1415 Box Motor
Mount Lowe Preservation Society Collection
Pacific Electric box motor no. 1415 emerges from the Strauss Bascule Bridge in the Southern District in this undated action shot.
Modified based on comments
Mount Lowe Preservation Society Collection
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Could the bridge in the background be the South Henry Ford Ave Bridge in Wilmington? If so this view may be looking south towards Terminal Island.
I agree it is the Henry Ford bridge but the view is looking north. The light and shadows are wrong for a southern shot.
The Henry Ford bridge I remember only had 1 track and shared the bridge deck with Henry Ford Ave. I think this is the Bascule bridge over the West Basin. Seen in this alternate view http://www.flickr.com/photos/metrolibraryarchive/3505907998/
This is in fact the Strauss Bascule Bridge! SP entered into a rental agreement with PE to use the bridge and the westerly track was electrified for PE. This was a two track bridge. In 1955 PE routed all San Pedro trains to the West Basin line due a ship collision with the bridge. The bridge was completely removed shortly thereafter.
– thanks, Ed! awesome info! – ed.
Hi Ed.
Great info! I would imagine that the incident of a ship colliding Ito a railrod bridge made some headlines in the papers. Do you know about year the the accident took place? I’d love do research this in the LA Times archive. – Steve Crise
Steve
I believe the ship collision took place in September of 1955. After inspection by the powers that be, the bridge was declared unsafe and removed within a short period of time. The single track that PE had to use on the bridge was always a bottleneck!