102 on 11th and Hill Streets Service

Pacific Electric Railway’s Birney no. 102 is captured at rest as part of “11th & Hill Streets” service in this undated photo.

Gordon Glattenberg Collection

Alan Weeks’ Pacific Electric Railway Northern & Southern District, 1950s

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1599503163855{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]By Alan Weeks

This is a mixed batch from the North, Downtown and the Southern Districts.

For years the Watts Local and Sierra Vista Local ran as one thru line from Sierra Vista to Watts. It did not go into the Main Street Elevated Station but ran instead on Main Street. On September 30, 1951 the complete North District passenger lines were substituted with bus lines. But before the Watts-Sierra Vista Line was broken in two lines when the track age on Main Street was abandoned. They then ran as two lines into the Main st. Station. The Watts line was abandoned in 1959 or so.

FOUR TRACKS
Northern District Four Tracks main Line branched off of the San Bernardino Line at Valley Junction about a mile North at Indian Village it turned into Four Tracks that went all the way to El Molino in San Marino. The Pasadena Oak Knoll Line branched off at the end of the Four Tracks.

Southern District 4 tracks started at 9th St. and Long Beach Blvd. Then they ran all the way South to Watts Junction.

NOTE:

# 325  The building the right side of the Street was the Main office of the Pacific Electric Railway / Southern Pacific Railroad. You can see where the tracks used to run through the building and out to the Elevated Station and connect with San Pedro Street. The Dispatchers had their Office on the East side of the building overlooking the elevated deck and could see all the trains coming and going.

# 342   This bit of trackage was left over from from the abandoned Alhambra-Temple City Line (abandoned in 1941 months before World War II.) It only ran a couple of miles east from the Sierra Vista Station. There was also an interchange track which connected to the Southern Pacific Railway El Paso Line.

Working on these pictures I took for the first time since I took them it really made The Pacific Electric Railway come back to life. The whole system came back into my memory. I don’t think we appreciated this wonderful system until we lost it.

Alan Weeks Photos and Collection[/vc_column_text][mk_gallery images=”14822,14823,14824,14825,14826,14827,14828,14829,14830,14831,14832,14833″ column=”4″ height=”300″ hover_scenarios=”slow_zoom” item_spacing=”10″ orderby=”title”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

A Freight Train With A View

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]By Steve Crise

Over the course of its existence, tens of thousands of photographs were shot of the Pacific Electric and its cars, stations, employees and right-of-ways. But perhaps the single most iconic photograph ever made of the system was that of Robert T. McVay’s famous shot of PE 1044 on the Newport – Balboa line in October of 1949. In a single frame, Robert managed to capture the dream of rapid transit in Southern California with the beautiful Pacific Ocean as a backdrop that seemingly suggests that the riders of this trolley have truly arrived in paradise, or at least a sandy earthly version of it.[/vc_column_text][mk_image src=”https://www.pacificelectric.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/rtmv_pe_1044-sm.jpg” image_size=”full”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1596641407617{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]While passenger service was very popular on this line in the early years of the PE, it was still the big, ugly, noisy freight trains that paid the bills for the PE as passenger traffic declined. As witnessed in this undated photograph by Donald Duke taken near the same spot where the 1044 had her portrait made, the crew of this train have a first class seat in the 15 mile ride along the ocean shore.

While the idyllic image of a quaint red trolley quietly rolling down the sun soaked sandy beach is a cherished image from a bygone era, Don’s photograph of Pacific Electric 1021diesel electric locomotive was the real breadwinner for the PE before, and for another decade after passenger service ended in 1940. But as you can imagine, sharing your beaches with freight trains was not everyone’s idea of a good time and by the mid 1950’s the freight trains were a thing of the past as well.

A close look at this photo shows that the trolley pole is not being used by the diesel locomotive to activate the crossings and signals along the line. This could be a clue that perhaps the trolley wire is already out of service and diesel-electric locomotives have now fully taken over the duties on this line scenic line.

Both the passenger and freight needs of the all the beach communities once served by the PE have, for well over a half a century, been provided by autos and trucks to the point of near gridlock. It is interesting to ponder the possibility of some sort of combined rail passenger and freight service to return to this corridor someday, but in what form would it take? It’s a wild thought to consider your future Amazon delivery made by a Pacific Electric RPO or Box Motor to say, Huntington Beach? Stranger things have happened.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Alan Weeks: Pasadena Short Line, 1951

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1596640299363{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]By Alan K. Weeks

# 749    Note square poles are original poles from first construction.
# 753    I had written on the back of the picture this was at Monterrey Rd & Fair Oaks. This was seventy years ago. Now I think it might have been Fair Oaks & Mission. If anyone knows please let me know. lol
# 756    The building to the left housed the PERY Ticket office. Quite often you could see a White type bus parked on the side street. It was a Motor Transit Lines bus used on the Pasadena to Pomona Line.
#757     The first car parked on the right side of the street was my first car a used 1934 Oldsmobile with a stick shift. It was built like a tank.
The Pasadena Short Line was abandoned September 30, 1951 along with the Sierra Madre and Glendora Lines. This ended all rail service on the Northern District.
# 757   My old car is parked on the right side of Fair Oaks in Pasadena. It took me everywhere I needed to go to build my complete collection of PERy photos. I saw a lot and learned a lot about the Southern California Streets and Neighborhoods.
# 753   I had asked if anyone remembered what street this was. ?  Much to my surprise my younger friend Paul Kakazu said my hunch that I miss labelled it was right. It was Mission St and not Monterrey Rd.
I can count on 99% percent of what I wrote on the back of my old prints is accurate. Thanks Paul for correcting the record.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][mk_gallery images=”14785,14786,14787,14788,14789,14790,14791,14792,14793,14794,14795,14796,14797,14798,14799,14800,14801,14802,14803,14804,14805,14806,14807,14808,14809″ height=”300″ hover_scenarios=”slow_zoom”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Alan Weeks: Pacific Electric Railway Chartered Fan Trip, February 22, 1953

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1596639386112{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]By Alan K. Weeks

Leaving revenue service we take a chartered fan trip. I can’t remember which club did the charter. When I see the huge amount of territory we covered in one day I wonder how we did it. It appears we covered the Van Nuys line, the Air Line, San Pedro Line and the Whittier Line. I failed to save the paper work.

File 254 Is our car crossing the West Turning Basin on the Bascule Bridge. This line was a short cut from Wilmington to San Pedro. The old line went a longer route from Wilmington to San Pedro Via the whole West Basin. During World War 2 the War Department made them keep the Bridge in the upright position all the duration of the war. They were afraid of Japanese bombing or sabotage. Had anything happened to the bridge when down it would have blocked all the war ships in the basin. Ironically around 1953 or 1954 a Tanker ship side swiped the hinge base of the bridge, knocking it off the hinges and it was stuck up rite for good. Years later it was removed completely.

File 257 This is inside the Butte St. Yard. This was an interchange yard between Southern Pacific, Santa Fe and Union Pacific and the Pacific Electric Railway.

5000 Class Cars were double ended PCCs made by Pullman Standard. They were delivered just before World War II. This was the last group of new cars ordered by the Pacific Electric Railway. They ran briefly on the Venice Short Line, and Hollywood Boulevard service. The rest of their life they ran on the Glendale Burbank Line.[/vc_column_text][mk_gallery images=”14768,14769,14770,14771,14772,14773,14774,14775,14776,14777,14778,14779,14780″ height=”300″ hover_scenarios=”slow_zoom”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

PE’s Glendale-Burbank Line: What Could Have Been

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1594495079848{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]By Ralph Cantos

History is full of “missed opportunities” both big and small. One such missed opportunity was Pacific Electric Railway’s Glendale-Burbank Line.

First of all, this modern PCC-operated rail line should HAVE NEVER  BEEN ABANDONED. Replacing this fantastic rail service with a meandering bus line whose route took it all over the damn place was ridiculous.

Printed brochures stating that the new “modern” bus service would follow the route of the abandoned rail line as closely as possible  could only be classified as a “JOKE.” Running time of the “modern air ride” bus service was 15 minutes longer than the abandoned rail service.

After rail service was abandoned, destruction and scrapping of the lines’ infrastructure commenced. The high grade rails down the center of
Brand Boulevard were paved over with almost indecent speed. Rails north of the lines crossing with the Southern Pacific at Richardson were pulled up quickly along Glen Oaks Boulevard.

The PE had high hopes of selling the 15-year-old Pullman Standard PCCs  to another transit system.  So, in anticipation of selling the PCCs, the outbound rails, substations, and overhead were kept intact all the way from the Subway Terminal to the Southern Pacific interchange at Glendale Station at Richardson.

By the mid 1950s, the used PCC market was flooded with hundreds of used postwar St. Louis Car Co. “all-electrics” from Detroit and the Twin Cities. Only Shaker Heights Rapid Transit showed any interest in these beautiful PE  prewar older air-electrics.

Shaker Heights chose the Twin Cities all-electrics instead. So by early 1957, with the Shaker Heights deal dead,  all remaining rails and overhead were scrapped. Aside from the rails on Brand Boulevard being paved over, the basic infrastructure of the line (less rails and overhead) was intact.

The remaining infrastructure of the Glendale-Burbank Line would have been  a PERFECT candidate for rebuilding into a modern light rail line. But it was not to be. The 15-year period  from about 1950 to 1965 was the darkest time for rail transit in America. Bus and petroleum companies had sold America a “bill of goods” regarding the superiority of rubber-tired transit over steel wheels on rails.

And so, beginning in 1959, the scrapping and destruction of the Glendale-Burbank Line began. The bridges over Fletcher Drive, Riverside Drive and the LA River were cut up and sold for scrap.

In mid-1972, the Allesandro Cut was destroyed for construction of the Glendale Freeway, a joke in itself. Then in 1974, construction of the Bonaventure Hotel cut into the PE Subway tunnel, destroying any possible reuse for rail transit. Most of the right-of-way from Fletcher Drive to the Riverside Drive crossing at Monte Sano was carved up and apartments built there.

And so, some 65 years after its abandonment, any hope and possibility of ever rebuilding the line has been “squashed” by greed, short-sightedness and just plain STUPIDITY.

Ralph Cantos Collection[/vc_column_text][mk_padding_divider][mk_image src=”https://www.pacificelectric.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/pe-5025-at-riverside-dr.jpg” image_size=”full” title=”Pacific Electric 5025 at Riverside Drive by Alan K. Weeks” desc=”This beautiful photo of #5025 and the #5024, were taken by master photographer Alan K. Weeks during the last month of the Glendale-Burbank. The excellent condition of track and equipment is clearly shown in these photos.”][mk_padding_divider][mk_image src=”https://www.pacificelectric.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/pe-riverside-dr.-bridge-monte-sano-substation-1959.jpg” image_size=”full” title=”Pacific Electric Railway’s Riverside Drive Bridge & Monte Sano Substation ,1959″ desc=”The steel bridge and concert abutments at Riverside Drive seen here just before being scrapped. The Monte Sano Substation is also visible. Today, apartment have taken the place of the bridge and right of way. Today there is NO TRACE that the PE was ever here.”][mk_padding_divider][mk_image src=”https://www.pacificelectric.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/pe-5029-at-fletcher-tressle.jpg” image_size=”full” title=”Pacific Electric 5029 at Fletcher Trestle”][mk_padding_divider][mk_image src=”https://www.pacificelectric.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/pe-5028-at-monte-sano.jpg” image_size=”full” title=”Pacific Electric 5028 at Monte Sano” desc=”The stop here at Monte Sano was an early “PARK & RIDE.“”][mk_padding_divider][mk_image src=”https://www.pacificelectric.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/pe-5005-in-the-allesandro-cut.jpg” image_size=”full” title=”Pacific Electric 5005 in the Allesandro Cut” desc=”After abandonment, the PE kept the outbound rails and overhead intact from the Subway to the Glendale Station SP-PE interchange. It was hoped by the PE that the PCCs could be operated under their own power to the SP interchange where they would be loaded aboard flatcars and sent on their way to a new home. It never happened and all rails and overhead were scrapped in mid-1957. Today, the Glendale Freeway has erased all traces of the PE on this part of the line.. Progress? I don’t think so. Alan K. Weeks photo.”][mk_padding_divider][mk_image src=”https://www.pacificelectric.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/pe-glendale-burbank-line-scrapping-near-atwater-2.jpg” image_size=”full” title=”Atwater District, Late 1957″ desc=”Outbound rails and overhead remain intact on the Glendale-Burbank Line in this early 1957 photo. This is in the Atwater District. Inbound rails are torn up. By this time, the PE had lost all hope for a quick sale of the PCCs and later that year, all rails, overhead and substations were scrapped.”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Pacific Electric 1033 at Terminal Island: Man made it, and man will destroy it

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]By Ralph Cantos

Through history, man-made objects of “industrial beauty” have come and gone. I have always been interested in just about all forms of transportation: propeller airliners, first-generation jet airliners, ocean liners, air ships, antique cars, trucks, buses, grand FOX Theaters, early streamlines (Union Pacific’s City Of Denver), historic buildings ( LA’s Richfield Building) , and of course, streetcars and interurbans.

Even to this day, it always pains me to see things of industrial beauty destroyed or scrapped. As a 12 year old in the mid-1950s, the sight of  beautiful Hollywood cars piled high at Terminal Island brought me to tears. I could not understand how something as beautiful as the Hollywood cars could be destroyed in that fashion.

But history is full of beautiful man-made objects whose time on earth eventually comes to an end, with the exception with such things as the Great Pyramids. For sure, they are historic, but I personally don’t consider them as things of beauty, but that’s just me.

This photo of Pacific Electric no. 1033 at Terminal Island was taken in the early months of 1951. The 1033 appears to be in perfect condition, ready for another day of dependable service, as it had done for almost 40 years on the PE.  But alas, it was not to be. Like PE’s fabulous  Butterfly 12s. the handsome 950s and the Hollywood cars, for one reason or another, time has run out.

Today, if a car like the 1033 were to become available in this condition,  any museum on planet Earth would mount an all-out financial campaign to save such a piece of transit history. The fact that the RMS Queen Mary survives today is nothing short of a miracle, when such other historic ocean lines like the RMS Aquitania were scrapped.  The Graf Zeppelin was scrapped simply because Hitler thought it was useless to his war effort.  And so it goes even to this day, a good example — the scrapping of LACMTA’s Blue Line cars, with decades of useful life left in them.

Ralph Cantos Collection[/vc_column_text][mk_image src=”https://www.pacificelectric.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/pe-1033-at-national-metals.jpg” image_size=”full” lightbox=”true” title=”1033 at National Metals” desc=”The 1033 heads up a string of almost 40 950s and 10s, most of them in perfect condition. Like LATL. the PE never sent “junk“ to scrap.”][mk_image src=”https://www.pacificelectric.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/pe-1014-at-t-i-1951.jpg” image_size=”full” lightbox=”true” title=”PE 1014 at Terminal Island, 1951″ desc=”And here is the end result of the “last run“ of PE 950s and 10s. Like LATL, the PE never sent “junk“ to scrap.”][mk_image src=”https://www.pacificelectric.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/richfield-building-1955.jpg” image_size=”full” lightbox=”true” title=”Richfield Building, 1955″ desc=”How in the HELL could the City Of LA let this beautiful building be destroyed, for a parking lot. What a bunch of crap!”][mk_image src=”https://www.pacificelectric.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/rms-aqutannia-1946.jpg” image_size=”full” lightbox=”true” title=”RMS Aquitania, 1946″ desc=”The RMS Aquitania out of service, late 1946. She was the last 4-funnel ocean liner.”][mk_image src=”https://www.pacificelectric.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/up-city-of-san-fransisco-display.jpg” image_size=”full” lightbox=”true” title=”UP City of Denver and City of San Francisco, gone after only about 15 years of service.”][mk_image src=”https://www.pacificelectric.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/convair-990-jet.jpg” image_size=”full” lightbox=”true” title=”CONVAIR 990 Super Jet” desc=”CONVAIR 990 Super Jet. Only 37 built, this is the only one saved.”][mk_image src=”https://www.pacificelectric.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/graf-zepalin-at-la-1927-3.jpg” image_size=”full” lightbox=”true” title=”Graf Zeppelin at Los Angeles, 1929″ desc=”“THE GRAF“ at Los Angeles airport (Mines Field), 1929. She was scrapped 8 years later.”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

PE ‘s Hill Street Tunnel #2 – 1952: Oblivion awaits

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1591212694197{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]By Ralph Cantos

This photo, taken from the observation deck at LA City Hall, shows the south portal of PE’s Hill Street #2 just before it was demolished to make way for construction of the space age Hollywood Freeway and the Four Level Interchange.

Both tunnels #1 and #2 were built by the PE around 1909. The second twin tunnel to #1 was built around 1913 for automobile use by the City of Los Angeles.

Looking like some newly discovered archeological artifact from some prehistoric time, the south portal looks so out of place in this photo. Trackage along Hill Street was used by 3 lines: The Venice Short Line, the Hollywood Boulevard Line via Hill Street, and the Echo Park Line.

The Venice Short Line was abandoned on September 17, 1950, followed two weeks later on October 1, 1950 by the Hollywood and Echo Park lines using tracks north of The Subway Terminal surface yard, through Hill Street Tunnels #1 & #2 and out Sunset Blvd.

For the next three months, a lone Hollywood car made the daily franchise run the entire length of the Venice Short Line and Echo Park Lines.

It all came to an unceremonious end on the cold winter day of December 28, 1950. Both tunnels were abandoned. The rail portion of Tunnel #1 was reused for auto traffic until both tunnels were demolished in 1955 for the Bunker Hill redevelopment project.

However, Tunnel #2 would fare a little better. Construction of the Hollywood Freeway cut the tunnel in half. The south half was demolished, but the north half was reused for textbook storage by the Los Angeles Unified School District for almost 60 years, until mid-2014 when new development in that area destroyed the century old bore.

Today, no trace of either tunnel can be found.

The year 1950 marked the beginning of the end for the once great Pacific Electric. Just 11 years later, on April 9, 1961, the Pacific Electric was history in all respects. Slowly, but surely, almost all traces of the PE have been, or are being obliterated. It’s as though the PE was an embarrassment to Southern California and Los Angeles in particular.

And now, almost 60 years after the last PE passenger rail service was abandoned, “experts” are trying to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. Looking back at city politics in the early 1950s, all I can say is, “Here’s another fine mess they got us into.”

Ralph Cantos Collection[/vc_column_text][mk_image src=”https://www.pacificelectric.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/pe-695-at-temple-hill-sts-1946.jpg” image_size=”full” lightbox=”true” title=”Hill Street Tunnel #2 in better times.” desc=”Pacific Electric no. 695 at Temple & Hill Streets, 1946.” hover_image_overlay=”false”][mk_image src=”https://www.pacificelectric.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/pe-hill-st-tunnel-2-in-service.jpg” image_size=”full” lightbox=”true” title=”The north portal of tunnel #2 in service about 1946, and abandoned arount 1956.” hover_image_overlay=”false”][mk_image src=”https://www.pacificelectric.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/pe-752-at-santa-monica-12-28-50.jpg” image_size=”full” lightbox=”true” title=”It was a cold, overcast day on December 28, 1950 as franchise car no. 752 prepares to depart Santa Monica Station for the last time.” desc=”A new GM coach (no. 2744) sits almost defiant and smug next to the deposed 752. About a year after rail service ended, the historic station with its cozy waiting room , was bulldozed away. It was replaced by a lone, wind swept, bus stop bench. Experts called it “progress.“” hover_image_overlay=”false”][/vc_column][/vc_row]