Trolley Tuesday 5/18/21 - The Northwestern Pacific Railway

Today, the Northwestern Pacific Railway (NWP) that runs between Sonoma and Marin County is but a shadow of its former glory, originally encompassing almost 300 miles from San Francisco Bay's North Shore and up the Northern California Coast to Eureka and other connecting points north and east. While it is now characterized as a sleepy little ex-Southern Pacific (SP) subsidiary, the railway was once home to one of the most forward-thinking and futuristic electric railway systems ever conceived in America. Featuring unheard-of qualities like third-rail operations and alternating current signal systems, the NWP was a victim of redundancy and soon faded from history to the tune of snorting steam locomotives and growling diesels. On today's Trolley Tuesday, let's take a ride on the Redwood Empire Route as we uncover what happened to NWP's interurban lines.

Trolley Tuesday 2/23/21 - Pacific Electric's Freight Locomotives

Besides having an enormous interurban and suburban fleet, the Pacific Electric Railway (PE) of Southern California maintained an impressive freight locomotive fleet as well. Driven by efforts of their parent company, Southern Pacific Railway (SP), PE made significant expanses in ensuring they could serve as a good regional freight hauler and terminal railroad. This meant maintaining a diverse and often non-standard fleet of electric freight locomotives (and some non-electric ones) from its inception in 1902 all the way to the last electric-hauled freight services in the early 1960s, which was both a blessing and a curse to the ever-progressing but perennially-cash-strapped Pacific Electric. On today's Trolley Tuesday, let's take a break from hauling passengers to look at the unsung heroes of LA's interurban mileage, the electric locomotives!

Trolley Thursday 2/4/21 - Pacific Electric Wooden Interurbans

Before steel became reliable and pliable enough to work into railroad car form, almost every interurban, rapid transit, and streetcar system in America depended on solid wood passenger cars. The idea behind them was simple: wood made for great sound insulation and was strong enough to withstand nearly every element exposed to it, so why not build them of wood? Between 1902 and 1913, Pacific Electric (PE) depended on its lumbering thoroughbreds comprising the Los Angeles Pacific (LAP) 950 Class and the mighty fleet of Jewett Car Company 1000-Class cars, commonly nicknamed the "Tens". On today's Trolley Thursday, let's peel back the wooden surface and appreciate these artfully-crafted cars.

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.