Nostalgia & History > A Bit Of Traction--PE, LATL

It is a windy partly cloudy cool day in Ritzville, WA with a high-low of 65-45. Here is some Traction from the Andy Goddard collection.

1. Pacific Electric blimp 314 and company on a Special iat San Pedro in the 1950's. Any extra info welcomed. Jerry Squier photo.
2. Pacific Electric MTA blimp 1520 at 6th and Main Station in the late 1950's. Any extra info welcomed. Jerry Squier photo.
3. Pacific Electric MTA blimp 1706 in LA or Perris, CA. looking good. Need location help. Andy Goddard collection.

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4. LATL streetcar car house in the 1950's. Any extra info welcomed. Jerry Squier photo.
5. LATL streetcar 2601 on the 7 Line on a possible Charter in the 1950's. Any extra info welcomed. Jerry Squier photo.
6. OT--Long Beach, CA Transit bus 4536 at Cherry and E. Anaheim in 1969. Any extra info welcomed. Ron Johnsen photo.

That's it for today. Hope everyone is having a great day. Thanks so much for looking!

Larry
Ritzville, WA 

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1 - Very nice scene featuring five car train headed by #314.  Auto parked by depot is a 1956 Plymouth.
2 - Definitely like this Main Station scene with PE #1520 and the GM Old Look.
3 - Passengers on Catalina Special were on their way to sun and fun.
5 - Scene appears to be late 1940's to early 1950's.
6 - #4536 is a GM Model TDH-4519 Blt 1965. Let's go for a ride!

Thanks for the historic traction photo posting.
Always enjoy and appreciate your work.

ALLEN

Lots of goodies today, Larry--especially No 2

No 1 is at PE's San Pedro station. The five car NRHS excursion has pulled down as far as possible without
blocking 6th St to allow a following one car train to unload its riders. A comparative newcomer, PE or it's
ancestor Los Angeles Interurban Railway, a joint Henry Huntington/Southern Pacific corporation, didn't arrive on
the scene until 1905. SP had been in town since acquiring the Los Angeles & San Pedro in 1874. The extreme
right side of the photo shows SP tracks that extended further south to, at one time, include a sizable yard and roundhouse.

 No 2 is a great illustration that reveals a lot of Los Angeles railroad history. We're at the rear of PE's 6th & Main station.
The 1520 is spotted at the extreme, compass west, end of track 8, where both tracks we see ended before entering the building.
The very last rail movement through the building was on New Years Day, 1950.  We are seeing the silhouette of a bus
while loading passengers from the main waiting room within the area once reserved for streetcars and interurbans only.
Directly above the 1520 we see the awning above the 2nd floor office that housed PE's "Back Tower" interlocking office.
(Yes. there once was a "Front Tower"; overlooking operations on Main St, located to the south of the concourse, above street
level.) From behind the canopied window we see in this photo the operator controlled all movements on the viaduct and ramp
eastward to San Pedro St where there were additional power operated switches governing movements to and from the viaduct.
Long before the advent of closed circuit television the "Back Tower" operator was in contact with a switchtender stationed at
the base of the viaduct at San Pedro street who responded to 'gong' signals sounded by approaching motormen to signal their
desired route; relaying the information to the 'tower' who lined the switches as traffic allowed.
Looking again at the photo, four floors above the green awning, on the 5th floor, behind those closed Venetian blinds sat the
offices of SP's Los Angeles Division train dispatchers controlling SP's track from San Luis Obispo to Yuma and, in later years
the Valley-Mountain dispatcher, formerly at Bakersfield  Truly, this building--owned since 1911 by SP played a major role in
Southern California railroad history. I may have those DS districts wrong; readers feel free to correct.
EDIT: Well, it only took me 5 days to catch this error---the 1520 is standing at the end of Tk 8, not 9. Nos 9 & 10
were the very short stub tracks that went away with the construction of the Bus deck in 1942.

No 3 is on the PE's four-track main line between LA and Watts. That phone box on the pole may give us a clue as to location.
The pole is on the west side of the r-o-w and in the years of the photo, 1958-61, the only place where a dispatchers phone might
be required to obtain authority to occupy or report clear of the main track would be at the switch leading to the Wingfoot industrial
district located south of Slauson Jct, in the vicinity of 63rd St. Although we don't see the switch in the photo, this pole might be the 
closest candidate; the dirt leading south from the pole does seem to be well trodden. The 1706 does seem to be on an excursion--
the shadows say this was an early afternoon photo and normally the Catalina Specials would have passed here in the early
morning, sometime before 10.00 am, this to get the riders to the dock on time; also, ​too many people in the motorman's cab. 
That's my best guess.

No 4 at Georgia St car house, Division 4. Sometime before the 1955 idling of many of the H-Class cars. Do the open doors on these
cars tell us about their status? Different--I don't know.

No 5 Appears to be on S Broadway, just south of Century Blvd, on the '7-Line'. Lack of a uniformed motorman tells this was probably
another 'last run'. We do know that the "true" last run on the 7-Line was on May 5, 1955.

Charlie
 




 
 
  

  



 



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 05/27/23 12:09 by cewherry.

Thanks Allen for your as always interesting reviews, auto makes and year built and bus model and year built. Your reviews are always fun. Thanks Charlie for your extented class room with so many fascinating tidbits of interesting information Lots of hard detective work. Very much appreciated to you both!

Larry



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/22/23 19:33 by Ritzville.