Nostalgia & History > Truck and PE Combine collision/Monrovia 1939

The collision between a UP freight train and a truck in Utah, which even got TV coverage on a Los Angeles TV station's 11 pm news (slow news night?) reminded me of photos my mother took back before I was born. TV was in its early experimental days, color film was new and way too expensive for most people, but Mama got out there with her folding Kodak 620 and recorded this mishap for the ages. This was at the 5th Ave. grade crossing on the Monrovia-Glendora line. The track was abandoned in 1951, and the whole scene is completely unrecognizable today.

1) The view from in front of the family home at 712 S. 5th in Monrovia. The combine pushed the wreckage into Arcadia. The house survived into the 21st Century, but a subsequent owner finally demolished all but a small fraction and built three residential units on the property.

2) PE 1373 was one of the "hand me down" combines from the SP Portland, Oregon electric operation, and ran on PE longer than it did "up north". It was repaired and put back into service; I saw it going by the house in 1949 or 50 as part of a deadheading Santa Anita race track special. It finally met its end at Kaiser Steel in 1951.

3) The trailer, which was torn away from the tractor, was a total loss, but the tractor and driver escaped serious injury or damage. One of the "oral traditions" about this event was that before what was left of the trailer was hauled away, some of the neighbors "salvaged" the canned food that the rig was carrying. The Great Depression hadn't completely disappeared, so a chance to do some unauthorized gathering of food was not to be missed.

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That's a Smart and Final (wholesale grocers) trailer. I know, because I've collected photos and information on their fleet as I own one of their tractors; a 1940 GMC which pulled these same trailers. Their entire fleet was GMC gas-powered tractors with GMC trailer chassis and Utility trailer bodies. Thier terminal was in Vernon, California.

Mark



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/03/12 17:42 by mwbridgwater.

Thanks for the info on the rig--I was shopping at the Smart & Final in Monrovia the other day, and took the opportunity to check out Gold Line progress. S & F used to have a store near the present version on Huntington Dr.--the old store was "cash and carry" but the new one takes plastic. And if you have a photo of your tractor, that would be a nice addition to this thread.

My dad was a motorman on the P.E. for a few years during the war and said he once hit a truck full of live chickens somewhere in LA or San Pedro. He said it was one of the eeriest accidents he had ever been around. Live, half-dead, and dead chickens everywhere!