Model Train Journal

By Pacific Electric Railway - http://www.pacificelectric.org, Public Domain

Click on image for expanded view.


Mount Lowe, California, circa 1913. "Electric car at Ye Alpine Tavern, Mount Lowe Railway." This Swiss-style chalet in the San Gabriel Mountains was the upper terminus (elev. 5,000 feet) of an 1890s scenic and incline railway that started in Altadena, with streetcar connections all the way to the main terminal at the Pacific Electric Building in Los Angeles. The railway and associated resorts, including the 70-room Echo Mountain House, were gradually obliterated by fire and flood until, by 1940, nothing was left. Detroit Publishing Co.

Source: http://www.shorpy.com/node/9389

Then & Now

Redondo Beach


Image source: https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/Produ ... 0738575865
Pacific Electric Railway: Then & Now by Steve Crise and Michael Patris

The "Blimp" style interurban is the only car style I can remember riding. We use to take them from Long Beach to Los Angeles on shopping trips. The end terminal was underground in the Los Angeles subway system.

Notice the dual gauge track.

Great stuff Wayne! That last shot oe the car with the round windows reminds me of PRR's P54 cars.

Rich

Thank you, Rich.

The PRR and PE cars look alike. I wonder why?

The Pennsylvania Railroad's MP54 class of electric multiple unit railcars were built by American Car and Foundry Company.

Guess who built the Pacific Electric's first porthole blimps? It was American Car and Foundry Company. (Later St. Louis Car Co., built some that looked the same.)

The PE Blimps all came down from the Bay Area, from the Oakland, Alameda & Berkley lines
of the SP and the Marin County suburban lines of the Northwestern Pacific. The NWP cars
were built with the porthole windows in their aluminum bodies in 1929 & 1939.
The SP cars were originally built in 1910 and 1913, with SQUARE windows. Some
trailers still had square windows until the end (and at least one of the cars that they
pulled out of the quarry a few years back in Utah still had them). The motor cars
were rebuilt with porthole windows because the cars were so lightly framed that
they "worked" and developed cracks. The porthole windows allegedly stiffened the
frame of the car end and solved the cracking problem.

As for the MP-54's, I think that they were built that way. Or at least I haven't seen
any pictures that show such end windows.

webenda wrote:The Pennsylvania Railroad's MP54 class of electric multiple unit railcars were built by American Car and Foundry Company.

I thought that they were rebuilt and/or built based on the PRR P54 car design of pre-1910 era - lasted up into the 80's....

and yes, they were built with the porthole ends from the beginning.

Rufus T. Firefly wrote:

webenda wrote:The Pennsylvania Railroad's MP54 class of electric multiple unit railcars were built by American Car and Foundry Company.

I thought that they were rebuilt and/or built based on the PRR P54 car design of pre-1910 era - lasted up into the 80's....

and yes, they were built with the porthole ends from the beginning.

Your thoughts are correct.

The Pennsylvania Railroad's MP54 was a class of electric multiple unit railcars. The class was initially constructed as an unpowered, locomotive hauled coach for suburban operations, but were designed with the capacity to be rebuilt into self-propelled MU as electrification plans were realized.

The last MP54 cars were retired in 1980-81 while engaged in Philadelphia suburban service with SEPTA.

Like the Pacific Electric blimps, there was more than one manufacturer. The design came from the American Car and Foundry Co.

Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRR_MP54

You might like this one Rufus:

Reference: http://www.pacificelectric.org/tag/jack ... on/page/3/

I Street Tower

Too bad I was not into trolleys and trams when I rode the Pacific Electric... I do not remember seeing the towers.



I do remember being fascinated by the wig wag signals at every major road
crossing as we rode back and forth between Los Angeles and Long Beach.

`

Great Pics Wayne!!!

Rich