San Pedro Trolley to Begin Operation

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            As reported in the June 7, 2003 edition of the Los Angeles Times, the California Public Utilities Commission approved the security and safety programs of the San Pedro line. This heritage trolley line will be operated for the Port of Los Angeles by Herzog Transit Services Inc. Shown above are both of the cars that will open the line to the public on Saturday, July 19. According to Bob Henry, Project Manager, the line will be operating from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays. An all-day pass will be $1.00 so mark your calendars!

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POINTS OF TROLLEY HISTORY - 2

FORMER PE CAR 466 IN SHAFTER, CA

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            By now, all times readers should be aware of the two replicas of the Pacific Electric 500 series cars that are being readied for service in San Pedro. Progress on this line has been reported in the Times for the past two years.

            The Pacific Electric purchased the 500-599 series of cars in three separate acquisitions, 1901/1902 (30); 1909 (20) and 1912(50). The latter 50 were actually complete rebuilds of Los Angeles Pacific 200-249 series and could not be trained (run in multiple unit configuration) with the 500-549 series cars.

            What is not generally known is that the Pacific Electric acquired five more cars almost identical to these 100 cars in 1918 and 1921. According to Pacific Electric, Volume I, City Cars, Ira Swett (1964), Cars, 466 and 467 were obtained from the Fresno Traction Company in 1918, and

cars 468, 469 and 470 came from the Peninsular Railway in San Jose, CA.  Shown in the photo is car 467. All five cars originally ran on the Peninsular Railway where they had been cars 102, 103, 100, 101 and 104, respectively. These five cars had been built on the same St. Louis Car Company order as the 530-549 series Pacific Electric cars in 1909. All five cars were pooled with the 500-549 series cars until 1934 when 467 was sold and 468, 469 and 470 was scrapped. The 466 was sold in 1935. The official Pacific Electric drawings for these five cars, contained in the same book, notes that one of the cars, car 466, had the open or smoking end enclosed.  If this data is correct then we found the former 466. The car and has been sitting in this location since 1943. Originally purchased for use as a bar, it was instead used as a restaurant when the local residents objected to the proposed bar.

            The Red Wagon Café is currently owned by Carolyn Larue. She and her assistants cook up a mean breakfast. We had breakfast there on a recent Saturday morning and found the home cooking excellent. The car seats only 25 patrons at a time and the tables were occupied the whole time that we were there. The Red Wagon Café is open from 4:00 AM to 2:00 P.M. every day except Sunday and serves great breakfasts and lunch. There are specials every day except Saturday. The Cafe is located at 18800 Beech Avenue, Shafter, CA 93263-2906 at the corner of Beech and Burbank Avenue. (661) 746-0420. Shafter is located about 14 miles (as the crow flies) northwest of Bakersfield, CA on California Highway 43.

POINTS OF TROLLEY HISTORY - 3

THE LAST TROLLEY TO WILLOW GROVE, PA

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                The Philadelphia streetcar line that had carried throngs of merry-makers to Willow Grove Park for years passed into history in June 1958 when the line, now known as Route 6, was cut back to City-Line & Ogontz loop and was turned into a main feeder to the Broad Street Subway. Car 2134 from the last new group of 110 PCC cars delivered to PTC in 1948 did the honors.

                Car 2134 was just over ten years old at the time and had not yet begun to show the effects of the years of neglect that it would suffer at the hands of the deteriorating PTC. The car was repainted in the first SEPTA trolley scheme of orange, blue and white in the 1970s but little maintenance work was done and the deterioration continued. The car became a GOH car in the 1980s and wore the SEPTA red, white and blue until retired in the early 1990s. The car was immortalized in one of the CORGI miniatures released in the late 1990s.

                But the story is not over yet. Instead of becoming another piece of scrap, after years of storage, the car was recently repainted back into the scheme worn in 1958 and moved to a spot just next to the Trolley Car Café on Germantown Avenue just south of Mermaid loop. Here, it will become an ice cream parlor. Trolleyville reported on this Trolley Car Diner in an earlier issue. Below shows the car being placed in its final location. Stay tuned for more information.

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NEW LARGE SCALE TROLLEY?

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                At the annual Big Train Show on the Queen Mary, Hartland Locomotive Works of Laporte, Indiana was displaying this nice Birney Safety Car painted for the Council Bluffs trolley system. This car, when in production, would be a nice companion for the LGB New Orleans car recently announced in Model Railroader. We will keep you posted on news as it develops. For more information, contact Hartland at 219-362-8411 or (fax) 2319-324-8078.

Coming Next Issue: Trolleyville visits Caboose Hobbies, Denver, Colorado

  Report on the opening of the San Pedro Trolley line - now scheduled for July 19!