The Search for a Center-Entrance Car
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Two early Pacific Electric cars pas each other on Fifth and Broadway,
showing off the standard "California Car" design prevalent before the Great Merger.
(Public Domain) |
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A converted horsecar, typical of early 1900s streetcars,
is spotted in Covina in 1905.
(Covina Past)
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In the first years of streetcar development on the PE, the line between "city cars" and "interurban cars" was rather thin, if indistinct. Trolley designs under Henry Huntington differed only in size and duties, with the
tiny 200 Class and 500 Class (Fives) cars suited for short-distance city work. However, a growing problem for all transit systems in America (after the advent of the
"Pay As You Enter" farebox system of 1905) was the desire for improved passenger ingress and egress during rush-hour service. Pacific Electric had a fleet of electrically-converted, open-sided cable and horsecars around this time, but those were beginning to look outdated and especially unsafe, leading to mass retirements of these cars by the 1910s, in favor of more modern fare.
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How scandalous! Ladies in hobbleskirts!
(Period Paper) |
After the Great Merger of 1911, PE's new management began looking into dedicated city cars that had to fulfill three important tasks: it needed a low floor to accommodate easier boarding and the then-rampant "hobbleskirt" craze, be able to multiple-unit for cross-town or out-of-town services to suburbs outside Los Angeles, and use the "Pay As You Enter" system for better synergy between the conductor and the motorman. By 1913, Pacific Electric (thanks to a generous Southern Pacific, or SP, management) was trialing two classes of center-entrance cars from its other interurban and street railway holdings on local lines around the system. But both had problems that held them back from being the legendary Los Angeles streetcar.
Here There Be Dragons
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PE Dragon No. 304 at East Colorado Blvd, showing off just
how low the car is compared to its contemporaries.
The Maximum Traction trucks are slung below its elevated cab.
(Robert Gaddie, PERYHS) |
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PE "Dragon" No. 308 is seen on the corner of Colorado
and Raymond in Pasadena, 1918. The shorter building
at center is where the Santa Fe crosses the PE.
(Unknown Author) |
The first cars trialed were PE Nos. 50-80, a fleet of J.G. Brill low-floor cars whose designs originated from the
New York Railways streetcar system of New York City. When they were first built by
J.G. Brill of Philadelphia, PA, in 1913, cars 300-319 (later 50-70) featured the low-slung floors desired by PE management but lacked the adequate power to actually get a move-on in service. This was due to the "Dragons" using the infamous and much-maligned Brill "Maximum Traction" trucks, which only allowed one motor per truck rather than two per truck. For the PE, this meant that the "Dragons" could not climb hills of any kind when fully-loaded, and for a city like Los Angeles that is famous for its hills, this put them at a severe disadvantage. Nevertheless, the cars were so dutiful on the Pasadena local lines that, in 1921, PE acquired 10 more cars from SP's other interurban holdings.
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PE No. 304 at the Old Shops in Los Angeles, showing just
how fragile the early steel cars were.
(Ira L. Swett) |
Four more arrived from the
San Jose Electric Railway, while the other six arrived from the
Stockton Electric Railway. Following this, the entire class was renumbered into the 50-80 series and run on more local lines in
Long Beach and around Downtown Los Angeles. One intention was to use these cars on the new
Hollywood Subway after 1925, but considering they couldn't get up hills, one wonders how they would do on the ramp up to Glendale Blvd. The cars were also quite unsafe, with Nos. 304 and 308 suffering heavy (but not fatal) damage in two separate front-end collisions; when 304 struck a wooden car, the steel car ironically crumpled its entire front end. Despite this, the Dragons enjoyed long, if vastly-overlooked, working lives on the PE. They were finally retired by 1934, after serving on the Edendale-Central Station Line in Downtown.
Dive! Dive! Dive!
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A rare pic of a "Submarine" in East Bay Electric service at 14th
and Franklin Street in Oakland. Thanks to my friend Liam for
this rare view.
(Unknown Author) |
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Pacific Electric No. 177 poses for a photo in San Bernardino,
1928. Its entrance door is open, and you can see what elements
(front windscreen, bumpers, windows, center entrance) made it
onto the Hollywood Cars.
(David Gillespie, SCRM) |
The other class of center-entrance cars PE tested came from Southern Pacific's Oakland-Alameda-Berkeley Lines in the East Bay, commonly known as the East Bay Electric Lines. These seven
Pullman Car Co. of Chicago, IL, cars (172-179) were affectionally nicknamed "Submarines" by PE shop crews and, compared to the "grotesque" Dragons, they were far more easier on the eyes for both crew and passengers. Why they received the "submarine' sobriquet, I'll never know, but they proved to be quite popular anyway. Interestingly, they were able to operate on 1200V and 600V DC overheads, making them perfect to work the Pasadena services, then the San Bernardino local services on the
Northern Division when they arrived in 1914.
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Submarine No. 177 on the Ontario-Smiley Heights Line
in the 1920s, on the Euclid Avenue Median.
(Craig Rasmussen, SCRM) |
Like the Dragons, the Submarines had a center-entrance with no end-exit doors; unlike the Dragons, the Submarine's center entrance consisted of three doors (two exits and one entrance) and carried itself much higher on its wheels like a conventional streetcar. After all, for a center entrance car, the important thing is the first step shouldn't exceed three feet, which the Submarines accomplished. Plenty of their design cues, especially their front end with protruding bumper, ended up informing Pacific Electric's design of their Hollywood Cars with St. Louis Car Company and Brill in 1923. The Submarines, on the other hand, worked until 1928 when they were deemed "surplus to requirements". They were then sold off by 1934, leading otherwise quiet and understated lives.
The Birneys In the Boonies
I've talked about the Birneys
before on this blog,
much more than I really want to, but not even the PE was safe from being enamored by these little cars. If you'd like to find out their origins, click the links provided. If not, let's press forward!
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PE no. 331 works the last service out of Smiley Heights on July 19, 1936.
(Craig Rasmussen, SCRM) |
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PE No. 331 poses for a photo with Hollywood Car
No. 691, at Torrance Shops in 1934.
(SCRM)
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PE ordered their first twenty Birney cars (Nos 320-339) in 1918, right as they were introduced by the J.G. Brill Company, for some of the system's low-revenue, outlying lines in Los Angeles, Pasadena, Redlands, Pomona, San Pedro, and out to Long Beach. Weirdly and disquietingly dubbed the
"Cootie Cars", the Birneys displaced the old 100-class wooden "California Cars" and managed to save Pacific Electric plenty of money in operating costs (due to only having to pay one crew member compared to two). This success was enough for PE to order new Birneys in 1920, rounding off the fleet to 20 cars in total. However, on the flipside, the cars were highly unpopular with passengers. They were seen as the obviously-cheap cars that they were, with wicker-wood seats and uncomfortably-bouncy and jarring ride qualities, leading to the Birney Car's promise to bring in new passenger numbers falling quite shorter than promised. All Birney cars were retired beginning in 1934, with the last being sold off in 1941.
Huzzah! The Trucks Have Been Doubled!
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Pacific Electric No. 114 working a Los Angeles Beat, advertising the
LA County Fair occurring the month after this photo was taken.
(Don Ross) |
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One-off PE Car No. 107 shimmers and shooms its way along
the Echo Park Line on an unknown year.
(Jack Finn, PERYHS) |
However, right as the Birneys were being retired, and the Hollywood Cars were going strong on the Western and Southern Districts, Pacific Electric gave one little ring to St. Louis Car Company for a new batch of small steel city cars. The design of these cars harkened back to the original Birney cars of the Brill Company, but now possessed two trucks rather than four wheels, leading to a smoother ride and more-powerful performance from its four motors. Dubbed the "Double Birneys" or the "New 100s", PE ordered cars 100-114 in 1930 to upgrade the local Long Beach and San Bernardino services once run by the Birneys and Dragons. They even went as far as working on the Pasadena Line as well, where one car (No. 107), was "modernized" in 1938-1939 with air-treadles, individual lights, side and end skirting, and a flashy diamond-pattern PE livery. It proved to not only be an effective experiment in modernization that led to the successful 5050 Class rebuild program for the Hollywood Cars, but also was a handsome sight for railfans along the Sierra Madre-San Marino interurban line.
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A model by West Coast Traction Supply, showing how PE No. 107 would have looked in color.
(West Coast Traction Supply) |
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Pacific Electric no. 152 in service on the San Bernardino-Colton Line,
with protruding bumper lip clearly visible.
(SCRM) |
Pacific Electric also purchased three double-Birney cars from the
Fresno Traction Company (FTC) of Fresno, CA, just three years after ordering their first fifteen cars. Nos. 150-152 were originally built by St. Louis Car in 1925 and featured oversized bumpers that set them apart from the "New 100s" of the PE. The 150-152s also differed in having much lighter frames and shorter doors, whereas PE continued to seemingly overbuild their city cars as much as they did their steel interurbans. All three were assigned to the "Orange Empire" lines, with two going to San Bernardino and one being based out at Riverside. While the three Fresno Birneys were sold off in 1941 for "non-rail use" following cutbacks on the Northern Division, the "New 100s" were too good to be scrapped and were instead sold to the
Cooperativa de Transportes Urbanos Y Sub-Urbanos of Vera Cruz, Mexico in 1951 after the closure of the Echo Park Line. The 15 "New 100s" were rebuilt as single-ended cars and worked dutifully in Veracruz until eventual retirement in the 1970s.
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Two ex-PE "New 100s" meet in Veracruz's train and bus terminal on July 23, 1958.
Note the single trolley pole on each and the repainted PE livery on the right one.
(Alan Weeks, PERYHS) |
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Ex-PE No. 108 (now 208) putters along in Veracruz, Mexico.
Note the rider clinging to the back of the car.
(Don Ross, Robert Townley) |
The PCCs
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A service bulletin advertising the new
Glendale-Burbank Service with PCC cars.
(PERYHS)
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The final "suburban" car Pacific Electric purchased was also the only one purchased by coercion. When the Pacific Electric threatened to close the
Glendale-Burbank Line in 1936, the California Railroad Commission (CRC) threatened to heavily fine them if they closed the important suburban network. Instead of closing the route, the CRC urged the PE to invest in a new type of streetcar developed by the
Pullman-Standard Company of Worcester, MA,
to improve service. In true PE fashion, of course, they always had a say in the design of their streetcars. In 1940, the fruits of PE and Pullman's collaborations came together with the premiere of the 5000 Class, a President's Conference Committee (PCC) steel car. Unlike most PCCs (including the ones owned by the Los Angeles Railway), the 5000 Class "Bullets" had two ends rather than one as the system lacked any loops to turn them around.
The cars were immediately set to work on the busy Glendale-Burbank Line and improved it almost overnight, with motormen praising the smoothness and ease of use of the cars, while the passengers enjoyed the comfort of a soft vinyl padded seat and the gentle hum of the motors over the best track in the system. Thirteen of the original thirty cars went to the Venice Short Line for trials, but the heavy-rail track proved a handicap for the cars, and all were eventually assigned to the Glendale-Burbank Line until the end of service in 1955. The PCCs weren't also foolproof, as due to their full-skirting, the motors would overheat due to the lack of air and would often spend significant downtime at each terminal, waiting to cool off. Nevertheless, even when the end of the Glendale-Burbank Line came in 1955, the cars represented the modern PE right to the very end.
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Two PE PCCs trundle along Glendale's Brand Boulevard across Wilson Avenue.
The spire at the top left is the Alex Theater. The black stripe along the roof is to
mask wire grease dripping on the car roofs.
(Ralph Cantos, PERYHS) |
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PE Car no. 5017 prepares to join its sisters on a Moore-McKormack Lines
Ship bound for Buenos Aires, for another working life outside of its glamorous
Los Angeles surroundings.
(Los Angeles Times) |
After three years of dead storage, the 30 members of the 5000 Class boarded ships to take them to their new home in Buenos Aires, Argentina. They were purchased by the
Ferrocariles General Urquiza (FCGU) for suburban operations, and ended up joining their former PE mates, the Hollywoods and
the Elevens, as well as interlopers from the Oakland Key System in the Bridge Units. The 5000s were modified with end-diaphragms to accommodate their new use as semi-permanently coupled trainsets, while others lost one or both trolley poles to become trailer cars. The PCCs worked until the 1970s, when they and the Elevens were replaced by more modern multiple-units. Unlike the one Hollywood and the one Eleven belonging to the
Ferroclub Argentina, no 5000 Class cars are reported to survive.
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PE No. 5021 forms the front of an FCGU train in mid-1962.
Note the single pole, the faded PE paint scheme, and the
second PCC car connected right behind it.
(Ralph Cantos, PERYHS) |
Preservation
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PE's two remaining Birneys at the Southern California Railway Museum.
(John Smatlak, SCRM) |
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Ex-PE No. 152 (restored as FTC No. 83) at the SCRM.
(Odessa Trolley) |
Startlingly, despite no 5000 Class PCC cars surviving, two Birneys, one double-Birney, one Submarine and one Dragon all survive at the
Southern California Railway Museum in Perris, California. Double Birney No. 152 (ex-Fresno Traction) was originally purchased by Richard Fellows following retirement for use as another road-going streetcar. However, following his premature death, the car was stored and eventually donated to the SCRM by his widow, where it today rests on original trucks with its FTC paint scheme restored in Barn 7. Also in Barn 7 is PE "Submarine" No. 179, originally serving as a cabin in the woods of Crestline, CA, with ex-Visalia Electric car No. 1046. The body of a Dragon also lies awaiting restoration, this one being ex-FTC No. 51. Another ex-FTC dragon is also extant within Fresno, but that's a story for another time. As for the lack of 5000s, the original founding members of the
Orange Empire Trolley Company had the opportunity to buy a PCC before they were all sold, but turned down the chance to as the PCCs were "too new" for them at the time. We're still kicking ourselves for it.
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Pacific Electric No. 179 in Carhouse 7.
(Hicks Car Works) |
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PE No. 331 (numbered as PE Car No. 337) in a still
from "Singing in the Rain". The silver roof is inaccurate,
for reasons why I'll explain in the Hollywood Car episode.
(MGM Studios) |
As for the two Birneys, they were originally three. When sold to MGM Studios in 1937, cars 331, 332, and 337 were used in plenty of film productions, with the two most prominent ones being "Comrade X" in 1940 and "Singing in the Rain" in 1952, Their compact size meant MGM could use them around the backlot and even use them in stunts (as seen in Singing in the Rain, when Gene Kelly jumps off a Birney into Debbie Reynold's convertible), and Car 337 ended up cut in half to accommodate interior filming. Following their film careers, both cars were sold to the SCRM in the 1960s and steadily restored, starting with PE No. 331. 332 was leased to the nascent Old Pueblo Trolley Company of Tucson, Arizona, who restored the car in 1985 and leased it for ten years until 1995 after working two years on the new trolley. It continues to wear its Old Pueblo Trolley colors today, but it is planned that its next repaint will be back to PE Electric Lines Red 1.
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Cars 331 and 332 in storage at MGM studios, prior to being purchased by the SCRM.
(SCRM) |
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