Nostalgia & History > "GOODBYE FOREVER OLD SWEETHEARTS AND PALS"

There are some dates that I always will remember and this is one of them,on March 31st 1963 the last streetcars and trolleybuses ran on the streets of Los Angeles.
On this day 43 years ago car 3002 was painted with the message "Goodbye Forever Old Sweethearts And Pals","So Long" and had a pair of tearful eyes painted on its face, at 6:01am car 3081 pulled into MTA's Georgia Street car house and at 6:26am car 3003,a private charter car pulled in and it was over.
Los Angeles didn't have room for trolleys any more, internal combustion had finally won.
It would be almost 30 years later that traction would return to LA.
While I love buses,I have always felt that the PCC car was the ultimate transit vehicle, I never rode the LA cars but I put many a mile on those rickety but lovable SF Muni PCC's and overall the PCC just beats any bus all to Hell and back.
In every way, the PCC is just superior, I miss riding them, I guess I will have to get back to SFO for a ride.
Here is a shot of LAMTA PCC #3114 at Vernon Yard terminal on the "V" line near the end of service.
Oddly enough, a copy of the 1964 Interurbans book "Die Day In L.A." that I got off eBay arrived in the mail today,what Karma.
Tom Helliwell

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CSX_ENG Wrote:
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> Huh?? Where does it say that???? I can't see it in
> the photo........


Different car; reread the post. The "goodbye" car was painted for the final day of PCC service in LA.

Sorry for the confusion, I didn't have a photo of the 3002.
Tom

Great photo!!!!!

90mac Wrote:
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> Sorry for the confusion, I didn't have a photo of
> the 3002.
> Tom

Tom, Here is 3002 on the last day of operations. I am not exactly sure of the location, but I think is is on Pico Boulevard, just south of the Harbor freeway. Sorry for the quality of the image but it needs a lot of Photoshop work that I don't have the time to do just now. Note the young railfan with the camera on the corner. I wonder if he still has the photo 40 plus years later?

Cheers,
Africansteam

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> Thanks for the photo of the "teardrop trolley".
The location looks to be e/b on Pico Blvd at Georgia St. right near the car house.
Tom

90mac Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Sorry for the confusion, I didn't have a photo
> of
> > the 3002.
> > Tom
>
> Tom, Here is 3002 on the last day of operations. I
> am not exactly sure of the location, but I think
> is is on Pico Boulevard, just south of the Harbor
> freeway. Sorry for the quality of the image but it
> needs a lot of Photoshop work that I don't have
> the time to do just now. Note the young railfan
> with the camera on the corner. I wonder if he
> still has the photo 40 plus years later?
>
> Cheers,
> Africansteam

Of many years ago, the photo I remember, it had tears under the eyes as big as 'horse terds'...

90mac Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> > Thanks for the photo of the "teardrop trolley".
> The location looks to be e/b on Pico Blvd at
> Georgia St. right near the car house.
> Tom

I thought it was close to the car house, but I wasn't sure.

Thanks,
Africansteam

Africansteam,

I hope I don't offend but I took the liberty of doing a quick color balance and corrections to your photo.

Enjoy...

Ray P.

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Growing up in Baltimore MD, I dont recall any 'teardrop' trollrys. I just hought thast the No 15 "oVERLEA" AND 13 And 6 wold be 'forever. Alas I never shot them...

90mac Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There are some dates that I always will remember
> and this is one of them,on March 31st 1963 the
> last streetcars and trolleybuses ran on the
> streets of Los Angeles.
> On this day 43 years ago car 3002 was painted with
> the message "Goodbye Forever Old Sweethearts And
> Pals","So Long" and had a pair of tearful eyes
> painted on its face, at 6:01am car 3081 pulled
> into MTA's Georgia Street car house and at 6:26am
> car 3003,a private charter car pulled in and it
> was over.
> Los Angeles didn't have room for trolleys any
> more, internal combustion had finally won.
> It would be almost 30 years later that traction
> would return to LA.
> While I love buses,I have always felt that the PCC
> car was the ultimate transit vehicle, I never rode
> the LA cars but I put many a mile on those rickety
> but lovable SF Muni PCC's and overall the PCC just
> beats any bus all to Hell and back.
> In every way, the PCC is just superior, I miss
> riding them, I guess I will have to get back to
> SFO for a ride.
> Here is a shot of LAMTA PCC #3114 at Vernon Yard
> terminal on the "V" line near the end of service.
> Oddly enough, a copy of the 1964 Interurbans book
> "Die Day In L.A." that I got off eBay arrived in
> the mail today,what Karma.
> Tom Helliwell

Yeah, there was nothing quite like rocketing through the Twin Peaks tunnel on a PCC. What a ride!

rjp3637 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Africansteam,
>
> I hope I don't offend but I took the liberty of
> doing a quick color balance and corrections to
> your photo.
>
> Enjoy...

Ray, No problem, but what caused the Chevy to the right (left in the photo) to appear out of focus?

Cheers,
Africansteam.

It's probably a resolution issue, if you have a higher resolution scan I think I could get better results. If you could scan it at 300 dpi and at least 1024x768 size it might work out better. I'll email you my address and I'll see what I can do.

Ray

africansteam Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> rjp3637 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Africansteam,
> >
> > I hope I don't offend but I took the liberty of
> > doing a quick color balance and corrections to
> > your photo.
> >
> > Enjoy...
>
> Ray, No problem, but what caused the Chevy to the
> right (left in the photo) to appear out of focus?
>
> Cheers,
> Africansteam.

3002 is long gone, but 3001, the very first LARy PCC was in service this weekend at Orange Empire Ry. Museum (Perris, CA), in its orginal LARy two-tone yellow paint job. 3165, the very last LA PCC is in the servicing area for maintenance; 15 years on the streets of Los Angeles, 40 years in the museum. And--sometime in the future--San Diego should have a pair of ex-Muni PCC's running around downtown.

And LA Made a bad mistake on that and that's why it's known as the freeway capital of the world. Wasn't until the Long Beech Blue Line in the late 80s started changing that!

The good news is the streetcar could make a come back in Los Angeles. A feasibility study just completed that looked at resurrecting the streetcar in downtown Los Angeles between the new "Times Square West"/Convention center and the area around Temple and First Streets. So far, there is universal support from all levels (community, city, and state). The project is entering a Project Definition Phase now I understand, which is the step preceding Environmental Review and Conceptual Engineering.

The tracks still exist under many of the streets, and the buildings along Broadway still have the catenary connections visible. Wouldn't take too much money to bring the cars back.

The Pentrex 'Pacific Electric/Los Angeles Streetcars' combo DVD has a lot of good footage of the last days of service, including shots of the sad-faced car.

RS