LARy 60 at the Monarch Hotel
Philipott and Baldridge Collection
Los Angeles Railway car no. 60 on D Line service waits in traffic for the signal change adjacent to the Monarch Hotel. This Bunker Hill scene is now completely gone, thanks to the redevelopment of the 1960s and ’70s, which destroyed the Bunker Hill neighborhood.
Learn more about the Monarch at the On Bunker Hill website here.
Philipott and Baldridge Collection
READ MORELARy 521 on the D Line
Philipott and Baldridge Collection
Los Angeles Railway streetcar no. 521 is loaded with passengers in this undated D Line image.
Philipott and Baldridge Collection
READ MORE525 A True Survivor
Ralph Cantos Collection
By Ralph Cantos
From rail fan friend Bill Volkmer, comes this nice photo of OERM’s narrow gauge darling car, no. 525, taking a breather at the Bonnie Brae & Beverly Boulevard terminal of the D line. The 525 is celebrating its 40th birthday, doing what it has done for 4 decades, that is, providing dependable service for whatever car line it was assigned to, on the vast LARY rail system.
In this case, the D line about a year before the lines abandonment in Aug of 1947.
So far, the #525 HAS dodged the scrappers torch. At one time, more then 750 Huntington Standards roamed the streets of Los Angeles. But with the arrival in 1937 of LARY’s beautiful shiny new PCCs , the retirement of hundreds of battle weary Standards began. Only World War II extended the lives of several hundred Standards, whose days were already numbered just before December 7, 1941.
When LATL bought out the operations of the LARY at the end of the War, the retirement and scrapping of the remaining Standards began again at a relentless pace. Standards were retired and scrapped by the hundreds after the big 1947 rail abandonments. A few “lucky” Standards like OERM’s no. 665 were bought up by 20th Century Fox Studios. 20th Century Fox bought a total of three Standards, the other two were “butchered” in an attempt to make them look like New York City streetcars for an unknown movie. After this “modification”, about the only thing recognizable of the 2 cars were their narrow GAUGE arch bar trucks . The #665 remained untouched.
By early 1950, the last remaining Standards were running out their time on the 2-man V line. By mid-1950, the last remaining Standards entered “Dead Storage” at DIVISION 1. In 1952, car no. 536 was given to the children of Los Angeles (the little brats) and placed on display at Travel Town. Car #521 went to Seashore Trolley Museum where it sits on static display to this day. And then there was ONE! The #525 was PURCHASED by the Southern California Division of the ERA, which later became today’s ERHA-SC. And so the 525 lives on in active retirement along with sister car 665, the last of their breed.
READ MORELARy Cars on Olive Street
Ralph Cantos Collection
Los Angeles Railway D Line Standards roll north and south on Olive Street, between 5th and 6th Streets, in 1923 downtown Los Angeles. In early 1925, 5th Street was extended west from Olive to Figueroa and the tracks on Olive were later removed.
Ralph Cantos Collection
READ MORE67 at 6th and St. Paul
Ralph Cantos Collection
Los Angeles Railway car no. 67 pauses for passengers at the safety zone at 6th Street and St. Paul on the D Line.
Ralph Cantos Collection
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