Ralph Cantos Collection

By Ralph Cantos In this image, Pacific Electric Hollywood car no. 5064 departs the 6th & Main Street elevated station for Glendora. Time was running out for the Northern District by this [...]

By Ralph Cantos In the land of American traction, just four United States cities shared the distinction of having two different transit systems using the modern PCC. Those cities were Los [...]

By Ralph Cantos In all their years of service on the Pacific Electric Railway, only three of PE’s own 1200-class interurbans would retire prematurely. One San Berdoo 12, no. 1206, was [...]

By Ralph Cantos As was always the case on New Years Day on the PE, it was “all hands and cars on deck.” New Years Day 1940 was no exception. With the exception of the 100s (and, [...]

By Ralph Cantos Of the 165 PCCs that roamed the streets of Los Angeles, almost all of them served LA’s transit system in obscurity. But nine of the PCCs do stand out for one reason or [...]

By Ralph Cantos Pacific Electric PCC no. 5023 shows the the terrible effects of 4 years storage in the dank confines of PE’s Subway Terminal tunnel. Some of the cars looked somewhat better, [...]

By Ralph Cantos These two photos, taken about ten years and ten thousand miles apart, are remarkably similar in the fact that they both show the fantastic ability of PE’s Hollywood cars to [...]

By Ralph Cantos This beautiful photo of former Pacific Electric no. 754 was taken in late 1952. The 754 was the first Hollywood car to go into service in Buenos Aires. The photo was taken just [...]

By Ralph Cantos Pacific Electric Hollywood Car no. 717 heads up a 3-car train on New Years Day, 1949. The train is north bound on the Oak Knoll grade just below the Huntington Hotel and will soon [...]

By Ralph Cantos This beautiful photograph taken in November of 1927 shows a 2 car train of 950s with no. 955 on the head end. The occasion was the first test train over the newly completed [...]