Freight Maketh Finances
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In this undated shot, a train of PE "Twelves" rest a day before the Monday
morning rushhour as two Torrance-built Steeplecabs (No. 1625 and 1628) rumble
past near Covina on the Eastern District of the Northern Division.
(Jack Finn, PERYHS) |
Freight service is usually the backbone to any interurban service, even for systems you'd think depend solely on passengers (with the
South Shore and
Chicago, Aurora & Elgin both coming to mind). This assumption is usually sound, as interurban carriers often pass through city industrial areas that benefit from local car service or even box-motor local bulk service. While
Henry Huntington saw to it for PE to have its own electric locomotives running trains from the Port of Long Beach to Downtown and everywhere inbetween, the push for increased freight presence did not take off until SP gained control of the road in
1911. Building on an original concept by ex-president (now dead-president) E.H. Harriman, SP's plans for the PE involved using it as a terminal freight railroad, able to deliver anything to anyone in LA, the Beach cities, and San Bernardino. This also involved SP investing heavily in both new and old locomotives for the not-so-little interurban, in the (eventually vain) attempt at making a profit off their largest interurban acquisition.
Early Electric Locomotives
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PE No. 1552 is spotted at the Torrance Shops in the 1930s,
sporting a massive head for its tiny body.
(Donald Duke, PERYHS) |
The earliest PE electric locomotives were built by two predecessor companies,
Los Angeles Pacific (LAP) and
Los Angeles & Redondo (LA&R). The first attempt at a steeplecab was LAP No. 1580, later PE No. 1552, in 1906. It featured a radical design that set it apart from its contemporary "work motors", which were basically motorized flatcars with an elevated shack of a cab, and was also quite strong for its weight as it only weighed 52,000lbs (for reference, a Hollywood Car is 57,800lbs) but also generated 200HP from its four Westinghouse 306-B motors. 1552 was later used by the PE in all three divisions, able to haul 13-car trains until its retirement in 1948, when it finished as the Torrance Shop switcher. No. 1552 was later joined by two more sisters, No. 1553-1554, with the only difference being 1554 using GE motors instead of Westinghouse.
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PE "Big" Engine No. 1557 is photographed in the 1940s.
(Unknown Author) |
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PE No. 1560 is seen in San Bernardino in the 1940s,
heavily weathered and not too busy.
(Unknown Author) |
After purchasing both the LAP engines and two ex-LA&R steeplecabs (Nos. 1550-1551), PE's original Los Angeles shops tried to build their own based on what they learned. This resulted in the "Big" and "Little" Engines of the 1556-1565 Class, beginning in 1908 with No. 1561. Unlike the inherited steeplecabs, 1561 remained just a motorized flatcar with a tall cab. According to shop crews, the money was never there for 1561 to gain a "modern body" and it also never had a shop photo taken of it. While it was later damaged in a switching accident and scrapped in 1930, its nine other sisters had much longer, happier working lives. The "Big" engines (1556-1558, 1560) used four GE 207-A motors, each generating 140HP, and weighed 95,140lbs, making up the railway's main-line electric fleet; the "Little" engines (1562-1565) used both 140HP GE and 75HP Westinghouse motors and weighed 93,425lbs, making them perfect for switching.
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A nice picture of PE No. 1557, just imagine her in
dark maroon with silver lettering.
(Unknown Author) |
While never as glamorous as the Baldwin-Westinghouse steel steeplecabs that replaced them, the "Big" and "Little" motors were good enough for what Pacific Electric wanted at the time. Their pant was also similar to the wooden interurban cars comprising
the 950s and "Tens", with a maroon paint scheme and silver lettering. Unfortunately, come 1927, their fate soon changed as "Little" 1559 was damaged in a switching accident. In 1930, No. 1561 suffered a twisted frame and was deemed too costly to repair. By 1948, the last of the engines went after spending their remaining careers as switchers at Torrance Shops and Macy Street Yard. They were quite impressive electric locomotives, and certainly the last wooden electric locomotives rostered by the PE.
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Giant No. 1599 demonstrates its party piece: a "Peach Basket"
seat that allowed motormen to lean effectively out of the locomotive
and better spot their switching moves. Another worker is seen being a
"trolley pup", with one hand on the rope to mind the pole along.
(Donald Duke, PERYHS) |
However, there was one small outlier in PE's fleet that ended up changing the PE roster forever. Just before the birth of the "Big" and "Little" engines, PE's LA Shops constructed a steel electric locomotive in 1905 to see if it could be done. Built as a one-off, locomotive No. 1600 was the first and (until 1913) only steel-bodied car ever, predating the LA Railway's own steel streetcars as well. 1600 was patterned after the larger "juice jacks" on the mainline railroads, and because of this the locomotive's four Westinghouse 86-A engines generated a whopping 200-HP... each. Nothing came close to matching this enormous engine until 1923, when No. 1599 joined it as a carbon copy constructed by the Torrance Shops. Both locomotives were subject to intense scrutiny by PE's top brass, who argued back and forth whether to assign both engines as switchers or main-line locomotives. Despite this, both 1600 and 1599 lived long and simple lives on the PE system, with 1600 eventually being retired in 1950 as a parts supplier for 1599, before being scrapped the next year. 1599 was then sold to the
Ferrocariles General Urquiza (FCGU) of Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1952. 1599 was then heavily rebuilt to match her other eventual Baldwin-Westinghouse cousins, but maintained her considerably-bulkier lines.
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A brass PE No. 1600 of unknown origin, showing how it
and other locomotives at the time would have been painted.
(PERYHS) |
Livin' in a Box (Motor)
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Pacific Electric Box Motor No. 1010, as first outshopped.
Strange, isn't she?
(Electric Railway Review) |
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A PE 1430-class box motor, No. 1430, is rendered by
MSTS/OpenRails modeller and PE enthusiast Tim Muir.
(Tim Muir, PERYHS) |
Supplementing PE's early electric locomotives was the 1430 class, a fleet of fifteen wooden "Interurban Express" freight motors constructed by Pacific Electric beginning in 1905 and ending in 1910. When first designed as Nos. 1010 and 1011, the two prototype box motors featured elevated cabs on either end that designers thought would aid visibility; instead, the cabs caused rampant seasickness due to the lateral rolling motion of the cars, and the rest were built to look like normal interurbans. The cars also featured one center trolley pole as built, but crews complained about having to climb atop the car to manipulate the pole, so this was later changed to two pneumatic trolley poles. No. 1430-1437 were outshopped in 1906 by the Los Angeles Shops and generated a decent 75HP from their four Westinghouse motors, with the later batch (Nos. 1439-1444) weighing slightly heavier at 71,400lbs to the original 69,750lbs but carrying the same features. Pacific Electric intended for these cars to be used in "Less-Than-Carload" small bulk freight deliveries thanks to their expansive interurban network, but the 1430s were also used to haul freight cars on their own too.
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PE Nos. 1453 and 1451 are rendered by Tim Muir,
passing each other in MSTS/Open Rails.
(Tim Muir, PERYHS) |
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PE No. 1452 is seen on the Santa Monica Air Line, hauling a
boxcar outbound from Los Angeles across Grand Avenue.
(Gordon Glattenberg, PERYHS) |
The 1430s were eventually joined by five more box motors of the same design in 1915, Nos. 1450-1456. Unlike the 1430s though, the 1450s featured something new: a composite construction. Despite featuring the same wooden body crafted by the LA Shops' carvers and artisans, the 1450s featured a steel underframe that gave the car increased strength. Their motors were similarly upgraded, now supplied by GE and able to generate 110HP as well as run on 600V and the 1200V San Bernardino Line. Of the class, two additional cars were built for different purposes: One was built as "tower car" No. 1730 (later 00157, which I will discuss in greater depth on Thursday) and one became San Jose
Peninsular Railway No. 2. The final box wooden motor class to join the varied fleet were the rebuilt "Eights", Nos. 1495-1499, which merely featured blanked-out windows and a baggage door punched in the middle of the cars. (The steel box motors I've discussed
elsewhere.) All but a few box motors were scrapped following abandonment of LCL service in 1953.
The Baldwin Invasion
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A Baldwin Locomotive Works drawing of a "Class D" Steeplecab,
the same ones eventually delivered to the PE, among others.
(PERYHS) |
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PE No. 1601 poses for its delivery photo at the LA Shops.
At the time, the locomotives were delivered in black with silver
lettering and safety hazard stripes.
(Ira L. Swett) |
By now, the Baldwin-Westinghouse steeplecab is quite ubiquitous on this blog, as they've been featured everywhere on the aforementioned
Iowa Traction,
South Shore,
New York Westchester & Boston, and the
Saltair Line. PE's own steeplecabs began arriving in 1912 from the
Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia, PA, intent on replacing the wooden electric locomotives and the big 1599 and 1600. The new Baldwins were bigger, heavier (124,000-130,000lbs), more powerful (sporting four Westinghouse 225-HP motors that could make it haul a 60-car train with ease), more adaptable (able to run at both 600 and 1200V DC), and were much safer (featuring the "Hand Line", or relay-resistor control that directed the 600V current away from the motorman's controller). SP originally ordered fifteen of Baldwin-Westinghouse's "Class D" steeplecabs, with three going to the
Portland, Eugene and Eastern in Oregon, one for the
Peninsular Railway, and one for SP's
East Bay Electric switching operations in Oakland. The other ten went straight to PE (becoming Nos. 1601-1616), along with the Peninsular and SP steeplecab much later (those becoming 1617 in 1914 and 1618 in 1922, respectively). Originally, the PE engines were outfitted with MU "jumper" hoses, but operations in this fashion ended on July 6, 1917.
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PE No. 1617, in a gorgeous "Tiger Stripe" livery, works a late-era
freight on the Santa Monica Air Line on June 20, 1953, just past Palms Station.
(Alan Weeks, PERYHS) |
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Torrance-built No. 1619 poses with its crew in the 1930s,
somewhere on the Northern District. Note the spoked wheels.
(L.A. Toothaker, Thomas Pollock, PERYHS) |
Immediately, the Steeplecabs were a big hit with the railway, as they were used in all manner of duties from bringing the first train of 1000-Class "Tens" to Long Beach in Summer 1913, to the Arrowhead Water Trains on the upper reaches of the
Northern Division's Eastern half, to all manner of heavy oil trains and interchange freights through Amoco Junction. Improvements for the locomotives, of course, followed them throughout their lives, but it became pretty evident in the 1920s that PE was beginning to lack the adequate power needed to keep up with an ever-growing demand for freight.
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PE No. 1624 works a mixed train of merchandise and oil
at Watts Junction, year unknown.
(Alan Weeks, PERYHS) |
Thus, in 1924, a contract was auctioned to see who would build another class of 13 steeplecabs. By some miracle, PE's own Torrance Shops underbid Baldwin-Westinghouse and were tasked with building two orders of seven and six steeplecabs. Using spare parts and other parts ordered from Baldwin, the Torrance Shops worked on assembling their new locomotives from the ground up. At first glance, the locomotives looked not much more different than their Baldwin counterparts, but the Torrance-built engines featured spoked wheels, 205-HP motors from General Electric, and steel frames constructed locally by Llewellyn Iron Works of Los Angeles. When first painted, these engines featured a red paint scheme with silver letters to match the current freight fleet, but this later gave way to a drab black scheme with orange "tiger stripes", similar to parent company SP. These locomotives were mainly fixtures of the Northern District, sharing the same duties as their Baldwin-built kin, and all but one were retired following the end of electric freight service on December 1, 1956.
Secondhand Stragglers
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North Shore's own "Electra" in 1906, helping an 0-4-0
saddletank locomotive clean up the rubble in the wake
of the Great San Francisco Earthquake.
(Travel Town) |
Pacific Electric's Baldwin steeplecabs were never alone, of course, as they often would pick up some locomotives on the spare whenever the price suited them. One of the oldest of these secondhand acquisitions was the North Shore Railway's "Electra" locomotive. Built as a "halo" (or "super-prototype" locomotive by the North Shore Railway (NSR, later the Northwestern Pacific), "Electra" was built by the NSR shops in 1902 to prove to Marin County that they had what it took to haul freight as well as passengers. She also sported some impressive statistics as well: while weighing only a svelte 100,000lbs, Electra's four GE 66-A engines could generate 125HP each, giving her a maximum HP of 500HP that was liable to snap the wooden draft gear of any innocent freight car. For ballast, two steam locomotive switcher tenders were chopped up to form her steeple-fronts, each filled with water to weigh her down and give her more traction. However, that power came at a price: due to her antique engines, every notch taken on her controller forced the NSR system to "brown out" or encounter a power dip. Thus, she was only able to operate at night, when passenger traffic was much less.
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PE No. 1544 in 1917, now sporting a handsome black
and silver-lettering scheme.
(PERYHS) |
One of Electra's most famous exploits was helping clear the rubble of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, hauling debris trains out of the city by using her immense strength to help other steam locomotives with their long trains of rubble. After another working spell in Marin County, the SP purchased Electra and stored her in Sacramento until 1917, when PE bought her to run freight trains as No. 1544. In peacetime, Electra found work helping construction crews with the
Hollywood Subway tunnel hauling dirt trains. To crews, she was a very choleric operator as her motors sometimes gasped for power compared to the ease of other steeplecabs, but she was also a loyal worker, ending her career as Torrance Shop switcher by 1952. She was then donated to the
Travel Town Museum in Griffith Park, CA, by the PE for permanent display, where she remains to this day.
 |
PE No. 1590 demonstrates its diminutive nature as it
poses with its crew on the Western District, year unknown.
(Mount Lowe Preservation Society, PERYHS) |
Other noteworthy locomotives were (again) more Baldwin-Westinghouse Steeplecabs from various sources. Nos. 1590 and 1591 were originally meant to go to Cuba when built in 1952, but when they were returned to Baldwin after being unable to take delivery, PE snatched them up for use on the Arrowhead Water Trains and the Corona-Sunkist citrus trains. They were essentially half the size of the 1601 Class steeplecabs, only generating 300HP and weighing 87,320lbs, and despite featuring 1200V-capable motors, they remained insular on the Northern Division's Orange Empire.
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PE No. 1593 works a freight train at Graham Yard, 1940s.
(Robert T. McVay, PERYHS) |
Nos. 1592-1593 were bought from
Central California Traction Company (CCT) of Stockton, CA, and originally built for the
Red River Lumber Company (RRL) of Westwood, CA, (what is now Lassen National Forest) in 1927. Both were very unique twins, in that their motors were wired "in parallel" and anyone wanting to tow or switch the engines would have to turn their reversers by hand; otherwise, the magnetic fields in the motors would fight the force pulling against it and would damage the motors. For this reason, No. 1593 was singled out as the most-hated locomotive on the system as far as the crews were concerned, and for a variety of reasons: the odd boxcab that was the only one of its type on the PE, it used that finicky "in-parallel" reverser drum, and the front was coated in a unique aluminum paint, which Torrance crews found caustic and difficult to work with. These two engines remained hard workers on the
Long Beach Lines until 1952, when it and Nos. 1590 and 1591 were sold to the aforementioned FCGU in Buenos Aires for another chance at a working life.
Steam Locomotives? Finally, He's Talking About Something Normal
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Pacific Electric No. 1500 when being scrapped.
The locomotive was originally built by Rogers in 1872
and was known as "Racer" on the Central Pacific.
(Ira L. Swett) |
Yes, you heard me right: Pacific Electric rostered steam locomotives, eight of them. The first two (nos. 1500 and 1501) were 4-4-0 "American/Standard" types serving as construction locomotives, with No. 1500 originally built as Central Pacific No. 97, then Southern Pacific No. 1279 and 1518. Under PE, the locomotive became 1500 and was used to construct the
San Fernando Valley and San Bernardino Lines. After a retirement in Sherman (now West Hollywood), the locomotive was scrapped in 1916 while its tender was reused to fuel piledrivers. No. 1501 was a narrow gauge 4-4-0 from the Los Angeles & Redondo (as Nos. 2, then 23, then 421). After PE gained the LA&R, the locomotive was sold to the
San Fernando Rock Company.
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Pacific Electric No. 1504 at SP's Taylor Yard.
(Donald Duke, PERYHS) |
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Pacific Electric No. 1830, built by Baldwin in 1909,
the largest steam locomotive owned by the PE.
The engine behind it is the Taylor Shop Switcher.
(Donald Duke, PERYHS) |
Steam on the PE wouldn't reemerge until 1922, when PE No. 1504 (original SP number unknown, built by Baldwin in 1906) opened up the new Wingfoot Industrial Spur in South Los Angeles. Originally built for the San Diego & Arizona Eastern (SD&AE, another SP property founded by trolley rival John D. Spreckles), No. 1504 was one of five steam locomotives leased from SP by the PE, with all but one being 0-6-0s. The eldest, No. 1508, was ex-SD&AE No. 3, originally SP No. 1096 and built by Baldwin in 1902, with the newest and largest being M6 Class Mogul No. 1761 for the El Segundo oil refinery service. This locomotive, which never ran in PE letters, was later replaced by M9 Mogul No. 1830. World War II kept the locomotives busy, both with freight switching and haulage on the Northern Division as well as oil traffic on the Western Division, where no trolley poles could tread due to a risk of sparks. At one point, PE leased twenty-four different steam locomotives from SP but only ever lettered six of them. All of PE's lettered locomotives were later scrapped between 1947 and 1949, with the rest returned to SP.
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A normal sight on the Northern District: leased M6 Mogul No. 1740 leads Torrance-built steeplecab
No. 1625 down the mainline to Los Angeles in the early 1940s. The steeplecab's purpose is to
trigger all the grade crossings along the line, as PE wired their signals wire-to-rail instead of rail-to-rail.
(F.J. Peterson, PERYHS) |
Diesels Take Over
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One of two troublesome ex-NWP Brills to work on the PE.
(Donald Duke, PERYHS) |
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PE No. 1651 stands sentinel in front of
a Wilmington oil derrick with its pole down.
(Donald Duke, PERYHS) |
Pacific Electric's diesel escapades, and the end of electric freight, came in 1943, when PE first purchased two
J.G. Brill gas-electric cars to help with the increased traffic. Nos. 1648 and 1649 were originally from the
Northwestern Pacific, but PE despised them as much as they did the 1593. This was due to the gas-electric batteries never charging right at low switching speeds, and the distillate fuel being very temperamental. To supplement them, PE also purchased through SP, two ex-
Texas & New Orleans (TNO) 44-tonners built in 1943 by General Electric. This is where the trouble really began. After fitting the two diesels (1650 and 1651) with trolley poles to activate wire-lined crossing signals, PE was dieselstruck. In 1944, they ordered three more (Nos. 1652-54) and a Baldwin VO-1000 (No. 1380) to work dock traffic in Long Beach. By 1955, PE had leased and lettered whole fleets of EMD SW-1s and Baldwin VO-1000s from Southern Pacific, with even a few enormous 1500-HP Baldwin DRS-6-6-1500 locomotives working heavy freights out of San Bernardino. After the end of the Southern Pacific, many of these locomotives continued working freights for Southern Pacific until most Los Angeles-area freights were cut back in the late 1960s.
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Diesels rule the day on the former Newport-Balboa Line, as a
single VO-1000 hauls a freight down to Newport Beach in the early 1950s.
(Steve Crise, Donald Duke, PERYHS) |
Preservation
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Electra at Travel Town, showing how much taller she is compared
to PE's biggest interurban car, a Blimp.
(The Travel Town Series) |
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PE Express Motor 1498 at Travel Town, serving
as the museum offices.
(Donald Duke, PERYHS) |
To date, seven Pacific Electric freight locomotives and three box motors survive in mostly-static preservation. As mentioned before, the Electra was donated to the
Travel Town Museum in 1952, and the
Orange Empire Trolley Company declined to move the car when they split in 1958 following the museum property's downsizing. One other box motor, No. 1498, was also donated as a Travel Town exhibit, but after being transferred to the now-
Southern California Railway Museum (SCRM) as part of their collection, the car was lost in a vicious carhouse fire. A third box motor car is on static display at Seal Beach, PE No. 1734, on the appropriately named "Electric Avenue", an old PE right-of-way part of the Newport-Balboa Line. The SCRM is home to 1430-class box motor No. 00157, which was the only 1430-class car made into a maintenance-of-wire car, and No. 1624, a Torrance-built Baldwin-Westinghouse steeplecab. No. 1624 was originally saved by the Los Angeles chapter of the
National Railway Historical Society in 1958, and joined the SCRM in 1960 after retirement from freight service. Under the SCRM, it formerly operated as part of the museum's weekend trains, but has since fallen behind on maintenance and restoration. It is currently stored in Carhouse 7, which can be accessed during the museum's annual "Behind the Scenes" day in January.
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PE No. 1624 basks in the evening sun with a weekend train
at the SCRM on December 18, 2011.
(Marty Bernard) |
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FCGU Nos. 591 and 592 (ex-PE No. 1591-1592) at
the Ferroclub Argentinas in Lynch, Argentina, in a much
fresher state.
(Franklin Romero) |
The five other PE freight locomotives surviving can be found at the
Ferroclub CDP Lynch in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Nos. 1590, 1591, 1592, 1593, and 1599 have all survived into preservation following long service under the FCGU as Nos. 590, 591, 592, 593, and 594. Per the FCGU's modifications, the locomotives were fitted with enormous buffers and painted in an interesting brown scheme that's since faded to rust and time. All five engines are in a pitiful state, but the fact that they were able to be saved along with a Hollywood Car means there is promise for them. The Ferroclub is currently working on restoring locomotive No. 1593 to cosmetic, then operating status.
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PE No. 1593, under some shelter at her new home in Argentina.
(Pablo Sebastian Labanca, Ferroclub CDP Lynch) |
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PE No. 1599, now FCGU No. 954, is seen at Lynch, Argentina,
at the Ferroclub CDP Lynch, in 1990. Her working history is still unknown.
(Franklin Romero) |
Thank you for reading today's Trolley post, and watch your step as you alight on the platform. My resources today included
"Interurban Special No. 37 - Combos, Locomotives, & Non-Revenue Cars" by Ira L. Swett, the archives of the
Southern California Railway Museum of Perris, CA, and the archives of the
Pacific Electric Railway Historical Society. The trolley and freight car gifs in our posts are made by myself and my boyfriend, Atticus Van Astikatus. On Thursday, we finish off the month looking at PE's varied maintenance of way vehicles! 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!
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