4605 and 625 at Firestone Blvd. Viaduct
Robert T. McVay Photo, Jack Finn Collection
Double action at the Firestone Blvd. Viaduct with Pacific Electric interurban no. 4605 and Hollywood car no. 625 stop for passengers on the Southern Division.
Robert T. McVay Photo
Jack Finn Collection
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I am trying to refer this picture back to car #4601 on whether the gates were ever replaced with solid doors. Does anyone have a date or approximate date on this image?
All the Blimps got soild wood doors when the cars were “modernized” in 1947/48. It was PE’s last BIG investment in its rail car fleet. I would put the year of this photo as 1946.
A correction to the caption: The streetcar is 625 and the interurban is 4605. Regarding PE 4601–it was wrecked in 1946 and was never modernized. The body still exists, preserved by the City of Torrance near one of their parks.
Thanks, Bob! – Ed.
There’s an item in Special 36 in which Ira Swett mentions an “off the record” conversation with PE officials about the modernization of the “Blimps” in 1946. The word was that the cars should last about 10 years, and by then PE would know whether they would become a “rapid transit outfit or go bus”. As it turned out, at least some of the IER and NWP hand-me-downs lasted 15 years, but that was the end. One could write a long essay on the decline and fall of PE, but the dice were loaded and the deck was stacked.
I don’t see any pole up on the wire on the Long Beach Limited
SHARP EYE HARLEY !! There may have been some type of trouble with the Blimp.