Passenger Trains > PCCs in El Paso

I was in El Paso, Texas a few days ago and had an opportunity to take a look at the newly-revived streetcar system, which had shut down in 1974 and reopened last November. I've had a particular interest as I rode the line back in 1971. It no longer makes the international loop through El Paso and Juarez, but instead runs on a figure-8 route to the University of Texas, as shown on the map in the first photo. They have six of their original PCCs (bought secondhand from San Diego in the 1950s) in service, rebuilt by Brookville and equipped with pantagraphs and air-conditioning. Two cars are painted in each of the three schemes used over the years. Photos 2 and 3 show car 1515 in the City LInes "fruit salad" colors from the 1950s. More to follow... 

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What happened to the Los Angeles cars?
The "fruit salad" is Los Angeles color scheme.

Photos 4 and 5 show cars 1504 and 1514 with the dark green stripe used in the 1960s. Photo 6 shows car 1512 carrying the orange stripe from the 1970s, with the minor-league baseball park in the background. Note that the system doesn't start running until 11:00am, but continues until midnight or later. I didn't have time to ride the cars, but it was very enjoyable to watch them in operation.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/09/19 20:21 by wpamtk.

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BobP Wrote:
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> What happened to the Los Angeles cars?
> The "fruit salad" is Los Angeles color scheme.

The "fruit salad" scheme was used on the various systems taken over by National City Lines across the US, not just Los Angeles. Los Angeles Railway cars didn't carry the scheme until NCL took over. 

The first PCC cars to arrive in Los Angeles in 1937 were painted in two shades of yellow with silver accents. When National City Lines took over and the Los Angeles Railway became Los Angeles Transit Lines the new color scheme was the so called Fruit Salad colors. This scheme was used on almost all of the National City Lines properties. Bud

I reviewed Brookville's website where it describes the rebuilding and restoration of the El Paso's PCC Car. Quite extensive! Wouldn't it have been cheaper to purchase new cars or did the folks in El Paso just want to hang on to PCC Cars. I am curious what it would cost to build a PCC car new from scratch! Brookville comes pretty close!

I believe their desire was to use the native PCCs that were stored since the line shut down in 1974. As far as I know, there are two more cars besides the six that were restored, but I don't know if there are any plans for them. 

Brookville does amazing work. Really handsome cars, thanks for sharing, I've been wondering about this operation.