1218 to Los Angeles
Jack Finn Collection
A pair of Pacific Electric interurbans (lead by no. 1218) head for Los Angeles on this elevated section of right-of-way.
Jack Finn Collection
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To all you fans of the Pacific Electric Railway, in case you didn’t know, there a book out titled Pacific Electric Cars – A Pictorial Journey 1911-1953 by David L. Garcia and Joseph A. Strapac. The book is published by Southern Pacific Historical & Technical Society. Its a hardcover with 256 81/2″ x 11″ pages, a color dust jacket, 500-plus black & white “stunning” images.
This substantial volume illustrates all the major classes of Pacific Electric cars and locomotives acquired new after the takeover by Southern Pacific in 1911, along with a representative selection of cars that were inherited from PE’s predecessors.
If you’re a staunch traction fan and love the Pacific Electric Ry, like I do., I think you’ll really enjoy this book. I just received my copy today from Ron’s Books in Harrison, NY and I’m having a hard time putting it down. The photos are absolutely stunning. I highly recommend this book – check it out.
A feature of the PE Monrovia-Glendora Line was the rush hour train of 1200s that would run to Monrovia in the evening and stay overnight to return for the morning inbound rush. The two most distinctive types were the Butterfly Twelves (1216-1221) which were the only PE cars I saw with oval windows for the restrooms. I couldn’t imagine a trolley ride long enough to require a “head”, but I think they used these on the Balboa line. San Bernardino would have needed “facilities”, but regular trips to that area were long gone by the time I was noticing Red Cars. The other eye-catching type was the Portland hand-me-downs, with their “porthole” end windows and stained-glass upper sash. PE would mix-n-match since they would all MU with each other.