Nostalgia & History > A Bit Of Traction--PE, LARy SF,

It was a partly cloudy to cloudy day in Ritzville, WA with a high-low of 75-48 with a few drips. Here is a bit of Traction and some from the Andy Goddard collection.

1. Pacific Electric MTA blimp on a going away shot in the late 1950's. Need location help. Jerry Squier photo.
2. Pacific Electric MTA blimp rolling thru Long Beach, CA in the late 1950's. Any extrs info welcomed. Andy Goddard collection.
3. Pacific Electric MTA Hollywood car 1801 heading for Watts in the late 1950's. Any extrs info welcomed Jerry Squier phpto

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4. LARy streetcar 1411 at Los Angeles Union Station in the 1940's. Any extra info welcomed. Bob McVay photo.
5. San Francisco Muni PCC 1704 painted in St. Louis paint scheme near 30th and Church Sts. in 1983. Any extra info welcomed. Jack Garcia photo.
6. TTC(Toronto) streetcar involved in a car verses streetcar accident in the 1970's. Car didn't fair to well. Any extra info welcomed. Angus McIntyre photo.

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7. OT-- For Allen, Seattle, WA old look GM bus 229 on the 32 Line at 5th Ave and Pine in the 1970's. Any extra info welcomed. Ron Johnsen photo.
8. OT--San Francisco Muni White bus 061 on the 39 Coit Tower Line in the 1960's. Ron Johnsen photo.

That's it for today. Hope everyone has a great evening and tomorrow. Thanks so much for looking!

Larry
Ritzville, WA

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Thanks for more traction treasures.
Bob

#5.  The car is on 30th St. just east of Church.  This is now a double track street and the J line continues on to the BART Balboa Park Station across from the Geneva car barn.  #1704 is an ex-St. Louis PCC that was numbered 1128 by Muni, and then returned to its St. Louis number and colors for the 1983 Historic Trolley Festival.  It was sponsored by Anheuser-Busch, hence the signs on the front.   I believe the car is in storage now.

#5 streetview today.  Double track on 30th St up frm Church, but the same buildings in San Francisco.

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First photo is looking south at 16th St in Los Angeles where the PE's 4-Track main line is beginning its path to
access the entire Southern District of the railway. The Blimp we see here is on the outbound main, having cleared
the construction behind the camera of the overhead bridge of the Santa Monica Freeway. The presence of multiple
autos tells us this is a weekday. I wonder how many of those drivers had once taken a Red Car to work---a harbinger
of what, by this time, is obvious to the railway. What are those "Power Off" signs telling a motorman, Larry? Seems
the area behind, back into the construction zone, is where the overhead power has been "cut", not ahead.

No 2 is in Long Beach, looking southward--out to sea. The Blimp is proceeding eastward on Ocean Ave to the passenger
station between Pacific and Pine where it will officially begin its northward trip to downtown Los Angeles.

No 3 is at Slauson Jct, again on PE's 4-Track main. At the far right is Slauson Tower which controlled movements over the
Santa Fe's Harbor District main track as well as being one PE's three interlocking towers, the others being Amoco and Watts,
that controlled traffic between the beginning of the four-track operation at Olympic Blvd and Hooper Ave to Watts.
Those crossover rails in the foreground allow movement from the four mains to PE's Yorba Linda line. 

No 4 is the loop track at Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal. That's the Terminal Annex Post Office building in the background,
across Macy St. The two cars are wearing their Los Angeles Railway colors. Last rail service to the 'loop' here at LAUPT was, I believe,
1955 when the streetcars were replaced by trolley buses. Corrections welcome.

Charlie 

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/24/23 18:54 by cewherry.

1 - Very nice PE mainline scene with a lot to like; white and yellow auto on left is a 1957or8 Dodge.
2 - A very interesting scene; definitely remember S&H Green Stamps.
3 - #1801 certainly looks like it could really use some TLC.
5 - A nice residential scene featuring PCC #1704.
6 - Streetcar accident with auto has caused a traction traffic backup; truck looks up to the job of clearing scene.
7 - #229 is a GM Model TDH-5105 Built 1955 making a run through the heart of the city; 51 Passenger Old Looks were my favorite.
8 - #061 is a White Model 784 Built in 1938; still doing its duty.

Thanks for posting another traction treasure trove, and a special thanks for thinking of me.
Your work and time are always much appreciated.

ALLEN

Thanks Bob for your nice comments. Thanks HT6 for all your interesting info on the St. Louis PCC car.Thanks Railpax71 on the fascinationg up to date picture if Church St. Thanks Charlie for your comprehensive classroom on pictures #1-4. Lots of great tibits of interesting information. Power off and on was for passing brakers in the overhead and for operating switches in SF. Thanks Allen for your as always fascinating reviews, observations with auto makes and year built along with interesting bus information. Much appreciated to you all.

Larry

For being such a great epoch in some people’s memories, there sure is a lot of trash in the ROW in photo 1.

Thank you for the Union Station picture.  I have always wanted to see the former streetcar loop with streetcars.  If you have others, I'd really like to see them.  Thanks again for that picture and all the rest you post.

Thanks guys for your comments. I don't have any more Union Station photos, but I never know what Andy is going to send in the future.

Larry.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/25/23 10:15 by Ritzville.

agent1522 Wrote:
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> Thank you for the Union Station picture.  I have
> always wanted to see the former streetcar loop
> with streetcars.  If you have others, I'd really
> like to see them.  Thanks again for that picture
> and all the rest you post.

A source that has photos of the loop is: pacificelectric.org

On the home page you will see a very small magnifying glass icon at the right---beyond the word 'Collections'; click there.
Even though the name of the site implies Pacific Electric, there is a very strong presence of Los Angeles Railway images
available. Specifically, under the Los Angeles Railway heading click on the 'F' line where you'll see a couple of great images of
the loop. 

Charlie