Trolley Tuesday 2/25/21 - Pacific Electric Maintenance of Way Equipment

We've spent the past month on this blog covering the many glamorous passenger cars (and freight locomotives) of what was once the nation's largest interurban railway, the Pacific Electric Railway (PE). However, a railway of this size is nothing without a means to maintain the one-thousand miles of track and wire at any time and with anything. Therefore, both the Los Angeles Shops of the "Old PE" and the Torrance Shops of the "New PE" had to get creative when it came to meeting the needs of the World's Wonderland Lines. On today's final Trolley Thursday of February, let's dip our bare hands in the grease bucket and look at the special and specialized maintenance-of-way cars that called the PE home.

  

Towers of Terror

Tower Car No. 10 at the Fair Oaks Carhouse on the 
Pasadena Line in the early 1900s. Despite being small,
she is also rather tall.
(Ira L. Swett)

Among the most important pieces of PE's maintenance fleet were their tower cars, twenty-three of which ran all over the system from 1911 to 1953. Their duties were simple: raise the crew up to the wire on a sturdy, insulated wooden platform so any wire on any route could be repaired or replaced without disturbing the rest of the system. The first two tower cars built by the PE were constructed in 1902 by the Old PE's Los Angeles Shops. They were quite a small affair, with Nos. 10 (later 1700) being only 20 feet long, and Nos. 11 (later 1701) even shorter at 18 feet. The diminutive cars sported four wheels and handbrakes in lieu of airbrakes. Their original duties involved stringing up the wire that made PE's downtown lines and the Long Beach Line, but due to their small size, they were rather inadequate to maintain the system following the massive interurban growth of 1904, and most likely the two cars were retained for the city lines until the 1920s. No. 1700 was rebuilt into crane car No. 00190 in 1931, while No. 1701 lost its tower and became service car No. 1823 in 1920 and was then scrapped in 1926. 

PE Tower Car No. 1716 is seen at the same location as No. 10,
Fair Oaks Carhouse, in 1916. Note the enormous rolls of wire
along her thin wooden cab.
(Jack Finn, PERYHS)

Tower car PE No. 00151 working on the San Bernardino
Wire, while also working off the San Bernardino Wire.
(Ira L. Swett)

Pacific Electric later followed up its 1700-series tower cars with four ex-Los Angeles Pacific (LAP) tower cars and two ex-Los Angeles & Redondo (LA&R) tower cars, all of which became PE property in 1911. All six followed the same strict design principles, being motorized flatcars with one tower and a thin sliver of a cab, and PE themselves had their own in the form of Tower Car No. 1713 (originally PE No. 2), which was built in 1901 as a construction car. The LAP cars (1710, 1711, 1714, and 1716) were all constructed between 1899 and 1901, with the latter two originally built as "work motors". The closest approximation for this would be a pickup truck with two truck beds at either end, or San Francisco MUNI's own C-1 work motor. No. 1711 had the most glamorous duty of them all, being used to string up the 1200V wire of the San Bernardino Line in 1914. Due to lax workplace safety regulations at the time, the car was also running on the wire as it was stringing up, which a national magazine noted in December 1914 and is illustrated above.

PE Tower Car No. 1710, now Wire Greaser No. 00150,
greases the wire at Cahuenga Pass inbound to Hollywood.
She was popularly known as the "Woodpecker's Smorgasbord"
for her all-wood construction.
(Jack Finn, PERYHS)

Its sister car, No. 1710, did not have duties as glamorous or noteworthy, but it was one of the longest-working cars on the PE. Originally built in 1899 by the LAP as a tower car, the 1710's duties was to maintain the wires on the Northern and Western Divisions, bouncing between West Hollywood, Macy Street Yard, and the Washington Street Carhouse. In 1931, the car and its sister were renumbered 00150 and 00151, respectively, and while No. 00151 was scrapped in 1934, its tower would go to No. 00151 as it also gained a larger cab. After PE switched from wheels to trolley shoes, the need to protect the copper wire from the friction caused by the new, non-rolling shoes was met by installing 00151 with two greasing trolley poles, each end armed with grease sticks made from graphite, paraffin, and heavy grease. Her usual haunts were along the Cahuenga Pass of the San Fernando Valley Line, the four-tracks on both the Northern and Southern Divisions, and the Glendale-Burbank Line, working until 1957.

PE No. 1720, now No. 00153, passes by "Portland Twelve" 1262 at Washington Blvd. in Los Angeles, 1941.
(Ira L. Swett)

PE Tower Car No. 00155, formerly of the Third
Avenue Railway System (or TARS) lies waiting
to be scrapped at Torrance Shop's dead line, 1948.
(Ira L. Swett)

PE's motorized flatcars were eventually supplanted and replace beginning in 1908, with the construction of 1720 announcing a new line of enclosed, purpose-built tower cars. No. 1720 was the only enclosed car of the old PE and shared its underpinnings with the wooden "Eights", while its body was designed at the PE Carpenter's Shops, leading to a very clumsy, tall, and bulky appearance as one of the tallest cars of the system. PE would not build another tower car of their own until 1915, but between them PE rebuilt plenty of other second-hand cars from the Golden Gate Park & Ocean Shore Railway of San Francisco (which were Nos. 1721, 1722, and 1723, with only 1722 lasting until renumbering in 1931 as 00154), from the LAP again (No. 1724, which was actually a steam baggage car), and the Third Avenue Railway System of New York City (Nos. 1725, 1731, and 1733, which all lasted past the 1931 renumbering as 00155, 00158, and 00160). 

The latter cars are all noteworthy as they were the only East Coast cars owned by the Pacific Electric and were three of ten bought by the LAP to be used as box motors and RPOs during a brief motive power shortage in 1902. All three cars were rebuild under Old PE with spare or hand-me-down components from Fives and Eights and featured a stylish, wide "pagoda" deck that PE felt necessary to strengthen the car's roofs, along with a tower that resembled Japanese battleships of that era. The cars were usually found on Southern Division trunk lines, with No. 00160 often seen at the Fairbanks carhouse in Long Beach, while 00155 was reported on the Whittier line. No. 00158 was the first to be scrapped at Torrance Shops on September 15, 1939, with No. 00155 following it in 1948, then No. 00160 in 1949. 

PE Tower Car No. 00157 poses with an unknown Hollywood
Car and Steeplecab No. 1605 at Watts Carhouse, September, 1953.
The paint scheme for all work cars was always a flat, dark-maroon
shade of Electric Lines Red with white lettering.
(Don Ross)

PE's last type of Tower Cars were built in the Old PE's Los Angeles Shops in 1915 as an offshoot of their 1451-class wooden box motors. Originally No. 1730 and later No. 00157, the car featured the same insulated wooden deck roof of its predecessors and one single tower, but it could go where no other car could as it was the only tower car PE rostered that could run on 1200 volts. Such was the importance of the car that, whenever it was sent to Torrance for general overhauling, it was given precedence among the other cars to be sent back to the San Bernardino Line quickly. After 1936, 00157 also served as a wire-greaser along with 00150, greasing the wire from San Bernardino to Valley Junction. Due to the insulated roof, it was not uncommon for workers to physically grab and spin the pole around if the car needed to reverse direction, rather than using a rope on other cars. 

PE No. 00164 at an unknown location in a 1940 photo,
showing off its unique white lower beltline. The hardware
such as motors and trucks were taken from retired Eights.
(Unknown Author)

Line Car 00157 was later joined in 1925 by No. 1734/00161, which was built by Torrance Shops as a near copy, but just 8 inches longer. Like No. 00157, 00162 was a dual-voltage car for the San Berdoo line. They were later joined by No. 00164, the final tower car built by PE in 1939. Nos. 00157, 00164 and 00161 lasted into the Metropolitan Coach Lines (MCL), then Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority (LAMTA) eras, performing the last bits of token maintenance on the few remaining lines, while No. 00152 was in the unfortunate position of dismantling the San Bernardino Line in 1952. The last tower cars were retired in 1961, with No. 00161 being purchased by Mr. Richard Fellows (who intended to turn it into a box motor), while No. 00157 was sold to the Orange Empire Trolley Company in 1958. The other two cars were later scrapped.

The Daily Grind

Pacific Electric Rail Grinder No. 00199 (ex-PE No. 1001) awaits
transport to the Traveltown Museum in 1955. The big water tanks
can be seen on the left of the photo, as well as the shuttered-over
clerestory windows.
(SCRM)

Incredibly, despite its size and reach, Pacific Electric's single rail grinder car only appeared in in 1948. Rail-grinding was both an incredibly filthy and important job for any interurban passenger railroad, as it allowed the tracks to maintain a smooth, consistent profile. For whatever reason, cars like PE "Ten" No. 1001 got by without much track profiling due to the heavy, insulated construction of the wooden cars; but, after the war, PE now had heavier steel cars like Blimps and Hollywoods and the tracks were becoming rougher due to multiple starts and stops under these cars. Modifying Car No. 1001 into a rail grinder was simpler than anyone thought, with one truck being rebuilt to hold massive "carborundum" blocks and the passenger area above that truck replaced by two enormous steel water drums. For cars sensitive to track like the PCCs, No. 00199 remained a popular fixture on the Glendale-Burbank Line and West Hollywood Carhouse. Following the end of all rail traffic on the Western District in 1955, the car was deemed surplus and sold to PE enthusiast and employee, Walter Abbenseth, against the warnings of both his friends and the PE bosses that sold it to him. The rest of the story has been told elsewhere.

There's a Weed-Smoking Joke in Here Somewhere, but It's Too Early in the Morning

PE No. 00195 rushes down the Beverly Hills Line, en route to another job.
(Ira L. Swett)

The business end of 00195, supported
by heavy cables and chains to keep the 
entire apparatus dragging on the ground.
(Ira L. Swett)

One of the oddest and certainly one of the most reckless projects ever birthed by the PE shops was the creation of "Weed Burner" No. 00195. Originally built as "Eight" No. 810, PE had the car rebuilt at Torrance with an enormous weed-burning apparatus to handle the invasive plant situation along trunk lines in all three divisions, from Beverly Hills to Covina and Santa Ana. The objective was simple: when 00195 came across an area that needed burning, an operator facing the other direction in the car would lower the burning apparatus and begin the conflagration of the weeds (and rails and creosote-pressure-treated ties), with a locomotive-hauled water car following behind to put out any unwanted fires. The weed-burning apparatus originally appeared on unpowered car No. 1840, and fortunately for PE, cooler heads prevailed in the end. In 1948, 00195's weed-burning apparatus was removed after 8 years and the car was quietly scrapped shortly thereafter. PE then switched to chemical weed-burning from local contractors.

Shop Switchers

A color photo of PE No. 00196 (formerly 1510) at Torrance Shops, two years before the facility closed.
(Don Ross)

Unique switcher No. 1503 poses on the Torrance Shops
transfer table after it was first built, 1920.
(Harold Stewart, Donald Duke, PERYHS)

PE's Torrance Shops had two resident shop switchers while the facility was open from 1920 to 1955. The first was little No. 00196, originally the Los Angeles Shops switcher No. 20 on the Old PE before being renumbered to 1510 in the Great Merger. At 13 feet long, it was a car so short that its trolley pole dwarfed it in length, yet it also generated enough horsepower to move cars twice or three-times its size around the enormous shop complex. Each of its two Lorain motors generated an eye-watering, Earth-shaking, amazing... 25HP. It also weighed 25,200lbs, most of which was just the motors themselves. No. 00196 was later supplemented in 1920 by a shop-built locomotive numbered 1503, a six-cylinder, 90HP American Locomotive Company (ALCO) diesel designed by a Swiss employee of the PE shops. At 16 feet, 3 inches, it was just barely longer than No. 00196 but possessed tons more power, easily able to swing around tighter-than-tight corners and shift long lines of Blimps and other interurban cars. 1503 was also the last locomotive most of the PE's wooden cars would ever see, as it dragged them over to the Burning Pit for scrapping. When the shops closed in 1955, both No. 00196 and the 1503 were scrapped. 

Cranes

PE "Boxcar" Crane No. 1821 (later 00192) at Torrance, 1921.
(Ira L. Swett)

The second 00192 in 1940, with canvas covering up
the widows and making it look like a Funeral Car.
(Ira L. Swett)

Most of Pacific Electric's crane fleet were all self-propelled, with the only ones unpowered being dredger or steam shovel cars used in line construction. The smallest was No. 00190, rebuilt from tower car No. 1700, and its duties around the West Hollywood Carhouse was to simply pick up and move around wheelsets. The largest crane operated by PE was No. 00192, which was originally a boxcar rebuilt by the LAP as a 25HP crane. Due to its ramshackle construction, the car was already deteriorating so badly that, in 1940, the Torrance Shops transferred its crane equipment to former "Eight" No. 858, which became the second 00192. Unfortunately, the second 00192 lasted even shorter than its predecessor, being scrapped in 1948 at the Torrance Shops where it stayed. The newest, and certainly the most oddest crane of the fleet, was No. 00194, a Ohio Locomotive Crane Company product built in 1922. Unlike the other cranes, No. 00194 was a steam crane and required an SP switcher tender, but it was still self-propelled enough to help the construction of the PE Baldwin Park line in 1946. 

The rebuilt PE No. 1700, now 00190, working with some
wheels at West Hollywood Carhouse, 1945.
(Ira L. Swett)

Grim Reapers

Ex-Third Avenue Railway System Wrecker No. 001 in 1915.
(Ira L. Swett)

PE Crane No. 003 at Los Angeles, CA, year unknown.
(Don Ross)

The last fleet of cars worth mentioning are also the lowest numbered in PE's 00-prefixed maintenance of way fleet. They went by many names, and were feared by streetcars alike, especially since they used to be one of them. These were the Wreckers, with the first one being Car No. 001, an ex-Third Avenue Railway System car that LAP had purchased in 1902. With the tolling of its locomotive bell, 001 was assigned to move surplus or dead-storage streetcars about the yard, often to their final resting place. It was later joined by Wrecker 002, a dual-voltage wrecker for the San Bernardino Line, until 1920 when ex-Peninsular Railway of San Jose No. 1450 became the second 002. Wrecker Crane No. 003 was the heaviest single piece of equipment to run on the PE, weighing in at a staggering 171,800lbs, and was worked from 1913 to 1963, seeing out the last remnants of electric railway operation. Wrecker No. 005 (ex-box motor 1413) had possibly the worst fate of any of the wreckers as, after serving as the West Hollywood Wrecker, the wooden car was burned alive at Indio in 1953. One of the last and newest wreckers was an ex-Portland Eugene & Eastern box motor, PE No. 1406, which replaced an earlier 008 in 1953 and was assigned to Watts Carhouse as an unpowered "relief" car and hauled by diesels. It was retired in 1959, then sold to the Orange Empire Trolley Company.  

PE No. 1406 in service as an express-mail Box Motor at
7th Street Yard, 1940s.
(SCRM)

Everybody's Working On the Weekend

PE No. 00150 in its current state at the back of SCRM, Barn 7.
(Hicks Car Works)

PE No. 00157 poses during the 2012 "Pacific Electric Day"
festival at the Southern California Railway Museum.
(Marty Bernard)

Today, four of PE's original maintenance-of-way cars have survived at the Orange Empire Trolley Museum, now the Southern California Railway Museum (SCRM). As mentioned before, rail grinder No. 00199 has been restored back to her original condition as PE "Ten" No. 1001, but three other large pieces have survived as well. Tower Car No. 00157 is the only one operable, having been purchased in 1958 and restored, over time, into its PE service livery after 1931. During the museum's "Pacific Electric Day" festival, the car was usually out and operating, both serving as the museum's wire car and demonstrating its unique set of skills to visitors. It is currently on display in Barn 4, pending another cosmetic restoration. 

I've no current pictures of 008 right now, but have this 
picture of her as PE No. 1406 at Beverly Hills in the early 1950s.
(Metro Library & Archive)

The other car, No. 00150, is in much worse shape. Due to its age, the car's frame has warped heavily to the point that steel rails are being used to bend the frame back straight, and much of its original wood paneling is now gone. To the untrained eye, it looks like a pile of scrap on wheels, but to the SCRM and its volunteers of PE enthusiasts, it is the oldest Pacific Electric car they have. An unlikely dream is to one day have it restored for demonstration and display purposes, but due to the wood's age that may involve building an entire new car. The third large piece, Wrecker No. 008, had its body sold in 1959 to private owners while its trucks went to the SCRM. The body would not be reunited with its trucks until 1992, when the 008 was purchased from a private residence and is now stored at the SCRM's Barn 7, still displaying shingles along its side and clad in faded house paint.

  

Thank you for reading today's Trolley post, and watch your step as you alight on the platform. I know I missed out on a LOT of things this month, especially since I didn't even get to talk about PE's cabooses or their portable substations, but they're all things I can easily go back to later on. 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. On Tuesday, we start off March by looking at the history of LA's downtown lines on the Los Angeles Railway! 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!