Subway Terminal Tunnel Uncovered, 1970

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1643759070861{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]By Steve Crise

During the construction of architect John Portman’s 1976 futuristic Bonaventure Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, California, a large portion of the Pacific Electric’s Subway Terminal tunnel was exposed and filled in to accommodate the foundation for the new hotel. In this July 1970 view, we are looking north from 5th Street where construction crews have uncovered a large section of the tunnel. Several hundred feet of the Subway Tunnel will eventually be removed for this construction project.

It is interesting to note that this 1970 project was not the first assault on the integrity of the Subway Tunnel. In 1967 the City of Los Angeles deemed the tunnel unsafe and wanted it to be filled in because they claimed that nothing could be built over it. This decision by the City was completely contradicted by the fact that in 1947, the Harbor Freeway which was constructed directly over the Subway Tunnel by the Army Corps of Engineers, did so without any additional bridge structures or caissons need for support.

In the background of this photo we can see the yet unfinished 4th Street Viaduct that borders the north end of the Hotels property with many of the wooden forms still in place waiting for the next pour of concrete.

Image provided by Pierre Romo from the archive of the LeRoy Crandall & Associates ©1970.[/vc_column_text][mk_padding_divider][mk_image src=”https://www.pacificelectric.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/lrca_pe_sub_tunnel-18.jpg” image_size=”full” lightbox=”true” hover_image_overlay=”false” align=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Pacific Electric Trailer

A truck trailer lettered for Pacific Electric is pictured here in an undated, unidentified location. Except for the round P.E. logo in the upper left area of the trailer, it seems to be identical to the Southern Pacific and the Northwestern Pacific truck trailers. The Northwestern Pacific was also a SP subsidiary.

Steve Crise Collection

PE Cars on Hollywood Boulevard

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

PE’s “Hollywood Cars” were the dominant class of cars that operated along the famous boulevard until September of 1954.

But in this remarkable photograph taken around 1927, among the Hollywood cars is a lone 950, taking on passengers at Highland Avenue. That 950-class car was operating on the HOLLYWOOD-VENICE local line. From about 1918 until late 1928, wood cars of the 500 class handled most runs on that line, with 950s occasionally assigned to the service.

As more and more Hollywood cars were placed into service, the sight of a big 950- or 500-class cars began to diminish. By late 1928, all runs on the Hollywood-Venice were operated by Hollywood cars. Rail service to Venice was provided by the “Venice Short Line” and the Hollywood-Venice Line. Both lines started at the Subway Terminal. However, the running time for the Hollywood-Venice service took about 90 minutes as compared to the VSL running time of about 55 minutes. So, it came with little surprise that PE abandoned Hollywood-Venice rail service in mid-1940. For the next 14 years, the sight of a wood-bodied PE interurban on Hollywood Boulevard was usually a fan trip using a 950- or 1000-class car.

Every now and then, trolley wire greasier no. 00150 would appear on the boulevard, a sight truly to behold.

Ralph Cantos Collection[/vc_column_text][mk_padding_divider][mk_image src=”https://www.pacificelectric.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/pe-0015o-on-hollywood-bl.-1949.jpg” image_size=”full”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Riding the Heavy Iron on San Pedro Street

By Ralph Cantos

One picture is worth a thousand words. The extremely high track and overhead standards to which the City of Los Angeles imposed on the PE and LARY around 1918 is clearly in evidence in this 1949 photo taken at 7th & San Pedro Streets. The 431 has just crossed 7th St. heading south down San Pedro St. The 3′-6″ rails of the LATL S line turn west onto 7th St. joining the R and J lines. The beautiful tight overhead of the PE and LARY that spanned hundreds of streets in Los Angeles is undeniable in this photo.

The two long blocks along San Pedro St. with its dual gauge track, and PE / SP-style catenary, would be the last place in Los Angeles where the PE style catenary could be seen. That beautiful catenary was still being used by the LAMTA PCCs of the S line two years after the last PE Long Beach line trains passed beneath it.

In case anyone is interested, The Greyhound bus in this photo is a 1947 ACF IC-41 BRILL. The Greyhound Corporation was mostly a General Motors operation from about 1937 on. But after World War II, Greyhound needed more buses then General Motors could provide the company with. So, Greyhound “bit the bullet” and ordered several hundred “brand X” buses from other manufactures. Among them were the gasoline powered IC-41 interstate BRILL. These IC-41’s became known as “Suicide Seat Brills”. That’s because there was a single 2-passenger seat ahead of the front entrance door , just across the isle from the driver. When these buses were involved in serious highway accidents, the front of the bus was usually demolished killing the driver and the unlucky passengers seated just inches from the windshield. In their last years of service, passengers were not allowed to sit in that front seat.

Ralph Cantos Collection

The Maguire Family and Mount Lowe

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]From John Maguire comes this fascinating bit of family history and imagery from his personal collection.

Read on from his correspondence with us:

Hello,

I have a photo taken of one of the Mt Lowe cars taken by my Grandfather. Two of my Great Uncles were Mt Lowe Railway employees and both are shown in the photo — one is at the controls. Their Uncle (my Great-Great Uncle was an investor). I was wondering if someone could tell me where exactly on the line the photo was taken, also if any employee or investor records have survived?

…

Thank you for getting back to me.

First a bit of background.

My paternal Grandfather, Ira H.B. Maguire, who was born in 1876 in Ontario, Canada, passed in 1950 (before I was born). As a young man he had worked as a ‘boomer machinist’ for various railways in Canada, Mexico and the US including the Southern Pacific Railway and Santa Fe Railways in Arizona and California. By March 1902 he was working in the LA area (see attached employment record). His older brothers A.E. Wallis Maguire b. 1871 and James Harvey C Maguire b. 1873 were already living in California. Their Uncle Joseph Choate Maguire had also been living there (near Redlands) until his death in 1895.

My late father had told me that Wallis had invested in something called “the incline railway” in LA after marrying his late Uncle Joseph’s much younger widow. Eventually Wallis lost most of her inheritance when the project went under. I had always assumed this was a sort of electric tram right in LA that maybe took paying pedestrians up a small incline just as I have seen in Europe (eg. Zagreb, Croatia). Over the years I had talked to Dad about the story but he could tell me no more. Neither of us had ever been to California.

When my Dad’s elder brother passed in 2006 we inherited a box of old photos that had been my Grandpa Ira’s. Last year while working on our family tree I started to go through the box which contains photos of Ira’s time in Arizona and California mostly from the 1901-02 period (some are dated). In amongst them, I found this small snapshot of what looked to me like a trolley car – no caption (see first attachment).

I believe my Grandfather would have taken this photo. Comparing the photo with other photos of J. Harvey and Wallis, it is clear to me that the conductor (the only person in the photo who is actually looking at the camera) is indeed my Uncle Harvey. Moreover, the tall man standing on the ground just in the front with his left arm holding the rail appears to be my other Great Uncle Wallis.

Then I discovered a few other things. Echo Mt was listed as Harvey’s address on the marriage licence when he married a Canadian woman in 1898. Echo Mt was also the site for their wedding.

Also in Jan 1900 the US Census was showing both Wallis and Harvey’s occupations as “Electric RR Conductor”. That census lists their residence as Pasadena but the Census index states the location as Echo Mt. Other persons on the page seem to be involved in the same endeavours.

Harvey next makes an appearance in the records in 1906 when he is appointed Postmaster at Echo Mountain but by 1910 he is living in Nome, Alaska — a late Goldrush entrant. The same (1910) census shows that Wallis was by that date a Fruit Farm owner living in Santa Ana Ward 3, Orange, California. So both brothers are clearly ‘out’ of the Railway’s employ by that date.

Then I started googling the terms “Echo Mountain” and “incline railway” and at eventually discovered that there had been a Mount Lowe Railway established in the Mount Echo area in the right time frame and that this was possibly the incline railway my father had told me about. I eventually made my way to your webpage, and I now see there is also a photo of a car #9 although that one seems to have no canopy?

So that is the background. I have enclosed the photo of the trolley car, the census page, marriage references, postmaster reference and the employment record that puts my Grandfather Ira in LA in 1902.

So, I have a few questions I was hoping you might help with:

1. Can you confirm that this is a photo of one of the cars that was actually in use by the Mount Lowe Railway?
2. If yes, when approximately would this car have been in service and where on the rail line route do you think the photo was taken? Could it be 1902?
4. Do you know if any employee records survived?
5. Do you know if any lists of investors exists?

Thank you for any assistance you may be able to provide! I am attending a wedding in Palm Springs in June and plan to rent a car and take a drive to Echo Mountain to hike the ruins. Confirming my family connection to the site would be wonderful so any help you can provide would be much appreciated.

…

Wallis had originally come to the US in order to fight in the Spanish American War. His naturalization papers indicate that he crossed the border (Kootenay River) by row-boat at Jennings, Montana in 1898. He had been at Fort Steele, British Columbia (presumably hoping to cash in on that town’s mineral rush of 1897). Wallis later served in the Philippines Campaign with Co B of the 1st Regiment of the Washington State Infantry. His service medals are in my possession.

Harvey did not strike it rich in Nome Alaska. However, he stayed on in Alaska for many years to teach school and study native bird life. He sent a couple of small ivory Inuit sculptures to his brother Ira’s children which are still in our possession.

Wallis and his wife Emma had no children and died at Glendale in 1942. Harvey had one son (James) but James died without issue so neither man have any living descendants. I am including larger photos of both men.

A few weeks ago I was over at my mother’s house and was looking at my Grandfather Ira’s collection of spoons from each place he worked. There is one for LA. The spoon handle is a set of Railway tracks — and yes in small print it reads Mt Lowe railway![/vc_column_text][mk_padding_divider][mk_gallery images=”14488,14490,14489,14491,14504″ column=”5″ disable_title=”true” orderby=”post__in”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

April 9, 1961: Morgan Yard

This scene from April 9, 1961 is next to Morgan Yard in Long Beach after the special train from Los Angeles had arrived. This was not only the last passenger train to Long Beach, but the last passenger run on what was once the vast Pacific Electric system.

In a prior post on this PERYHS site, Ralph Cantos noted that he, too, was “on the very last run [and] as we pulled into Long Beach at dawn, the track was lined with red flares in the dawn mist.” This view shows the scene he was describing. Another photographer was taking the same picture and can be seen ahead of the camera.

After the special passed the Watts car house, the remaining tower car pulled onto the line and closely followed it to Long Beach. Its work had come to a close, too, and after its arrival a significant amount of railroad equipment suddenly became obsolete.

After almost 59 years of operation, it is perhaps fitting that Henry Huntington’s first high speed interurban line was also the last to survive.

Stephen Dudley Photo and Collection

April 9, 1961: Main Street Station

The number of people at Main Street Station in Los Angeles continued to grow in the early morning hours of April 9, 1961.

A scheduled train to Long Beach (single car barely visible on the left) was set to leave at 2:16am. A special train awaited on the track to the right for what would be a “last run” departure. This picture was taken prior to the last inbound trip from Long Beach due in at 2:55am.

According to the May 1961 MTA Emblem (the employee magazine), numerous MTA employees were on board the inbound two-car train completing a final round trip ride from Los Angeles. The Emblem noted that last inbound train then departed at 3:45am. on what normally would have been the first run to Long Beach on the Sunday schedule.

Shortly thereafter the special last train got underway to the same destination. Also according to the Emblem, the next scheduled departure to Long Beach was at 5am — by a new Dreamliner bus that had arrived 15 minutes earlier on the first run north from Long Beach.

Without missing a beat, the rail service vanished.

Stephen Dudley Photo and Collection

April 8, 1961: Sunset at Fairbanks Yard

On April 8, 1961, the sun was setting not only over Fairbanks Yard, but for the last time on the Long Beach line. A few rail cars still on the line were completing the remaining scheduled runs, however these cars are dark as their useful lives had come to an end. The reflection on the
roofs of multiple new buses can be seen parked beside the shop — buses ready to start the replacement service the following morning.

Stephen Dudley Photo and Collection

A Trip to the Mount Lowe Ruins, June 8, 1958

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Stephen Dudley and his late father, Paul Dudley, decided to make a hike of the old Mount Lowe right-of-way and photograph their June 8, 1958, journey. These images are from that trip, and we gratefully thank Steve for sharing them with our readers.

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Last-Day Charter Northbound at Cota

Saturday, April 8, 1961, was the last full day of service on the Long Beach line and the Bay Area Electric Railroad Association charter running northbound had to pause for a red signal at Cota to await the clearance of an eastbound Union Pacific freight coming from the harbor.
Any time a Long Beach line train got caught by a freight, it could add five or more minutes to the schedule.   Not far north of the UP line, the tracks crossed Del Amo and it was then clear sailing past farm land until Dominguez Junction.
This area looks very different today.    While the UP route still exists, the  Blue Line now occupies this alignment and passes over the freight line on elevated tracks.   Immediately to the left,  the field is the site of the Blue Line shop and storage tracks.  There is just one car showing on the relatively new Long Beach Freeway.   And, past the bridge, the fields are now completely occupied by warehouses.
Stephen Dudley Image and Collection