Trolley Thursday 3/25/21 - The Los Angeles Railway's PCC Cars

It's quite telling that the last streetcar to operate in Los Angeles was also the one meant to save it. It was a car built from measured desperation, hoping to fight back against the menace of buses and promise citizens all over the United States that rapid transit and light rail had a chance. However, several factors affecting the Los Angeles Railway held back further development of the famous President's Conference Committee Car (or PCC Car) until the last car rolled into Division Four on March 31, 1963. Modern, timeless, and like nothing else in the Yellow Car Fleet, the role of the PCC in the company's history cannot be understated, and in order to understand just how such a newcomer greatly affected this once-mighty company, let's take this Trolley Thursday to ride aboard the PCCs!

  

A New Car for a New Era

A 1944 LARy shop drawing of the Type "P" PCCs.
(Metro Library and Archives)

Brooklyn & Queens Transit No. 1001,
the very first production PCC.
(Branford Electric Railway Association)

Talking about the President's Conference Committee (PCC) car is nothing new for our blog, as we've covered the genesis of the PCCs along with the many street railways that took advantage of this revolutionary streetcar. In sort, the "PCC" was a group of 25 United States street railway executives (including one representing the Los Angeles Railway, or LARy) that wanted to build the perfect streetcar that was modern in design, cheap to build and operate, and could compete and undercut city buses in public service. The development of this new design was primarily hashed out in the midwest between prominent carbuilders St. Louis Car Company and the Pullman Company of Chicago, IL, with the first cars being produced by 1934. In 1936, the first production models rolled off the production line and into the waiting arms of 26 different street railways, including the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company, the San Diego Electric Railway, and the LARy.

A banquet model of the planned No. 2701, circa 1933.
(Ira L. Swett)

The Los Angeles Railway, like all street railways, had a heavy interest in the PCC's development from the get-go. Years of declining ridership, fare backlashes, outdated equipment, and increased automobile ownership had taken a toll on Henry Huntington's battered yellow car, and the LARy needed a new draw. Plans for a streamlined car similar to the eventual PCC were drawn up by South Park Shops' own draughtsmen, but this car (No. 2701) was based off of Pullman's own PCCs and heavily resembled the PCCs on Pacific Electric's rails. However, by the time the finalized drawings for the PCCs came out in early 1935, LARy management decided against a custom-built streetcar and went for pulling 30 production models off of St. Louis Car Company's shelves, built to their narrow gauge of 42" (Cape Gauge). This order later rose to 60 cars by August 1936. Contrary to popular belief, the Los Angeles Railway was not the first west-coast streetcar company to receive PCCs; that honor went to John D. Spreckel's San Diego Electric Railway (which later went to El Paso under NCL's management).

  

First In Line

LARy No. 3002 poses with Mayor Frank 
Shaw and actress Shirley Temple, 1937.
(PERYHS)

The first two LARy Type "P" cars rolled into Los Angeles on March 12, 1937, and to say that the city went nuts for their new streetcars was an understatement. Nos. 3001 and 3002 were rush-shipped from St. Louis Car for public relation purposes, as the carbuilder was busy battling a strike at home, and they certainly looked nothing like the Type "H"s that came before them: they were low, curvy, and painted in a two-tone chrome-and-lemon yellow scheme not found on other cars. Such was the uniqueness and eye-catching ability of the PCCs that not even the name "Los Angeles Railway" graced the sides cars, just a number. When car 3002 was on display at City Hall, then-mayor Frank L. Shaw declared that week of March 22-28 "Transportation Week", and took photos with legendary child actress Shirley Temple before the cars were set loose on a special demonstration loop around the city.

With St. Louis still swamped with financial issues in the wake of its strike, the rest of the production PCCs began to trickle in through 1937, eventually numbering 3001-3060. Because the LARy was the LARy, the car roster was split into twos mechanically, with cars 3001-3020 possessing Westinghouse motors and controls, while cars 3021-3060 were fitted with GE controls. For the motormen, the arrangement was highly unfamiliar, resembling more of a city bus than a streetcar. The motorman's left foot stomped on a deadman pedal all day, with a brake pedal in the middle (that doubled as the parking brake when pressed halfway down, allowing the motorman to take their foot off the deadman) and an accelerator pedal on the far right. Instead of a nine-point notched controller, the accelerator was connected to a 99-point, relay-actuated rotating controller that ensured smooth acceleration without jerking or bumping. For comfort, the front windows hinged open from the bottom, allowing a nice breeze through the car, as well as through a small clipper window on the motorman's left. Doors, lights, bells, and other amenities were served by clicky switches, with a small bar in front of them for the motorman to hold onto. Finally, the most important feature of the PCCs introduced to the Los Angeles Railway? The motorman got to sit down as they did all of this.

How cushy. However, this motorman is a believer that
standing improves focus and visibility.
(and not because I'm 5'4.)
(Detroit Transit History)

LA Railway No. 3004 leads a line of other type "P"s on their first
duties on the "P" Line, seen here at First and Main Streets, 1937.
(Steve Crise, PERYHS)

When the Type "P"s arrived in Los Angeles, there was an initial delay in introduction as LA city ordinance still required external Eclipse Safety Fenders (or "people catchers") attached to the front of the cars. LARy even envisioned a contingency plan to mount people catchers on them if their new Type C integrated fenders (shown by the small horizontal bars below the car's front) didn't work out. Thankfully, cooler heads prevailed and the cars were assigned, appropriately, to the busy "P" Line from the Pico/Rimpau Loop in the west Mid-City to Rowan/Indiana in East Los Angeles, via Broadway and City Hall. Normal operations dictated half of the fleet to provide base service, so 29 cars were often laid up at Division One carhouse during normal service rotation. 18 of these cars later went to the "3" Line from Larchmont/Melrose in the west to East 6th and Central in downtown LA's eastside, serving the Southern Pacific Railway Central Station. 

LARy No. 3011 in 1939, working on the "3" Line at
Larchmont and West 3rd Street.
(Ralph Cantos, PERYHS)

To say they were a success would be an understatement, as schedule speed rose from 10% to 12% on the "P" and "3" Lines, while ridership increased 14% on the weekdays and 25% on weekends. Such was the success of the PCCs that LARy began aggressively pushing its weekend and special event services, such as special football cars to the LA Coliseum, or baseball services before the Dodgers moved from Brooklyn. Eventually, the Type Ps were filled out by another 35 cars, nos. 3061-3095, bringing the grand total to 94 original Type P's. This new batch of cars also helped convert the "J" Line to Huntington Park into an all-PCC line by early 1939, and now all of LA was beginning to hear the hum of the PCC. 

How Do You Two-Man A One-Man Car?

A South Park Shops worker
attaches a farebox next to a PCC
car's center exit, 1939.
(Ira L. Swett)

The PCC car was originally developed as a labor-saving one-man car, requiring only a motorman up front to collect fares as well as drive the car and let people in and out. This was nothing new with streetcars like the PCC, as the earlier Birney Safety Car (which LARy also invested in as the Type "G") was meant to do the same job. However, the Birneys never had to endure being tokenly converted to two-man operation like the PCCs. On May 2, 1939, a new LA city proposition called for the complete ban on one-man cars for safety concerns. The LARy argued back that both the California State Railroad Commission (CRC) and the City Board of Public Utilities already approved of one-man operation, so why start this now? Nevertheless, LARy complied with the new ordinance and had almost all of its PCCs fitted with a conductor's seat and farebox stanchion at the center exits so incoming passengers could pay before they exited or sat down. This quick and dirty conversion, nicknamed the Type "P1", brought capacity down from 61 to 59, but at least met the requirement for two-man operations. Eventually, in 1940, the ordinance was struck down by the California Supreme Court and LARy resumed one-man operations by the end of the year, with the "P-1s" reverting back to Type "P"s.

  

War Babies

"Flying Tiger' "P" No. 3010, advertising to
"Become a Pilot" at LA Union Station, June 10, 1944.
(Ralph Cantos, PERYHS)

If not for World War II, LARy would have remained content with 94 PCC cars and began investing in buses. Indeed, the same story was found on Pacific Electric's Glendale-Burbank Line, which was also forced from "bustitution" due to wartime. Los Angeles was vital to the war effort, as it was home to plenty of aircraft and ship construction plants from the aircraft factories in El Segundo to the Calship Yards on Terminal Island. Understandably, materials like rubber, copper, steel, cloth, and glass were all considered "war material" and were in short supply, so nobody could just go around building streetcars at the time. That is... unless you were Los Angeles. Thanks to a successful appeal to the War Production Board, LARy ordered another 30 cars from St. Louis Car Company in 1942. These were the only new streetcars built in the United States during that time, and Nos. 3096-3125 were quickly classified as the Type "P-2". In support of the US war effort, Type "P" No. 3010 was dressed in a handsome "Flying Tigers" inspired scheme to attract draftees to the Army Air Corps.

LATL "P-2" No. 3111 in an unknown private right of way in the late 1940s, showing off a "V"
design that was later left off other repainted PCCs.
(Ralph Cantos, PERYHS)

LATL No. 3100 in color, showing off its painted steel
decorations and the front ad sign
that eliminated the "V" seen above.
(Myself)

The "P-2" PCCs were billed as improvements on the "P-1s", but were also more austere in design. The biggest improvements were the larger metal anti-climbers front and rear (yes, you can also call them "bumpers"), a center-exit moved one window back, and a tilted-back windscreen to reduce glare. Among the cars' austere measures were the lack of any stainless steel features, replaced with chrome-painted steel (including the anti-climbers and metal wings flanking the headlight), Pantasote leather seats instead of cloth, and steel exit door treadles instead of rubber. Operations-wise, the cars were the first to use dynamic braking to slow down and even stop the car, which the original "P-1s" lacked. They also ended up being the last cars ordered by the Los Angeles Railway as a company, as in 1944 it was purchased from the Huntington Estate by the infamous National City Lines (NCL), becoming their Los Angeles Transit Lines (LATL) subsidiary. Due to the purchase, both the "P"s and "P-2s" were repainted into NCL colors, adopting the "Salad Bowl" scheme of yellow with a green window line and white roof. Many of these early cars wore this scheme right up to the end.

LATL PCC No. 3010 is in another special scheme, this time a "Candy Cane Car"
scheme for Christmas 1948, sponsored by the Downtown Business Men's Association.
(Ralph Cantos, PERYHS)

  

Postwar PCCs

LATL No. 3126, the first "Big P" shows off its length
and size compared to its motorman, 1948.
(Metro Library and Archives)

It was assumed that, thanks to the trolley bus conversion of the "3" Line in 1947, LATL would continue rampant "bustitution" of the former LARy and that Angelenos should just be prepared for a world running on rubber tires and diesel engines. To the surprise of many, LATL took delivery of the first Type "P-3" PCC on September 10, 1948. No. 3126 was the first of the last 40 streetcars ordered new in Los Angeles until 1991, and they represented the zenith of PCC design. They were eight inches longer, six inches wider, and had many features to make both motormen and passengers happy. For the motormen, the windscreen was now canted back at an extreme angle to avoid any and all glare and braking was now assisted by both dynamic motor braking (along with mechanical drum brakes) along with other air-operated amenities replaced by electricity, resulting in a quiet, smooth, and efficient car. Because of the last time streetcars in Los Angeles used any kind of magnetic or electrical braking, batteries were provided aboard the P-3s to maintain power should the pole come off. To the motormen and shop crews of the LA Railway, the cars were known as the "Big Ps" because of their big... size. 

LAMTA "P-3" No. 3145" on its usual
"P" Line beat, January 13, 1963.
(Gordon Clattenburg, PERYHS)

For the passengers, the "P-3"s now featured tinted standee windows above the normal windows, and handcranks on the top and bottom windows to allow for proper airflow. These cars largely went unchanged in service, primarily serving the "P" Line as the "P"s and "P-2s" moved onto serving the "R" Line (which started taking "3" Line refugees on September 25, 1948). This conversion also extended the reach of Division 4, which all PCC types called home. The final route expansion for the PCCs came in 1954, when the "R" Line was cut back in service and transferred the remaining PCCs there onto the venerable, vast, and viciously straight "V" Line down Vermont Blvd. 

  

Bring Out the Crying Trolley

No. 3035 lies helpless like a beached fish in front of
Santa Fe Baldwin No. 2602, April 6, 1956.
(Ralph Cantos)

After 1954, things quickly went downhill for the next near-decade of PCC service. Dwindling passenger numbers meant that there were an increasing number of PCCs lying in dead storage beginning in 1955, with 19 gathering dust at Division Four. April 6, 1956, saw the first PCC scrapped after an empty car No. 3035 was struck by an Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe Railway (ATSF) Baldwin DT66-2200 diesel switcher. No. 3035 was being dead-towed from Vernon Yard to South Park Shops by a wrecker truck and was crossing Pacific Blvd, which intersected the ATSF's Harbor Branch. Due to the slow towing of the wrecker truck, the ATSF engineer assumed 3035 would clear the crossing under its own power and only realized it was being towed too slow when it was too late. The diesel hit 3035 enough to nearly bisect the poor car, which not only tipped over off the tracks but now sported a foot-deep gash into its side. When the car was righted and towed back to Vernon Yard, its frame was found to be "badly twisted". So went No. 3035, the first of many. 

What remained of No. 3035 at Vernon Yard, just another insurance write-off.
(Ralph Cantos, PERYHS)

"P-2" No. 3112 is spotted at 7th off Figueroa in early 1960.
(Steve Crise, PERYHS)

The rest of the fleet remained relatively intact as the "S" Line between Western Ave./Santa Monica Blvd and Manchester Blvd/Firestone Blvd was eventually turned over to the PCCs after September 1958, bringing the grand number of PCC lines to five (J, P, R, S, and V). This move also eliminated the last stubborn Type "H-4" still working, removing the last of LA Railway's unique standard streetcars. This move also came under the auspices of LA's new streetcar operating company, the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority (LAMTA), itself a municipal division of now-Pacific Electric owner Metropolitan Coach Lines (MCL). Under MCL (who operated the trolleys for the LAMTA), some PCCs were patched with the new logo and kept their "Salad Bowl" scheme, while most were repainted into the new corporate scheme of two-tone green and white starting in late 1958. From a roster of over one thousand passenger cars, the city of Los Angeles was now down to just one hundred and sixty-four.

"All Electric" No. 3148 is in strange territory next to
an LAMTA (ex-PE) Blimp No. 1708, February 16, 1960.
(Ralph Cantos)

One of these cars, "P-3" No. 3148, ended up borrowed by the ex-Pacific Electric division of the LAMTA for an experimental run to see if the interurban's "Long Beach Line" (a relic from 1902) could be saved for future light rail development. Up on trucks borrowed from MUNI PCC No. 1024, the car ran tests around Long Beach's Fairbanks Yard, rubbing shoulders with elderly Blimps and Hollywood Cars. After six test runs, the car was returned to the narrow gauge lines and nothing else was done about maintaining service on the Long Beach Line using the "All Electrics". The Long Beach Line closed on April 9, 1961, and the other trolleys in Los Angeles were living on borrowed time. Many of them remained in the public eye thanks to various fan-trips chartered by the Railroad Boosters (Now the Pacific Railroad Society) and the Southern California Electric Railway Association (SC-ERA, now part of the Southern California Railway Museum of Perris, CA). Behind the scenes, however, the directors of the LAMTA began to plot to finally kill the streetcar in its tracks.

A quiet night at LAMTA Division 20 carhouse on
February 25, 1963. note the PCC still in LATL paint.
(Alan Weeks)

October 24, 1962. A meeting of the LAMTA directors finally agreed to abandon streetcar service as of March 31, 1963, and buses would run Los Angeles public transit from that point on. In the last couple weeks of March, all repainting of the cars into the LAMTA colors was ceased and movement of unused PCC cars from South Park Shops and Division 4 to Vernon Yard began. The yard was turned into a holding yard as the company tried to find buyers for the cars, including in Korea and Egypt. Division Four was quickly turned into a bus yard, and many PCCs found their way to Vernon yard under their own power with a few needing to be towed. Many were still in tip-top condition despite the oldest pushing 25 years of service, thanks to the passionate maintenance upheld by some of the old LA Railway guard. 

LAMTA No. 3002, the "Crying Trolley" is filmed on the
last day of streetcar operations in Los Angeles, as part of
a historical documentary all about the last day.
(Metro Library and Archives) 

March 31, 1963. The J, P, R, and S lines closed to streetcar traffic. Only the V Line remained as the last service was rendered by cars 3002 and 3004, a transfer job from Division 4 to Vernon Yard. 3002 was a veteran Type "P", and one of the most famous, as it had its photo taken with Mayor Shaw and Shirley Temple back in 1937. Now, at 26 years old, the car was dressed in a paint scheme rendered by the last remaining workers of Division Four in early 1963, with a crying face and a quoted song lyric on her side reading "GOODBYE FOREVER - old sweethearts and pals". No. 3004 was more modestly dressed, with black bunting adorning her front. From sunrise to sunset, 70 PCC cars made the hard and emotional journey to Vernon Yard, with those assembled being moved into place by hand-held stingers. By 4PM, Nos. 3004 and 3002 finally arrived in the yard and, soon after, the last powerhouse was shut down. 

And it was all over...

No. 3002, the "Crying Trolley" is seen trailing close behind a line of dead PCCs
on April 4, 1963, at Vernon Yard.
(L. Swanson, Andy Goddard, PERYHS)

New Lives in Cairo

An ex-LAMTA "P-3" PCC on the streets of Cairo, looking quite battered and weary in July, 1977.
(Unknown Author)

While lying in Vernon Yard, a few PCCs were able to find new lives elsewhere. Besides the ones preserved below, 22 cars were sold to the Chile Nitrate Company between 1963 and 1964, where they worked until some time in 1975. The other 134 cars left were sold to Cairo, Egypt, where they worked on their meter-gauge system. Due to the differences in gauge, the wheels were machined from LA's 42 inches to Cairo's 39 inches, and all three classes of cars ("P"s, "P-2"s, and "P-3s" found gainful employment in the land of the Pharaohs. They were later joined, and replaced, by newer generations of PCCs proliferating across Europe at the time, whose PCC development never stopped thanks to manufacturers like Duwag of Germany and Tatra of Czechoslovakia. The Cairo PCCs worked until the 1980s, and it's safe to say none of either nations survive.

PCCs in Preservation

Three generations of PCC cars at the SCRM, with
(left to right) 3001, 3100, and 3165.
(Myself)

Today, six original LA Railway PCCs survive in preservation as the only narrow-gauge PCCs of their types. Of the six, the Southern California Railway Museum of Perris, CA, maintains five in varying conditions, with three operable and two in storage. Nos. 3001 and 3100 were originally leased (then sold) to the museum in 1963 by LAMTA themselves, and were among the first cars stored at the new Museum Carhouse 1, which went up the same year. No. 3165, the last PCC (and streetcar) ordered for LA, joined the fleet in 1965 following two years laid up at Vernon Yard. All three have operated in preservation, with No. 3001 restored to its "as delivered" appearance, No. 3100 in LATL livery, and No. 3165 in its LAMTA condition. Due to the steep drop in grade getting into Carhouse 1, No. 3165's rear skirts were modified with an increased cutaway, as the bottom kept scraping along the rails in the first couple of decades. No. 3072 was originally purchased privately by Jack Richer, a member of the SC-ERA, and was originally operated on his trailer park property in Southern California on just 50 feet of track, enough to shuffle it back and forth. After his death, the car came to the museum and is now lying under a tarp between Carhouse 1 and 3. The museum also has claim to the body of PCC No. 3084, which is in derelict condition. Car No. 3002, the infamous "Crying Trolley" was also supposed to join this collection when the SCRM was located in Travel Town, but it was instead sold to Cairo.

The other remaining PCC car is actually in Colorado, which itself had a 42-inch gauge street railway in Denver. This car, "War Baby" No. 3101, was meant for a tourist streetcar operation in the town of Cripple Creek. When the street railway fell through with the town, the car was then transferred to the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden for many years until it was purchased by the Pike's Peak Historical Street Railway Foundation. Standing out in its "Salad Bowl" livery, the "P-2" PCC maintains its Cape gauge trucks and is currently on display at their museum location in Colorado Springs, CO. It is hoped, one day, that either No. 3101 is re-gauged and run at their museum or kept on its original trucks.

Ex-LATL PCC No. 3101 at the Colorado Springs Trolley Museum.
(Pike's Peak Historical Street Railway Foundation)

  

Thank you for reading today's Trolley post, and watch your step as you alight on the platform. My resources today included "The Yellow Cars of Los Angeles" by Ira L. Swett and Jim Walker, the archives of the Southern California Railway Museum, and the archives of the Pacific Electric Railway Historical Society. I'd also like to thank not only the SCRM above, but also the Pike's Peak Historical Street Railway Foundation of Colorado Springs, CO. The trolley gifs in our posts are made by myself and can be found under “Motorman Reymond’s Railroad Gif Carhouse”. On Tuesday, we finish off the month of March by looking at the unsung heroes of the LA Railway: the Maintenance of Way Division! 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!