim Spencer, Robert Slocum, Carl Blaubach, Fred Hurst, Jack Hedden, Chard Walker, (and motorman D.F. Hutton).
Roy Finley Photo, Chard Walker Collection, Pacific Railroad Society Collection
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Sotsdust O’Reilly is aka L. T. Gotchy!
Looks like they were having a great time even at 4 in the morning. Not a sleeply face among them.
Note the route “A” to Adams and Alsace; this seemed to be a tradition with LARy, having the route designation match one or more of the streets the line ran on. “V” on Vernon and Vermont, “P” on Pico, “H” on Heliotrope, etc. By contrast, San Francisco Muni lines were in alphabetical order from opening day, thus among the surviving lines, we have “J”, which opened around 1915, “K”, “L” and “M”, which opened when (or shortly after) the Twin Peaks Tunnel opened in 1917, and “N”, which opened in 1928. The big exception is the “T” line, which opened just a few years ago, and runs on Third St.
The CA Railroad Commission made recommendations to LARY as to line reroutings along with the suggestion that the designation correspond to the major streets the lines ran over. This was smetime about the time of World War I, when the jitney bus craze severely impacted transit companies. The LARY line designations sometimes corresponded to the major streets the lines traveled over, but not always. Here they are:
A: Adams
B: Brooklyn Ave
C: (I don’t know)
D: (I don’t know)
E: Eagle Rock (later the 5 line)
F: Fourth St.
G: Griffin/Griffith
H: Heliotrope
I: First Street (or maybe the “I” was a “1”)
J: Jefferson
K: Don’t know
L: Los Angeles High School
M: Main/Moneta (later 7 & 8 lines)
N: Ninth St.
O: Ostrich Farm
P: Pico
Q: not assigned
R: Whitttier Blvd.
S: Seventh St.
T: Temple St.
U: University (USC)
V: Vermont/Vernon
W: Washington
X,Y,Z – not assigned
(Please make any corrections in case I missed one)
Hi. I am Wayne Melching’ s daughter (dad is pictured and named in the above pic of the railroad boosters). He, his brother Ralph and their mother were founding members of the club. I am writing about the early days of the club & would appreciate any info or references you can give me. Thanks
Diane – one of our team members will be in touch with you ASAP – Ed.