NYC Acme Photo: RUNAWAY STREET CAR INJURED EIGHT
Notes on back of print: RUNAWAY STREET CAR INJURED EIGHT. Eight persons were injured when this street car careened down a steep hill out of control, in Los Angeles, Calif, Feb 8th, and left the tracks. Two automobiles were demolished, a sandwich stand demolished and a high tension wire pole snapped off by the car. Showering sparks were a threat of fire to nearby buildings. The car is shown above after the crash. Credit Line (Acme) 2/9/37 NY ACME PHOTO
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Well, magnetic brakes didn’t ALWAYS work. The car appears to be car number 4. According to Jim Walker’s “Yellow Cars of Los Angeles”, car 4 had previously been the LARY second number 22 and it ended its career as car 4. It was scrapped in 1937, probably as a result of this incident. The location appears to me to be the east end of the “I” line, First and Hill Streets. Jeff Moreau’s Los Angeles Railway Pictorial (1964) shows a photo at this location. The “I” track is offset to the south side of First Street rather than ending in the center of the street, and the Acme traffic signal is just to the north side of the track, as it also appears located in this photo. The Moreau book photo also shows the hamburger stand which car 4 took out in 1937. To further substantiate this estimate of the location, both the Moreau book as well as this photo show a dirt embankment on the opposite side of First St.