Nostalgia & History > A Bit Of Traction--PE, LAMTA, SF, Pittsburgh, Boston, Phoenix

It was a cool cloudy breezy day in Ritzville, WA with a high-low of 50-42 with .05 of light rain. Here is a bit of Traction from the good old days.and some.

1. Pacific Electric Hollywood car 5160 at Fletcher Bridge on possible Charter in the 1950's, Any extra info welcomed. Unknown photographer.
2. LAMTA PCC 3046 on J Line in Huntington Park, CA in late 1950's. Any extra info welcomed. PE Historical Society collection.
3. San Francisco Muni M Line car 165 at Market St. and Geary in the 1950's. Any extra info welcomed. Unknown photographer.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/24/24 14:16 by Ritzville.

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4. Pittsburgh PCC 1664 at Brownville and Arlington in the 1960's. Any extra info welcomed. Unknown photographer.
5. Boston Streetcar 5718 in the 1950's. All  the info I have. Any extra info welcomed. Unknown photographer.
6. OT--Phoenix, AZ during WWII with people boarding buses. Any extra info welcomed. Unknown photograpgher.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/24/24 14:25 by Ritzville.

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Very nice photos from the past with streetcars.
John in White Marsh, Maryland

7. OT--Old ato club signs in Northern Californiia. Unknown photogragher.

That's it for today. Hope everyone had a great weekend, Thanks so much for looking!

Larry
Ritzville, WA.

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The streetcar in pic.5 looks to be inbound to Boston on Commonwealth Ave.?...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/24/24 15:19 by patd3985.

Super set - Photo one is a gem. What a scene the first is!
Bob

Thanks John for your nice comments. Thanks "patd3985" for your Boston location on #5. Thanks Bob for your kind comments. Much appreciated to you all!

Larry

No 1 is on a railfan special chartered by the Southern California Chapter of the Electric Railroaders
Association on June 19, 1955---the last day of operation on the Glendale-Burbank Line. By this date
the operator of the line was Metropolitan Coach Lines following Pacific Electric's sale of passenger
operations to MCL on September 30, 1953. The 5160 here is displaying "Edendale-Atwater" on its destination
sign which was created after the original destination of the "Edendale" line, which predated the formation of
PE itself---going back to 1906--- between SP's Arcade Station at Ceres St and Central Ave, winding through
downtown LA until it joined the Glendale Line; using that line to a point called Semi-Tropical Park in the Edendale District.
In 1936, concurrent with implementation of partial bus service on the Glendale-Burbank line the "Edendale" line 
was extended 1.2 miles northward to Monte Sano, behind the photographer a short distance here at Fletcher Drive,
to provide rail service where buses could not serve. The "Atwater" destination was added after November 1940
when rail cars returned to providing local service during rush hours but only to Richardson, parallel to SP's station at Glendale.
During off peak hours local service continued to be provided by Glendale-Burbank through cars. So the railfan habit of displaying
fanciful destinations on their excursions was not at play here, it was a reality; although not of recent practice. What was
unreal was the dash sign showing "Gardner St-West Hollywood Car House"; completely different line---now that was a stretch!

No 2 is on former LA Railway trackage in Huntington Park at the intersection of Pacific Ave and Florence Ave.
PCC 3046 is turning eastward onto Florence where it will run a few blocks to Seville Ave then turning south to Palm Pl
and the loop where it will turn around in preparation for its northbound run on the "J-Line".

Charlie

Thanks Charlie for your excellent classroom on #1-2. Too bad that was the last day of operation on #1. Lots of info to take in on both pictures, much appreciated Charlie!

Larry

One comment on Photo #4:  The intersection is located in Mount Oliver Borough, a municipality which is not only separate from the City of Pittsburgh, but also completely surrounded by the City of Pittsburgh!

Thanks "RuleG" for your added information on #4. Much appreciated!

Larry

Great stuff as always, thanks for the look.
—Mac

Photo #6 - This is a Crown transit bus.  It took some digging, but Crown, which was famous for its school buses also built a limited number of transit buses.  That's about all I could find.  I was unable to determine the operator, but from what I could find, the Phoenix Metro area had a number of Crown built buses in use by the various transit companies. 

The destination of Goodyear suggests that the people boarding were headed to the Goodyear Manufacturing facility, The city of Goodyear was founded in 1917 by the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company whose President at the time was Paul Litchfield.  The City of Litchfield Park, AZ is named after him.  The land was purchased because of the abundance of cotton which was in short supply during WW I. Cotton was used in the process of making tires.  In 1941, the Defense Department opened an aircraft base known as Luke Auxiliary Field #6 that was operated by Goodyear Aviation,  Then, in 1943, the Navy opened a facility next to the aviation site.  Its purpose was to test planes for the Navy that had been modified by the aviation plant.

Luke Auxiliary Field #6 closed in 1971 and was abandoned It is currently owned by the State of Arizona. The former Litchfield Naval Air Facility became a storage facility for decommissioned aircraft until 1968.  It is now the Phoenix-Goodyear Regional Airport.

Independent bus lines in the Phoenix area were combined into the Phoenix Transit System during the 1970s (I forget the exact year).  The system was renamed Valley Metro in 1993.

Wow, great stuff, Larry. Photo 7 made my day as well as 6. I grew up in Jamestown, CA but now live in Goodyear, AZ. I'm thinking that the auto club sign was somewhere along Hwy 108. Thanks for sharing these.

Tom

Thanks Mac for your nice comment. Thanks "agent1522" for your most interesting narrative on #6, very enjoyable reading. Thanks Tom, glad those pictures brought back good memories. Much appreciated to you all!

Larry