1543 at Slauson Junction
Alan Weeks Photo, Alan Weeks Collection
Metropolitan Transit Authority (ex-Pacific Electric) blimp no. 1543 pauses at Slauson Junction as part of southbound Long Beach Line service in this undated photo. Los Angeles City Hall is visible in the distance, looming over the former PE right-of-way.
Modified based on comment
Alan Weeks Photo, Alan Weeks Collection
An additional comment by Alan:
The only Red Car painted into the MTA paint scheme. Many narrow gauge cars and buses were painted that way.
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This car is preserved at Travel Town in Griffith Park.
When this photo was taken, this was an MTA car, not MCL.
MTA experimnted painting the car in MTA colors. Redid the inside too, only one done.
Can anyone provide any info on the signal located on Slauson avenue in the bottom right of the picture behind the white car? I have seen it several times over many years, and it always seemed odd and unique ( wooden post, fixed semaphore arm, one square lamp displaying yellow).
I just came across your question while researching another issue–6 years after you asked!
As Mr. Still remarked, the signal appears to be a Fixed Signal. I would add that it’s purpose
was to alert an approaching westward train, (moving toward Redondo Junction), on Santa Fe’s
Harbor District of the SP’s San Pedro Branch crossing, named “Nadeau” and was an automatic
interlocking. The rail crossing in the background of 1543 was also named “Nadeau’ however
this crossing was manually operated from the tower seen at the far left.
The distance between the two “Nadeau’s”, the manual one to the left the automatic one, to the right,
was shown to be 0.3Mi. in Santa Fe employee timetables of the time.
For Mr. Hunter’s question – this was an “Inoperative Approach Signal”. Refer to the Santa Fe Historical Society “Warbonnet”, third quarter 2014 issue for a more detailed description.
This photo was taken in October of 1960. I have a photo of 1543 taken within seconds of this one that shows the same people in the same places.