Ralph Cantos Collection

A Bleak Future Awaits

Posted on: May 22nd, 2013 by Pacific Electric No Comments

 

Ralph Cantos Collection

Ralph Cantos Collection

By Ralph Cantos

Like some animal or human being caught up in a slave labor situation, PE no. 5144 (now operated by "slave masters" Metropolitan Coach Lines) is beginning to show the effects of a 100% lack of cosmetic maintenance policy. It'’s the summer of 1954, and the once-lustrous red and orange paint on 5144 is starting to fade. The entire infrastructure of the once well maintained Pacific Electric Railway is now going completely to HELL, as evident by the condition of the right-of-way here at Gardner Jct.

Every piece of rolling stock on both the Southern and Western Districts was now on an "RTF" (run til failure) operational policy. If any Hollywood car or Blimp had any mayor mechanical or body calamity, its days as an operational vehicle were over! Only the PCCs on the Burbank line were given any type of body repair by the shop forces at the Toluca Yard "Central Maintenance Facility".

MCL's owner Jessie Haugh was Hell bent on destroying the last remnants of the once great Pacific Electric Railway. Try as he did, he could only scuttle the Western District. As hard as he tried, the Southern District held on under dire "maintenance" conditions. The final death blow to the Southern District was left to the first LAMTA.

After the abandonment of the Hollywood Blvd line in September of 1954, the service life of 5144 was over, with the front gate of National Metals & Steel on Terminal Island awaiting the arrival of 5144 and about 100 of its sister Hollywood cars. Only a hand full of Hollywoods still in service on the Glendale - Burbank and Watts lines remained in service. By the end of 1960, the days of most of those remaining Hollywood cars was over too.

Traction and the Enemy

Posted on: May 14th, 2013 by Pacific Electric 4 Comments

 

Ralph Cantos Collection

Ralph Cantos Collection

By Ralph Cantos

Pacific Electric car no. 5144 sparkles in the mid-day sun on this very sad day, May 31, 1953. This is the last day of rail service along Santa Monica Blvd. east of Fairfax Ave.

As evident by the billboard on the corner of Santa Monica and La Cienega Blvds. touting the 1953 Plymouth with NEW HY-DRIVE transmission, and the 1953 Mercury Monterey convertible racing no. 5144, times for traction lines all over America are only going to get worse, and it did!

Soon after the the Santa Monica Bl line abandonment, the #5144 would operate on the Hollywood Blvd, line for about another year. By the end of 1954, no. 5144 was in "dead storage" at Torrance Shops. By 1956, this beautiful Hollywood car, with years of productive service life left in its car body, would find its way to Terminal Island and be stacked like fire wood with almost 100 other sister Hollywood cars.

Ralph Cantos Collection

Deluxe Cars of the LARy

Posted on: May 13th, 2013 by Pacific Electric 4 Comments

 

Ralph Cantos Collection

Ralph Cantos Collection

By Ralph Cantos

By 1929, the Los Angeles Railway was desperate for a fare increase. The PUC granted a 2-cent fare increase on the provision that the LARy improve the "Spartan accommodations" of the "interurban cars" used on the LARY E line.

Running from Eagle Rock on the north to Hawthorne on the south, the E line was almost 20 miles long. It was the longest on the LARy. Running time was almost 2 hours from end to end. The average operator could only make 2 round trips in an 8 hour day. The M line would later be changed to become the 5 line; it was a real "bladder buster".

So to get the 2 cent fare increase, the LARY took 35 cars from the last order of H-4s, numbers 1416 to 1450, and put them through South Park Shops. When the first car, no. 1444, emerged from the rebuilding in 1929, several improvements were very apparent. The former open end sections were enclosed with brass sash windows. Interiors of the cars were given new improvements as well. The old wood slat seats were replaced with soft leather walk over seats. New interior lighting over each seat was placed in a smooth white headliner.

To make sure that the traveling public would recognized the improved DELUXE CARS, the 35 cars were given a new attractive green and cream paint scheme with gold pin striping. The car numbers were and LARy logo were also in gold paint. The roof was painted silver. The first cars to be rebuilt came out of the rebuilding with the standard slat roof mounted route sign.

Soon however, the rebuilt cars were given a new recessed Hunter roller sign box. The rebuilt cars were now classified as H-3....

Los Angeles transportation historian Wally Shilder found a short 16mm real estate promotional film from 1931 which showed DELUXE CAR no. 1449 passing the camera. No color photos of the green and cream H-3 cars were known to have been taken. So, ERHA-SC president and computer wiz John Heller took a single frame of the film and Photoshopped it with the resulting beautiful image. The green paint job lasted only about 5 years. By 1935, all the H-3s had been repainted back into the standard yellow and brown LARY paint job.

Ralph Cantos Collection

Big Bertha to the Rescue

Posted on: May 12th, 2013 by Pacific Electric No Comments

 

Bill Volkmer Collection, Ralph Cantos Collection

Bill Volkmer Collection, Ralph Cantos Collection

From traction fan Bill Volkmer comes this interesting photo taken some time between the May 1955 rail abandonments and the end of the W line rail service in late 1956.

There is not much information that came with this photo, so traction expert Jeff Moreau filled in the information blanks.

The camera looks north along North Broadway at Avenue 20. Los Angeles Transit Lines car no. 1450 (working the post-1955 abandonments on the W line) is inbound to downtown Los Angeles. Another H-class car is just behind no. 1450, and a Big Bertha emergency truck is parked to the left right of no. 1450.

There must have been a fire situation nearby as the crew of the Bertha truck is in the process of setting up a "fire hose grass hopper" so the W line cars can proceed towards downtown, and Washington and Rimpau Blvds. The track heading to Lincoln Park has not been tended to as yet. The track turning to the left at this location was used to access the Division 3 car house. The overhead wire has already been removed, but the switch point is still in place, and probably in good working order.

LATL car no. 1450 would later finish its 35 years of service working the S line, and would be preserved at OERM, along with sister H-3 class car no. 1423.

Bill Volkmer Collection, Ralph Cantos Collection

LATL PCCs: Then and Now by Gary Starre

Posted on: April 24th, 2013 by Pacific Electric 2 Comments

 

Steve Crise and Ralph Cantos Collections

Steve Crise and Ralph Cantos Collections

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION ! Traction Fan Garry Starre did this very photo interesting comparison of what happens to PCCs after they left Los Angeles. Cars #3001, #3072, #3100, & #3165 have done very well in retirement at OERM. However, the 133 LA PCCs that were sold to Cairo, wound up in "PCC Death Camps" and were turned into "Rolling Zombies"....

Steve Crise and Ralph Cantos Collections

Los Angeles Transit Lines PCCs in Cairo, Egypt, 1972

Posted on: April 23rd, 2013 by Pacific Electric 1 Comment

 

Ralph Cantos Collection

Ralph Cantos Collection

In this 1972 view, one of LA's once beautiful PCCs shows the terrible effects of three years of battle on the mean streets of Cairo. As the years passed, more and more of the cars would succumb to fatal injuries, until none were left. By 1981 it was all over for the PCC street fighters.

Ralph Cantos Collection

3148 on Standard Gauge Trucks on the Long Beach Line

Posted on: April 15th, 2013 by Pacific Electric 2 Comments

 

Ralph Cantos Collection

Ralph Cantos Collection

Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority PCC no. 3148 rests on standard gauge trucks at Fairbanks Yard in Long Beach, part of a demonstration tour showing PCCs on the still-popular Long Beach Line of the former Pacific Electric.

Ralph Cantos Collection

Ralph Cantos Collection

From Ralph Cantos:

LAMTA PCC "WHITE WASH" #3148 at Fairbanks Yard, Long Beach: For about 10 days in February 1960, the LAMTA pulled a publicity stunt by operating PCC #3148 up and down the Long Beach Line. The #3148 rode on a set of borrowed San Francisco Muni standard gauge trucks from MUNI PCC #1024. The MTA was hoping to give the traveling public that rode the beloved 50 year old RED CARS the impression that they wanted to retain rail service on the line. Even though the the BLIMPS were beat to HELL from years of deferred "maintenance", the passengers that used the line wanted rail service retained, be it with the ever spacious and trusty BLIMPS, or what ever rail car the MTA could come up with.

In truth, the MTA really didn't give a DAMN about retaining rail service along this very historic route. Even as these "tests" were going on, the MTA was drawing up plans and negotiating with General Motors to build 65 custom "new look" transit buses for the replacement motor coach service. Thirty five of the buses would have automatic transmissions for the local service, and thirty of the new buses would be stick shifts for the planned "Freeway Flyer" service.

The MTA knew that the displaced rail car passengers would not be pleased with standard city transit buses, no mater how new they were. So the MTA using its considerable clout, persuaded GM to build "special custom Los Angeles only" buses. The automatics would be numbered #5225 to #5255. The sticks shifts would be numbered #5500 to #5534. What made these bus so special is that on the out side they looked like the standard two door city transit bus. However, the interior was another matter. The displaced rail passengers would be treated to deluxe, all forward facing high back seats mounted on a raised floor. This type of interior was typically used on GM's up scale "suburban" type buses.

After all the "BS" the LAMTA spewed out to the the LA and Long Beach press about wanting to retain rail service, they set the abandonment date of April 9, 1961, proclaiming that the PE/SP would not renew the lease on the tracks and right of way. The MTA had the power to force the PE/SP to make the tracks available if they were really sincere about retaining rail service. BUT the LAMTA was created to do what Metropolitan Coach Lines and National City Lines could not do because of PUC intervention, and that was to do away with ALL rail transportation in Los Angeles. When the MTA finished off the the San Pedro / Watts and Long Beach lines, they went after the PCC operated rail lines R-S-J-V and P lines. And as good old Paul Harvey would always say, "And now you know the rest of the story".

Ralph Cantos Collection

A Picked-Over Pack of PCCs

Posted on: April 10th, 2013 by Pacific Electric No Comments

 

Ralph Cantos Collection

Ralph Cantos Collection

In this beautiful view taken from a private airplane, the camera looks down on Vernon Yard in the summer of 1964. Twenty-five air-electric PCCs have been removed from Vernon Yard for shipment to Chile, necessitating those in charge to move some of the PCCs from spots where they had been parked for storage on March 31, 1963. About 135 cars remained at this time.

From Ralph Cantos:

Soon, 133 of the cars will be shipped of to Cairo, 2 cars (the #3048 and the #3072) will be sold to private parties, one car (#3084) will be stripped for parts, as it had sustained moderate front end damage. The picked-over shell of #3084 was moved to OERM where it remains today as a storage shed. The last PCC to arrive at OERM for preservation was #3165. Recently, the #3072 came home to roost at Perris with sister cars #3001 / #3100 and the #3165. Ironically, the #3072 and the #3165 were the last two PCCs to be repainted into the LAMTA green paint job. The #3072 left the paint shop in February of 1962 and the #3165 in April of 1962 , and was "retired" just 11 months later. The remaining 133 beautiful, well maintained PCCs faced a bleak future in Cairo, Egypt. Once in Cairo, the cars were operated as battering rams by a bunch of suicidal "motor-morons" whose idea of the best way to stop a PCC was to ram it into anything that was stopped in front of it, more often then not , the rear end of another of LA's once beautiful PCCs . Within just a few years of "service" in Cairo , the once immaculate cars looked as though they had been through a demolition derby.

Ralph Cantos Collection

5010 on Brand Boulevard in 1948

Posted on: April 8th, 2013 by Pacific Electric 4 Comments

 

Ralph Cantos Collection

Ralph Cantos Collection

Pacific Electric no. 5010 poses with its front doors wide open, beckoning passengers to board America's most beautiful PCC.

From Ralph Cantos:

In this 1948 photo, PE's fleet of 30 PCCs have weathered the heavy demands of World War II in good shape . The PCCs , with help of the ever trusty Hollywood cars, came through with flying "colors" as seen by the beautiful condition of the 5010. While PE's Northern and Southern districts my have operated bigger and more glamorous interurbans such as the "Butterfly 12s", the Western district did its share for the war effort. The PCCs did the Pacific Electric proud!

Ralph Cantos Collection

3077 On Its Way to Chile

Posted on: April 8th, 2013 by Pacific Electric 1 Comment

 

Ralph Cantos Collection

Ralph Cantos Collection

Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority PCC 3077 (numbers and MTA emblem painted over) is loaded aboard a freighter that will take it to the far-off country of Chile in January of 1964. Once there, the motors were removed from the 3077 and twenty-four other LA PCC cars that would join the 3077 (a total of 25 were sold; 23 for "operation," 2 for parts).

From Ralph Cantos:

The cars were used to transport mine workers. The cars were fitted with drawbars , and pulled by small narrow gauge Diesel locomotives. All twenty-two of these once beautiful LA PCCs would eventually wind up being used as storage sheds. Most of the remaining LA PCCs would later be sold to Cairo where they would deteriorate into rolling heaps of junk, looking as if they were used in demolition derby, while in service.

Ralph Cantos Collection