Alan Weeks: Pacific Electric Railway Chartered Fan Trip, February 22, 1953
By Alan K. Weeks
Leaving revenue service we take a chartered fan trip. I can’t remember which club did the charter. When I see the huge amount of territory we covered in one day I wonder how we did it. It appears we covered the Van Nuys line, the Air Line, San Pedro Line and the Whittier Line. I failed to save the paper work.
File 254 Is our car crossing the West Turning Basin on the Bascule Bridge. This line was a short cut from Wilmington to San Pedro. The old line went a longer route from Wilmington to San Pedro Via the whole West Basin. During World War 2 the War Department made them keep the Bridge in the upright position all the duration of the war. They were afraid of Japanese bombing or sabotage. Had anything happened to the bridge when down it would have blocked all the war ships in the basin. Ironically around 1953 or 1954 a Tanker ship side swiped the hinge base of the bridge, knocking it off the hinges and it was stuck up rite for good. Years later it was removed completely.
File 257 This is inside the Butte St. Yard. This was an interchange yard between Southern Pacific, Santa Fe and Union Pacific and the Pacific Electric Railway.
5000 Class Cars were double ended PCCs made by Pullman Standard. They were delivered just before World War II. This was the last group of new cars ordered by the Pacific Electric Railway. They ran briefly on the Venice Short Line, and Hollywood Boulevard service. The rest of their life they ran on the Glendale Burbank Line.
