Trolley Tuesday 2/2/21 - Early Pacific Electric Cars, 1902-1911

Whether Henry E. Huntington liked it or not, he was similar to his rival (E.H. Harriman) in a lot of ways. Both were interested in cornering and monopolizing a single market (the entire western US railway system for Harriman, all of Los Angeles' real estate and mass transit electric railways for Huntington), but another lesser-known similarity between the two men were their need for standardization. Harriman had his own design of passenger cars and steam locomotives between the Union Pacific (UP) and the Southern Pacific (SP), while Huntington's own consistent style came from the 5-window designs found on many of his streetcars built by the St. Louis Car Company and J.G. Brill of Philadelphia. On the first Trolley Tuesday of February, we begin our look into the Pacific Electric Fleet by looking at the cars that came before the Great Merger of 1911.

For the Horses

The Pico Street Electric Railway in 1887, the first electric streetcars in
Los Angeles, but not necessarily the most successful.
(Water and Power Associates)

The "Orange Dummy" in 1902, with the steam boiler
seen in the center of the car.
(Southern California Electric Railway Historical Society)

The first street railway cars to run in Los Angeles were, of course, horsecars. Many of these cars were acquired as Pacific Electric (PE) bought other constituent companies like the Monrovia Street Railway (MSR) in 1904 and retained some of these horsecars for promotional or historical purposes, such as ex-MSR No. 2 being present at the 1925 opening of the Hollywood Subway. An interesting breed of horsecar was built by the Baker Iron Works of Los Angeles, who converted two "single-truck, open" horsecars into steam motor cars in 1898 for the early Santa Ana-Orange line. PE Cars 5 and 6 used upright vertical boilers to power themselves, but at some point Car No. 6 was converted to a 2-cylinder, 24-HP Oldsmobile engine to run more efficiently on their "Toonerville" line. Both cars were retired by January 1912.

Pacific Electric Pullman Car No. 24, on its way
to local service in Redlands, California.
(Ira L. Swett)

After years of using open-sided cable car trailers for streetcars, the first enclosed electric cars came in 1891 from the Pullman Company of Chicago, Illinois. Classed No. 20-24, these single-truck trolley cars were built for the Los Angeles Consolidated Electric Railway (LACE) in 1891 and remained in service after the PE purchased them in 1904, paving the way for larger and more luxurious modern passenger cars to come. Other secondhand cars began arriving from the Redlands Street Railway (RSR), the San Bernardino Valley Traction Company (SBVT), and the Riverside and Arlington Railway, all of them using an antiquated "California Car" design pioneered by the San Francisco cable car system. Many of these cars did not last long in modern service, with many being retired in 1911 following the Great Merger.

Redland Street Railway No. 4 in 1910, displaying the original cable car-inspired
aesthetic of Southern California's early streetcars.
(Southern California Railway Museum)

Up the Mountains

"Don't look down!" Mount Lowe
Car No. 5 navigates Circular Bridge/
(LAist.com)

Up in the mountains above Los Angeles, the Mount Lowe Railway had its own dedicated passenger cars to run the Alpine Division of the Pacific Electric. Besides the funiculars, service along the upper Alpine division was originally run by a fleet single truck "combination" cars, starting with No. 27, the only car to run and be lettered for the Pasadena & Mount Wilson Railway in 1895 by the Brill Company. While revolutionary in its design, the fleet's protruding ends from both sides of its single truck made plenty of passengers anxious and even frightened as it stuck out on the tight curves at Circular Bridge and Cape of Good Hope. The Street Railway Review of 1902 ended up opining, "The car is so peculiar that it well may be said to form a class by itself." (Swett, 22) This car was then taken out of service in 1906 and replaced by the "30 Class".

PE Cars 30-33 were four cars built by the PE Shops themselves to replace Car No. 27. These were 32 feet long, open-sided, front-facing bench-seat cars that had only one job: get up Echo Mountain. Due to their diminutive size and narrow gauge, the traction motors (normally slung in the middle of the truck) hung from the outside. The cars more or less worked unchanged until 1931, when cars 30 and 31 had one side enclosed due to inclement weather. After abandonment in 1938, the cars were stripped of souvenirs by electric railway enthusiasts and whatever remained was pushed down into Rubio Canyon and destroyed. Only spare wheelsets now survive atop the mountain. 

Pacific Electric Car No. 30 poses for its builder's photo, 1906.
(Security Pacific National Bank Collection)

Huntington Standards

Pacific Electric "Baby Fives" Nos. 264 and 252
pose at Baldwin Ranch, photo undated.
(Arcadia's best)

The first cars that could be considered "Huntington Standards" originally came from the Pasadena & Los Angeles Electric Railway (PLA) and entered PE's rosters in 1902. Built by Brill and American Car & Foundry in 1895, cars 116 and 120-127-135 were Los Angeles' first interurban cars and featured a stylish front end that had three tall, thin panes of glass bracketed by two curved sections that wrapped around the front of the car, giving the motorman an unparalleled view of the road. This single feature was what made the cars a "Huntington Standard", and this was also reflected in cars running in other Huntington properties, such as the Fresno Traction Company. 

Despite their interurban nature, the cars generally stuck around Pasadena's local lines, giving operations a chance to run larger passenger numbers in their trains. In 1910, the cars were rebuilt into "California Cars" by adding an extra five feet on either end of open sections with gated sides, perfect for the balmy Southern Californian weather. This, for a while, was Pacific Electric's idea of a perfect city car, and cars 128-135 (which had only one big window) received similar upgrades. PE continued to apply this design to other larger car models that began filling up the roster, from the 136-144 series of the Los Angeles Pacific Railway (LAP) to the 145-146 and 147-148 cars of the SBVT and the RSR, respectively, all featuring enclosed center sections with mesh-screen ends.

Pacific Electric No. 151 poses at Rubio Pavilion on the Mount Lowe Railway to show off its
handsome metal-mesh sides. If the sun was too much for the passengers, they could easily bring
down a canvas-paper curtain at their leisure.
(Water and Power Associates)

The Gruesome Twosomes

A 1960s Ed Suydam brass model of a PE 200-class
car as they would have appeared in service. Note the
mesh sides and the early stubby people catchers under the car.
(Worthpoint)

Due to the sheer costs and considerations of having to rebuild so many non-standard "city" cars into something resembling a standard, Henry Huntington also decided in 1902 that the PE should operate one type of standard city car. This is where the 200 Class cars come in, born to serve the new Long Beach Line that eventually opened in 1903. These cars were derivatives of Huntington's own cars running on the Los Angeles Railway (LARy), with PE shop crews able to simply swap the standard-gauge trucks for narrow-gauge trucks as needed. These cars were also some of the first built for PE by St. Louis Car Company, establishing a long relationship that ended up birthing some of the company's most famous cars after the Great Merger. The later batch of 200s, nos. 280-288 featured what were known as "steam coach roofs", clerestory roofs that curved downward and ended at the front rather than feature two additional windows facing forward on either end. These cars were later rebuilt to the "city car" standard mentioned above, and some received magnetic brakes that were originally found on the LARy Type A streetcars. 

Pacific Electric No. 225 poses in the original PE Los Angeles Shops shortly after being rebuilt, 1915.
(Don Ross)

PE No. 249 poses outside Hill Street Tunnel in 1909,
en route to Beverly, Sawtelle, and Hollywood.
(Los Angeles Public Library)

In an attempt to continue the modernization of the Pacific Electric fleet, Car No. 225 was subject to an odd experiment. Instead of being rebuilt as a standard end-entrance city car, No. 225 became the first and only center entrance car built by the PE. Featuring one enclosed half and one open half, 225 featured two entrances and two exits in the center of the car. Due to the unique construction challenges, 225 was subject to heavy rebuilding of its undercarriage into a fishbelly frame and remained a one-off, with PE preferring to contract out other designs for later use. The last big revolution the 200s gave onto the PE's streetcar fleet was the "Pay As You enter" breakthrough. Thanks to the Ohmer Fare Register Company providing the PE's fareboxes, the 200s became the first to feature easier conductor fare collection on the PE, which were later found on its other, larger interurbans.

The Fab Fours

Pacific Electric No. 456 works the last run
to Mount Lowe on April 1, 1938. The sole
passenger was photographer Harold F. Stewart.
(Stan Kistler, PERYHS)

If you asked me, the Motorman, what Pacific Electric's most schizophrenic class of cars were, my strongest answer for you would be the Fours, or 400 Class cars. Between its one hundred-or-so cars were often single-member cars or classes that rarely exceeded ten cars, and all from constituent railways. The largest batch came from the Los Angeles & Redondo Electric Railway (LARE), when thirty-three cars (430-465) were transferred to PE ownership in 1911. These were also one of PE's first modern interurban cars, as they were originally steam railway coaches before being rebuilt into interurban cars around 1915, including the "Pay As You Enter" farebox. Their working regions were split in two, with the 430-447 cars working around the beaches as well as into Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley, while the 450-456 cars were saved for Mount Lowe Service to Rubio Canyon.

The PE/Westinghouse Test Train is seen on
November 17, 1914, with Car No. 456 leading.
(Ira L. Swett)

Post-Great Merger, Pacific Electric later rebuilt the 430-447 cars into more traditional California Cars, but featuring all-wooden sides compared to the steel mesh used on earlier city cars. The 450-465s remained true interurban cars, but also became the first PE cars to use the Westinghouse automatic car, air, and electric couplers on November 17, 1914. While PE was using multiple-unit train operations at this point, the Westinghouse coupler later became standard on its other cars that I'll talk about later this month. While most of the non-standard Fours lasted until 1925, the Mount Lowe Fours lasted until the abandonment of the Altadena Lines in 1940. 

The Famous Fives

Pacific Electric No. 224 (later 524) poses for a builder's photo
on July 4, 1902, with crew, one year prior to the Long Beach Line opening.
The mesh walls are standard, and quite airy.
(Craig Rasmussen, SCRM)

Rebuilt "Baby Five" No. 502 is seen at San Bernardino
in an unknown year. Note the spiffy pinstriping and the
pneumatic trolley pole on top.
(Jeffrey J. Moreau, SCRM) 

Pacific Electric initially set up a specific system to run their streetcars on: one standard city type (running within the city), one standard suburban type (running between cities), and one standard interurban type (running across the whole county). The "suburban" type was filled by the 500 Class, or "Fives", one of the first classes of cars designed for the PE in 1901 and 1902. The orders were split into threes, with cars 500-529 being the St. Louis Car "Baby Fives" (originally Old PE No. 200-229), St. Louis  Car 530-549 being the "Medium Fives" (built in 1910), and St. Louis Car 550-599 being the "Big Fives" (built between 1904 and 1905 for the Los Angeles Pacific). When first built by St. Louis in 1901-1902, the "Baby Fives" featured one third of an open section with mesh gates, and two thirds of an enclosed section with one big center window, combining the designs of the Los Angeles Pacific and Los Angeles & Redondo cars. These were later rebuilt to match the all-wood-sided design that became the standard.

A standard train of four-or-so Baby Fives poses at Riverside in 1913.
This was following being rebuilt for MU operation.
(SCRM Collection)

Los Angeles Pacific "Balloon Route" Car "Hermosa"
was later rebuilt as a "Big Five" following this 1905 picture.
(Public Domain)

The "Big Fives" were all ex-Los Angeles Pacific Cars, heavily rebuilt in 1912 to match the other Fives. This also included an extensive rebuild of the innards as well, with new General Electric motors (four of them), new trucks (St. Louis Car 23Bs, as featured here), and new controllers (again, General Electric). Their working lives were spent on the Northern District, running New Years Specials out to Pasadena, as well as the Western District, handling five-car trains on the Glendale Line in the first years of the Hollywood Subway. Due to differences with the "Baby Fives" in controllers and motors, they never operated together but could be seen sharing yards on occasion. If you were thinking they were just a little bit longer than the "Baby Fives", however, you'd be wrong. All of the Fives were 43 feet long, and carried the same passenger capacity (48 people), but the "Big Fives" were actually named from being larger than their original Los Angeles Pacific configuration.

The Medium Fives working a special train at the SP
Pasadena Depot, featuring an incandescent headlight
and early net-style safety fender on the front.
(Jeffrey J. Moreau, SCRM)

The "Medium Fives", the last class of cars, were built as improvements on the "Baby Fives" being rebuilt in 1907 and applying those changes onto a fresh car design. These cars featured early multiple unit control, wooden car sides, and heavier trucks and motors. They served alongside their "Baby" sisters with the most running on the Northern District and the Western Districts. They were definitely Pacific Electric's go-anywhere cars, and found themselves working both suburban and interurban services in short order. All of the fives continued into the 1930s mostly intact, and it was only due to the introduction and replacement of the 800s that many of them were retired en masse by the late 1930s and scrapped or burned, alongside their 400 and 200 class counterparts.

The Graceful Eights

Pacific Electric No. 876 poses for a photo in an unknown location.
(Don Ross)

Pacific Electric No. 257 (later 807) poses for
its builder's photo, showing off its original mesh 
sides and pneumatic trolley pole.
(Ira L. Swett)

The last PE car we'll be discussing today is the 800 Class, or Eights, among the last, and largest, class of cars purchased by the Old PE prior to the Great Merger of 1911. Originally numbered 250-396 (with 330-335 never existing), they made up the largest single-class of cars ever ordered from one company (St. Louis Car) in the world at 137 cars. For reference, the later batch of Hollywood Cars (Nos. 600-750) were split between St. Louis Car and Brill due to an inability to handle both orders. The first "Eights" to enter service were built in 1905 by St. Louis Car and featured the influence of heavy-rail coach construction: curved clerestory roofs and heavy steel-rod bracing under the cars. 

Like the other early Fives and Twos, they featured steel mesh siding and early multiple-unit controls; however, unlike the other two, the "Eights" also premiered a new type of safety trolley pole. Dubbed the "pneumatic pole", this device used air as a spring to keep the pole up and pressing against the wire, but in the event of an emergency, the air is dumped and the pole slams back onto the roof. This feature later became standard on PE's freight locomotives and other larger interurban cars. The Eights also came in trailer form in 1906 onward, but in 1911 six of them were subject to the "Big Motor" test with Westinghouse providing brand-new 333-A-2 motors (generating 125 HP each) in order to test the new, bigger design of interurban cars (eventually culminating in the 1000 Class, or "Tens" in 1912.)

Pacific Electric "weed burner" No. 00195 (formerly No. 810) runs on
the line near the Ramona Sanitarium and Convalescent Hospital, year unknown.
The weed-burning program only lasted eight years, and 00195 was dismantled in 1948.
(Jack Finn, PERYHS)

Incredibly, most of the Eights (numbered 800-929 under the "new" PE after 1911) survived until 1940, when most were rebuilt as weed-burning maintenance of way vehicles or scrapped totally. Seven of these cars perished earlier in 1921, after an enormous fire took out Redondo Carhouse. Most of these cars lived out their working lives on the lightly-travelled Newport-Balboa Line, or the Venice Short Line, ensuring their ubiquity along the beaches of Los Angeles and Orange County. By the time they were scrapped, their work was taken by new steel interurban cars of the mid-late 1910s.

Preservation

The pair of PE replica "Baby Fives", No. 500 and 501,
pose on one of the passing sidings on their San Pedro Pike.
(Railway Preservation)

Of the many cars listed here today, only a scant number are preserved and accounted for. PE "Medium Fives" 524, 530, and 538 make up the surviving original Fives at the Southern California Railway Museum (SCRM), with an additional two "Baby Five" replicas (500 and 501) built by volunteers of the Los Angeles Harbor Department in 2003 for the now-defunct Waterfront Red Car in San Pedro, California. The two Fives were built using modern control systems adapted from New York's own transit systems, but are otherwise authentic in every detail to the originals. Their fate is currently up in the air as it is unknown whether the City of San Pedro will restore trolley service following the rebuilding of their Fish Market restaurant center. 

Pacific Electric "Medium Five" No. 524, in its current inbetween-projects
state at the SCRM. If you would like to be involved with this project, please
contact the SCRM about volunteering or donating money.
(SCRM)

Pacific Electric former "Eight", No. 1498, serves
as the original Traveltown offices in the 1950s.
(Donald Duke, PERYHS)

No other Twos survive, but four Eights (821, 852, 870, and 898) were given to the Torrance Boy Scouts in 1941 for use as mountain cabins. It is unknown currently where they are and if they still survive. Any additional information helps. Additionally, two other Eights survive in varying condition. One is ex-LARy No. 1160, which was (at one point, due to multiple rebuilds) Pacific Electric No. 811. It remains operable at the SCRM, but needs some cosmetic restoration. One Eight that sadly isn't with us was rebuilt express motor No. 1498, a donation from PE to the Traveltown Museum in Burbank, CA, but was destroyed by fire at the SCRM in 1995. The other surviving "Eight" mostly intact is No. 913, originally built as a "control trailer" for the PE. After this car was retired in 1940, it became part of the Formosa Café in Hollywood, California, as a dining room. Following a grand renovation of the Formosa Café in 2019, the car is once again dressed in Electric Lines Red and showing off its original number to patrons of the restaurant. If you are ever in Los Angeles, go eat inside the car. You won't regret it.

Your motorman posing with the restored PE No. 913
during my birthday in 2019. Definitely worth reserving the
tables inside the car.
(Myself)

Thank you for reading today's Trolley post, and watch your step as you alight on the platform. My resources today included Interurbans Special No. 28, "Cars of the Pacific Electric: Vol 1 - City and Suburban Cars" and Interurban Special No. 36, "Vol. 2 - Interurban and Deluxe Cars" by Ira L. Swett, plus the archives of the Water & Power Associates, the Pacific Electric Railway Historical Society, and the archives of the Southern California Railway Museum. The trolley gifs in our posts are made by myself, and are based on work by Brian Clough on his site, Banks of the Susquehanna. On Tuesday, For now, you can follow myself or my editor on Twitter, buy a shirt or sticker from our Redbubble stand, or purchase my editor's self-developed board game! It's like Ticket to Ride, but cooler! (and you get to support him through it!) Until next time, ride safe!