Nostalgia & History > Another PE Oldie but Moldie

From 1948 in Los Angeles. Only notation on the slide was Amoco.

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Amoco was a station on the 4-track LA-Watts line. Photos show the interlocking tower atop a signal bridge. Junction with the Santa Monica Air Line.

LA folks: passenger service still ran in 1948, right? At least Watts-Sierra Vista trains, I'd guess.

Watts lasted until the end. Sierra Vista was pulled with the rest of the Northern District in 52.

PE motor 1625 was scrapped around 1956, but 1624 is preserved at Orange Empire Ry Museum. 1619 through 1631 were built by PE in their Torrance shops in the mid 1920's. Couldn't read the number on the PE homebrew flat-top caboose, but it's one of the 1960 series, and OERM has one of those, too. Passenger service (LA to Long Beach) quit in April 1961, returned in July 1990 in the form of Blue Line light rail. Three-car trains were a rush-hour-only sight in the PE days, now Metro runs three-car trains all day long. They even have two light-rail units painted in the 1940 PE color scheme!

(Stash and others - a reply from "espeedad" - a big P.E. nut)

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Ryan,

Please forward this to "Stash". To the best of my recollection, most
of the "Southern Corridor" lines were still in service back in 1948. In
addition to the Watts Local, passenger service still branched out from
the Watts junction to:

Long Beach
Santa Ana
Wilmington/San Pedro

There was also freight service on a portion of the old Newport Beach
line (which branched off the Long Beach line just north of PCH as well as
the line to El Segundo (Standard Oil refinery) and the branch line near
Western Ave. down to Torrance.

When the PE was sold to Metropolitan Coach Lines (MCL) in the early
50's, passenger service to Santa Ana was cut back to Bellflower &
passenger service to Wilmington & San Pedro was discontinued. With the
formation of the Metropolitan Transit Authority in 1958, passenger service to
Bellflower was discontinued. Finally, the remaining passenger service
on the Southern Corridor (Watts Local and the Long Beach line) was
discontinued in 1961.

I would like more info. on how SP obtained (or retained??) freight
service on the old PE right-of-ways. I know that SP owned PE, but I don't
know the details on the sale of passenger service to MCL. Did SP
retain right-of-way ownership?

Talk about your street running, I recall seeing SP switchers running
down the center of Santa Monica Blvd. all the way to the Lumber Yard and
Union Ice facility just east of Highland Ave. in Hollywood back in the
early 1970's. That was the eastern terminus of the switching activity
on what was originally the double track passenger line to Santa Monica
from downtown LA built the Los Angeles and Pacific Railway before the
formation of the "New PE" in 1911.

Take care,

Dad

The place where Florence Av. crossed the Four Tracks was one of my favorite places as a kid. The crossing was still flagged by guys who stayed in a small shed between trains. Most of the time when we approached the crossing there would be at least some big multi car interurbans rocketing by with their horns screeching and doing those weird breaks. But, the jackpot was pulling to a stop for a freight pulled by several juice jacks with their huge bells swinging. My mother would sigh and I'd just grin and take it all in as the trains slowly pulled by. Every so often they'd be overtaken by several Blimps tearing along. The through trains really "carried the mail" over that section, kicking up all kinds of dust and trash.

Ahh yes, Santa Monica Blvd in the south east corner of Hollywood. It was fun to amuse (scare?) my girlfriend by positioning my '53 Chevy panel truck on the rails and setting the (factory!) hand throttle, sitting back and folding my arms. It would even ride through thr switches fairly well.
...Lorenzo