Suydam PE 1630
Pacific Electric Railway Historical Society Collection
Suydam 1624 Orion Version, decorated for Pacific Electric no. 1630.
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I have the Orion version. Mine looks like it may have been kept in it’s original box by the previous owner and never used. It appears to be in brand new condition. It’s beautiful and I’m looking to find more of this Suydam/Orion PE Steeple Cab to add to my ever-growing collection. Having just one isn’t enough.
The PE “homebrew” freight motors were the mainstays on the Monrovia-Glendora Line. Until the Baldwin diesels took over around 1950, we’d usually see a 1619-class motor on the daily gravel train. One morning in 1950 I spotted 1621 and 1619 taking the Clyde Beatty Circus train to Arcadia. Some years earlier, my mother got a photo of 1624 going by our house–this is the one that is preserved at Orange Empire. One thing I never saw in Monrovia was two of these running in MU. If the train was heavy enough, they put a helper on the rear. This could have been because the track was so questionable that they didn’t want the concentrated weight of two on the head end. MU operation was common on the San Bernardino line.