Pasadena City Lines Token
Michael Patris Collection
Front and back of City of Pasadena transit token. Years of usage unknown. 7/8” diameter.
Michael Patris Collection
Michael Patris Collection
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Just found out these tokens were used from 1948 through the 1990’s and are not rare nor do they have much value… currently worth only about .25 cents each!
I think it was in 1968 that PCL was absorbed by the RTD. I remember going to the ex-PE bus garage off Arroyo Parkway and gathering a final set of timetables. PCL had about half a dozen “new look” buses that RTD adopted, the older coaches were, as I recall, just about worn out. Note that the original PCL was a National City Lines property, and bought PE’s local lines in 1941. I remember seeing the older buses (probably TDH 3610’s) running along Foothill Blvd. in Monrovia after the line expansion around 1947. This pointed up one of PE’s weak spots–to go from Monrovia to Pasadena by rail was a rather roundabout process. Some time around 1960 a local firm bought out the NCL interest in PCL. (this is from memory, somewhere I have a detailed document (possibly a PUC report) describing PCL as it was in the mid 1960’s.)
(some juicefans may this this interest in buses a bit odd, but in those days electric railways were ancient history in the LA area, and motor coaches were the only game in town.)
I’m with you Bob. I love PE rail history, bit PE bus history is also very interesting and PE had buses from the 1920s on – got hold of the “From Railways to Freeways” book, which chronicles the PE bus operations. Just found this on Pasadena City Lines and enjoyed the slideslow. Buses have been around so long that they are an interest category on their own or as an ancillary to rail transit history. Even OERM has several vintage buses.
Got a couple of these as change at the market on Friday. Glad to have a small bit of Pasadena history in my collection 🙂