Trolley Tuesday 3/16/21 - The Los Angeles Railway Type "H" Steel City Cars

Over the course of this blog, we've tracked the steady pattern of streetcar, interurban, and rapid transit companies switching from wooden car construction to steel construction. Most companies shifted during the 1910s, following improved methods of steel casting and construction. Early steel streetcar designs were some of the most iconic of the of the twentieth century, from Blimps, to Hollywoods, and even New York City subway cars. The Los Angeles Railway (LARy) was one of the latest adopters of steel cars, their first arrived from the St. Louis Car Company in 1921. However, these cars are no less important or significant in the Yellow Car roster, and so today's Trolley Tuesday will be spend discussing the wonderful, the stalwart, and the iconic LARy Type "H" steel city cars. 

 

A Shift in Steel

Los Angeles Railway prided itself on the creativity and ingenuity of its South Park carpentry shop, which had birthed many of the fleet's finest streetcars, including the Type "F" round-roof streetcar, the Type "B" "Huntington Standard", and the Type "D" and "E" funeral cars (more on that later). So by the time the 1920s rolled around, the designers had gotten rather complacent and the streetcars began to suffer from it. Pacific Electric (PE), their once-brother turned rival, had switched to steel cars for safety reasons following the Vineyard Junction Wreck of 1913, and their 1200-class interurban cars were already looking quite modern compared to the five-window "Standards" still creaking and rattling away on the LARy system. Thus, in 1920, LARy decided to respond to the "Twelves" with their own 1200-class of steel streetcars: The "H" types.

1932-dated drawings of the LA Railway Type "H" car, featuring unique 
extended-foldup Eclipse safety fenders.
(Alan Weeks, PERYHS)

Los Angeles Railway No. 1201 at St. Louis Car Co, 1921.
The bottom is so barren because LARy wanted to add
its own motors, air pumps, and electrical equipment.
(Jeffrey J. Moreau, SCRM)

The design was rather spartan for what was supposed to be the most modern cars of the Yellow Car fleet, retaining the open-air "California Car" design with an enclosed section in the middle and open sections on either side. The doors were arranged 2-and-1 as was also standard on the wooden cars, with an entrance door and conductor's section in the rear of the car and the exit door positioned at the front. The familiar five-window "Huntington Standard" design was gone, replaced with three larger panes of glass, making the cars look more contemporary alongside the Type "G" Birney cars and the rest of the PE fleet. As always, Los Angeles Railway sent their plans (and a representative) to St. Louis Car Company to fulfill their order, and the first twenty-five cars began arriving at LARy's Vernon Maintenance Yard in 1921.

No. 1224 leads a string of Type "Hs" at South Park Shops, ready to be fitted out.
(Ira L. Swett)

  

All New Features

LARy Type "H" No. 1201 and "Standard" No. 525
show off their differences in appearance, both restored
to their 1931-onward conditions.
(Carl Morrison)

When LARy nos. 1201-1225 first arrived, the cars were both mighty familiar to LARy crews but also quite alien to them. The most-notable difference between them and the Type "B"s was the weight, as the H's weighed in at an exceptionally light 38,900lbs as built compared to the "Standards"s 41,920lbs. This, along with the larger 30" diameter wheels, gave the H's a faster acceleration between stops, cutting down on schedule times and increasing service intervals. For the motorman, the Type "H"s were also the safest cars to operate as they featured Westinghouse's tried-and-true "Hand-Line" controls, or "HL". Instead of taking all 600 volts directly into the controller, the HL used a battery-relay system to control a twin-resistor grid under the car, ensuring a motorman could not get shocked while taking points repeatedly all day. For the passengers, the interiors felt familiar to riders so used to the old "Standards", as the H's featured wooden-slat "walkover" seats, wooden floors, no ceiling paneling, and plain light bulbs. 

A little trolley cartoon from LARy's company magazine, "Two Bells", demonstrating the crews'
newfound confusion over running trains (instead of single cars) for the first time, 1922.
(Ira L. Swett)

LA Railway almost always ran their trains in paired numbers.
Here, Nos. 1238 (left) and 1239 (right) show off their 600V jumper
cable on top and the Westinghouse coupler below.
(Ira L. Swett)

The biggest new feature introduced was multiple-unit working, which the LARy designs integrated into the original Type "H" design. This was for their original assignment as "interurban" cars on the incredibly-long "M" (later "5") line between Eagle Rock and Hawthorne. Unlike all other multiple unit cars, though, the LARy's system was more primitive. When operating in tandem, the rear car always had their pole down and received power from jumper cables running from the lead car via a forehead-mounted port (due to all the track switches being controlled by the lead car from the wire), while normal functions like airbrakes and relays were supplied by a Westinghouse K-1-A automatic car-air-electric coupler (similar to those used on the PE Hollywood Cars). To accommodate the new couplers, the Eclipse Safety Fenders had to be redesigned to sit higher on the front end when folded, covering up the headlight and ensuring effective clearance between the two.

An interior picture of LARy No. 1201, showing off its rather spartan interior design.
(Richard Daugherty, SCRM)

Multiple Units, Multiple Variants

LARy "H2" No. 1421 poses for its "as delivered" photo in 1924,
showing off its original yellow scheme with brown windows
along with early lined livery.
(Alan Weeks, PERYHS)

Further H types began arriving in 1922 with the introduction of the fifty Type "H1s" (Nos. 1226-1275) and the fifty Type "H2s" (Nos. 1276-1325) in 1922-1923. All of these cars were pretty much alike in operation and design, but below the frames the H2s featured a longer truck wheelbase compared to the first two (being 5'9" long versus the standard 5'5" wheelbase). Around this same time, LARy had called all H's, H1's, and H2's back to South Park shops to fit them with two more motors as the cars were found to be severely underpowered (delaying delivery of the H2s in the process). The last twenty-five "H2s", Nos. 1326-1450 were delivered by St. Louis Car Company by the end of 1924, giving the LARy a complete fleet of 250 Type "H" cars, enough to significantly offset their "Standards" into secondary duties. The last car ordered, No. 1450, was subjected to an odd trial by the LARy, as it was the only car to run with a GE C178A "Master Controller" instead of the standard Westinghouse HL Controller. Due to this small change, the car was popularly referred to by shop crews as the "General Electric car". 

LA Railway No. 1450 in "H3" condition, at Division Three carhouse, 1942.
(Jeffrey J. Moreau, SCRM)

LARy No. 1350 with its experimental skirts at the 
LA Railway Division 2 carhouse.
(Ira L. Swett)

With this many cars eventually came plenty of experimental designs, both to solve practical problems and to periodically update the cars. Besides the four-motoring rebuilds, one major attempt to improve the cars was to solve the issue of flange squeal. As the cars' 30-inch wheels became natural amplifiers when ground up against a railhead or a brake shoe, many passengers and neighbors abhorred the streetcar's presence. No. 1350 was sent back to the shops and fitted with side skirts to try and solve the issue, but this was not adopted for a myriad of reasons. The answer was eventually found by boring three holes in each wheel and fitting them with fiber pads to kill off any unwanted audio vibrations, which seemed to have done the trick. 

  

Green is Good, Green Works

A false-color photo of No. 1449 in "deluxe" condition.
(Ralph Cantos, PERYHS)

Another significant rebuild took place in 1928 when car No. 1444 became the prototype for a new shop-built variant of the Type "H"s known as the "H3". Los Angeles residents were already pushing LARy to show any kind of progress after they decided to raise fares in 1928 (from a nickel to 7 cents), and one of those demands was for improved cars. To appease these voices, no. 1444 was rebuilt with all-enclosed windows, upholstered leather seats, brass sash windows, white plywood ceiling lighting, new light globes, a motorman's visor, and an electric communication bell. To say that Los Angeles did not expect LARy to come out with a parlor car was an understatement, and the enthusiastic response led to the South Park Shops rebuilding cars 1441-1443 and 1445-1450 in rapid course. The new H3's also sported a flashy green-and-cream scheme with a special golden-lined oval logo bearing "LOS ANGELES RAILWAY" with the number in the middle. These cars were soon set to work on the "5" Line in 1931, totaling 35 cars. 

The suave interior of the H3s, giving weary commuters welcome comfort on their ride home.
(Ira L. Swett)

Type "H3s" Nos. 1421 (leading) and 1432 curl through
the corner of Jefferson and Griffith on the last fantrip of
"train" operations on the LARy, January 15, 1929.
(Ralph Melching, PERYHS)

However, their uniqueness, just like the multiple-unit cars, soon came to an end. Routine overhauls lost the H3s their special green paint, but their all-enclosed windows remained telltales of their "deluxe" status. The multiple-unit workings were gone by November 1930, after H2 No. 1370 had jumped the tracks a year prior when its axle snapped at speed and smashed into a passing multiple-unit train. Due to the steel car construction absorbing the impact, nobody died or was seriously hurt, but LARy eventually moved onto operating single cars instead of trains from that point on. The jumper cable ports were patched over, all automatic couplers were replaced with normal link-and-pin drawbars, and the cars were sent to work on their own. The next time a multiple-unit train would operate on the LA Railway was on January 15, 1939, when the local Railroad Boosters club ran H3s Nos. 1421 and 1432 on a special charter as they were one of the few cars left with Westinghouse automatic couplers fitted.

 

Wooden Workhorses

Newly-built No. 1531 poses at South Park Shops, with the only telltale of it
being a wooden car being its truss rods on the bottom.
(Jeffrey J. Moreau, SCRM)

LATL Type "K" No. 1559 in later condition, on the
"W" line at York Blvd and Avenue 50, circa early 1950s.
(SCRM)

The "H3"s were not the only original cartype spawned by the South Park Shops, as before their arrival, the LARy just could not stop building wooden cars at all. Following the immense success of the Type "H", LARy's carpentry shops began construction their own shop-built variant known as the Type "K". Both cars looked absolutely identical, with the first 1500-series Type "K", No. 1501, entering service on January 1924, picking up from Car No. 1450. However, looking under the surface, No. 1501 and its fifty-nine sisters (Nos. 1502-1560) shared one thing in common that the Type "Hs" lacked: a wooden frame. That's right, LARy was so confident in its carpentry shop that they built a steel-sheathed, wooden-framed copy of the H's that was so close to the original, the only discernible difference was the use of truss-rods under the K's. All sixty were in service by 1925, sharing both the "E" and "W" Line (Highland Park to Midcity via Downtown, your motorman's neighborhood line) with their Type "H" cousins. In 1936, these cars joined the Type "H"s in the "One Man-Two Man" rebuilding programing, becoming Type "K4" in the process.

Swing That Steel Skirt

1201 shows off its new "H4" lines, with pneumatic doors and folding steps.
However, her single front entrance door and separated line sign wouldn't last for long.
(Jeffrey J. Moreau, SCRM)

LARy No. 1207 shows off the "production" version of the
H4 look, with an experimental brown patch on its nose.
(Ira L. Swett)

The "H4" program for the steel cars involved grafting in new doors and allowing the cars to load in at the front, and all but the H3's were eligible. 1201 was the first "H4" to emerge with pneumatic doors with fold-down steps, but retained a single front door for a short while. Eventually, the H4 rebuilds also integrated a new "Hunter illuminated route sign" fitted into the roof, just above the motorman's right front window. Rebuilds continued from 1934 to 1936 as part of a massive modernization program, while the "H3s" were left out due to retaining a single front door and needing the employment of a full-time conductor as well as a motorman. These deluxe cars would not be upgraded until 1947, when Los Angeles Transit Lines' ownership (also known as the LATL) permitted cars 1416-1450 into unofficial Type "H5s" (they were still known as "H3s" on paper). 

LATL Nos. 1423 and 1436 at the LA Union Station
trolley loop, which terminated the "8" line. On their roofs
are the new "Hunter illuminated signs".
(Ken Douglas, SCRM)

LATL also rebuilt the "H4s" with integrated people catchers, eliminating the complex Eclipse safety fender in favor of front sheathing that made the cars look very tall, flat, and kind of modern, in a sense. LA Railway had experimented with putting skirts under their cars as far back as the mid-1930s, with car no. 1234 photographed wearing skirts under the 1931 "One-Man" colors, but this never became a thing until 1947, when some of the H4's received skirts with small "wheel-wells" for truck frame clearance. Due to the cost of manufacturing these single-pieces of sheet metal, not all H4's received these modifications and most ran without the skirts. Nevertheless, this look became iconic in both Eagle Rock and Highland Park, which became the last bastion of the Type "H"s on the Los Angeles Railway. When both lines closed to buses in 1955 and 1956, respectively, the H4s and K4s found themselves surplus to requirements and most were dead-stored, with just a few working until the last day in 1959.

LARy Type "H1" No. 1234 models both the Hunter illuminated sign on its
roof front, as well as the experimental skirts and front that was later installed on
the LATL Type "H" cars.
(Unknown author, SCRM)

  

A Cutter's Torch Can Melt Steel Streetcars

LATL No. 1450 is the last operating H Type in this photo at the "V" Line terminal at 
First and Vermont. She's seen here, posing with the Southern California Electric Railroad
Association, shortly before her delivery to the Orange Empire Trolley Museum in September 1955.
(SCRM)

Disposal of the Type "H4s" and "K4s" began in earnest in March 1955, after a period of dead storage in various division carhouses and out at Vernon maintenance yard. Most were sold to the infamous National Metals and Steel Company of Terminal Island, CA, and scrapped, while former "H3" prototype No. 1444 become a golf course arcade full of pinball machines. It, too, was scrapped after six years. Luckily, sixty-one cars were sold to better homes in South Korea to help rebuild their war-torn tram network. Starting with car No. 1382, this unofficial "H6" rebuild (dubbed so by electric railway enthusiasts) involved making the cars totally enclosed and repainting them in a new blue-grey and green scheme to suit their new employers. Once across the Pacific in 1956, trolley poles were exchanged for bow collector pantographs and the H6s found themselves in better operating company until 1968, when the last of them were retired working under the Korean Electric Power Company. 

"H6" Type No. 447 is seen at Seoul's East Gate Carbarn in 1968,.
The new owners also added mesh sides to her undercarriage for safety.
(Ira L. Swett)

An ex-LATL Type "K" takes a swim near Redondo
Beach and Palos Verdes, joining twenty other "K"s in
becoming an artificial reef, September, 1958.
(PERYHS)

The other cars weren't so lucky, as most ended up scrapped at Terminal Island. The K4s seemed to have the worst luck, as a few ended up dumped outside of Redondo Harbor for use as artificial reefs. In a brief moment of lucidity, LATL also set aside two cars for donation to preservation groups. One was No. 1201, the first car of her type, which was donated to Inglewood's Centinela Park for display. However, with heavy vandalism taking its toll over the next three years, the car was threatened with scrapping after citizens and city officials declared the car an eyesore. Thankfully, it was saved by the Southern California Electric Railroader's Association (SC-ERA) in 1956 and went to the Orange Empire Railway Museum (now the Southern California Railway Museum in Perris, CA). The second car retained, No. 1318, was presented to the Oregon Electric Railway Historical Society (OERH) of Glenwood, OR, around the same time. 

Survivors

LARy Nos. 1201 (left) and 1559 (right) at Traveltown, 1956.
(James W. Walker, SCRM)

LA Railway No. 1423 gets a rare bout of sunshine in 2003.
(Salaam Allah)

Today, five LARy Type "H"s and one LARY Type "K" survive in preservation, with the aforementioned Southern California Railway Museum (SCRM) retaining Nos. 1201, 1423, 1435, and 1450, along with K4 No. 1559. Of the five cars, all are able to operate and move under their own power, but 1201 is the only car in fully-restored condition. Long known as the museum's workhorse along with PE No. 717, No. 1201 spent a long time being restored into its current 1930s condition, and can be ridden on most weekends on the SCRM's loop line. No. 1423 is in runnable shape and is currently in storage within Carhouse 1, awaiting restoration. No. 1559 is also preserved in a strange "in-between" condition, as the car retains its K4 modifications with an integrated safety fender, but is currently painted in its original yellow-and-brown LA Railway scheme. No. 1450 is currently in the back of Carhouse 3, awaiting restoration as well. As for Car No. 1318, it is under shelter and in need of the same level of restoration at the Oregon Electric Railway Museum campus at Antique Powerland Heritage Park in Brooks, Oregon.

Ex-LATL No. 1318 at the Oregon Electric Railway Museum in Brooks, Oregon.
(PlacesPages)

LATL No. 1435 under the Pacific Electric
Building, as seen in 2016.
(Leslie Le Mon)

No. 1435 is the only outlier of these cars, as it was the only H-Type purchased privately from National Metals (IE not by an organization like the SC-ERA) but still stored at the SCRM for quite a long time. In the 1980s, its owner had the car trucked up to San Francisco MUNI's shops to see if they were interested in operating the car as part of their Market Street Railway historic fleet of streetcars. Along the way, No. 1435 hit a bridge and had its roof almost entirely damaged, leading MUNI to show disinterest in the car but kept its trucks. The car was then lost to time until it finally showed up again in the parking lot (formerly part of the railway terminal) of the Subway Terminal Building in downtown Los Angeles, where the intent was to use it in an exhibit of the building's past. When this fell through, and the car was heavily graffiti'd on one side, it was trucked back to the SCRM where it sat in the back of the museum until just a couple years ago of this writing, when No. 1435 was cleaned up and sent to the Riverside County Fairgrounds as a satellite exhibit of the SCRM. 

    

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 Jim Walker and Ira L. Swett, the archives of the Southern California Railway Museum, the archives of the Pacific Electric Railway Historical Society, the Metro Library and Archives, and the archives of the Water and Power Associates. The trolley gifs in our posts are made by myself and can be found under “Motorman Reymond’s Railroad Gif Carhouse”. On Thursday, we take on some silly spooks as we look at LARy's two funeral cars, the Descanso and the Paraiso! 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!