Los Angeles Railway

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"Yellow car" redirects here. For US taxi services, see Yellow cab. For the children's car game, see Yellow car (game).
See also: Streetcars in Los Angeles
Los Angeles Electric Railway
File:LARy logo.jpg
Overview
LocaleLos Angeles, California and its suburbs
Transit typeStreetcar
Number of lines25
Operation
Began operation1895
Ended operation1958 (ceded to LAMTA)
1963 (rail operations ceased)
Operator(s)Los Angeles Railway
Reporting marksLARy
Technical
Track gauge3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm)
Electrification600 V DC overhead line[1]
Map (Interactive version)

Los Angeles Railway (Yellow Cars streetcars).svg

The Los Angeles Railway (also known as Yellow Cars, LARy and later Los Angeles Transit Lines) was a system of streetcars that operated in Central Los Angeles and surrounding neighborhoods between 1895 and 1963. The system provided frequent local services which complemented the Pacific Electric "Red Car" system's largely commuter-based interurban routes. The company carried many more passengers than the Red Cars, which served a larger and sparser area of Los Angeles.

Cars operated on 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) narrow gauge tracks,[2] and shared dual gauge trackage with the 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge Pacific Electric system on Main Street in downtown Los Angeles (directly in front of the 6th and Main terminal), on 4th Street, and along Hawthorne Boulevard south of Downtown Los Angeles toward the cities of Hawthorne, Gardena and Torrance.

History

Early years

Predecessor: The Los Angeles Consolidated Electric Railroad Company

The first electric railway in Los Angeles was built in 1887 to facilitate the sales of a real estate tract on Pico Street. The Los Angeles Electric Railway used the early Daft overhead system with a crude electric car and trailers. Though the real estate venture was successful, after an explosion in the power station, the Pico Street electric line closed, seemingly for good.

Los Angeles also had significant investments in cable technology. The Los Angeles Cable Railway (later named the Pacific Cable Railway) owned many exclusive franchises agreements to city streets and had constructed several major cable lines crisscrossing the growing downtown area, considered the latest word in cable railway technology.[3] But construction was expensive, legal and operating problems plagued the system, and new technological developments threatened to make the system obsolete.

Development of an effective electric transportation system based on the new Sprague-based technology began in earnest with the arrival in Los Angeles of Moses Sherman, his brother-in-law Eli P. Clark and San Francisco investors late in 1890. Sherman, originally a teacher from Vermont, had moved to the Arizona territory in 1874 where he was involved in business and civic affairs, real estate, and street railways.[4]

Sherman became interested in opportunities in Los Angeles after vacationing there in early 1890. He joined the efforts of a group attempting to resurrect the Second Street Cable Railway, but persuaded them to electrify the line instead. He acquired the line in October, 1890 and renamed it The Belt Line Railroad Company.[3]

Sherman created an Arizona corporation called the Los Angeles Consolidated Electric Railway Company (LACE) on November 12, 1890 with Sherman as President and Clark as General Manager. Frederick Eaton was chosen as Chief Engineer. The firm was incorporated in Arizona because it had certain advantages over California incorporation.[5]

In the fall of 1890, the so-called 5-block law was passed, which enabled a street railway company to use another company's rails for up to five city blocks. This would help Sherman immensely with his plans for LACE.[3]

Sherman and Clark began work immediately. In 1891 alone, they accomplished the following:[6][3]

Pacific Railway’s problems were such that the company was thrown into receivership in 1891, with James F. Crank appointed as receiver.[3]

Los Angeles Consolidated Electric streetcar at Pico Heights, decorated for Washington's Birthday, c. 1892.

In 1892, they electrified the Depot Line, and opened it on August 1.

They also started a line up North Spring and North Broadway Streets, but were forced to build a bridge over the Los Angeles River and Santa Fe rails, which postponed the opening of the line to East Los Angeles (Eastlake Park) until September 26, 1893.[4]

The growth of the electric lines put severe pressure on the Pacific Cable Railway, which also faced other difficulties. The two rail companies began negotiations to possibly combine in August, 1892.[3] On October 4, 1893, the sale of the Pacific Cable Railway was completed, and LACE acquired all of the assets, including their cable and horsecar lines.[7] LACE was now the largest street railway operator in Los Angeles, owning about 90% of all lines.[8]

In 1894, Sherman and Clark began an inter-urban line between LA and Pasadena, The Los Angeles and Pasadena Railway, and acquired all the street railways in Pasadena.[8] But in 1895, Sherman and Clark faced difficulties themselves. In April, 1894 LACE missed a scheduled bond payment.[9] The bondholders, unhappy with Sherman and Clark management and their attention to their new interurban railway, secured control of the company. Sherman managed to retain 49% of the outstanding stock, but he and Clark no longer had any management responsibilities.[10] The bondholders created a new corporation called the Los Angeles Railway (LARy) and March 23, 1895 LARy acquired all of LACE’s assets, except for the Los Angeles and Pacific Railway and the Pasadena street railways.[4][8]

The new management purchased new cars began converting all the existing horsecar and cable lines to electricity, a task completed by June, 1896.[4]

LARy 1898 Route Map

The system was purchased by railroad and real estate tycoon Henry E. Huntington in 1898. At its height, the system contained over 20 streetcar lines and 1,250 trolleys, most running through the core of Los Angeles and serving such neighborhoods as Crenshaw, West Adams, Leimert Park, Exposition Park, Echo Park, Westlake, Hancock Park, Vernon, Boyle Heights and Lincoln Heights.

Decline

Los Angeles Railway route map (cover), 1942

The system was sold in 1944 by Huntington's estate to American City Lines, Inc., of Chicago, a subsidiary of National City Lines, a holding company that was purchasing transit systems across the country.[11] The sale was announced December 5, 1944, but the purchase price was not disclosed.[12] National City Lines, along with its investors that included Firestone Tire, Standard Oil of California (now Chevron Corporation) and General Motors, were later convicted of conspiring to monopolize the sale of buses and related products to local transit companies controlled by National City Lines and other companies[n 1] in what became known as the General Motors streetcar conspiracy. National City Lines purchased Key System, which operated the streetcar system in Oakland, California, the following year.

The company was renamed as Los Angeles Transit Lines.[13] The new company introduced 40 new ACF-Brill trolley buses which had originally been intended for the Key System, which was being converted to buses by National City Lines in late 1948.

Many lines were converted to buses in the late 1940s and early 1950s.[13]

Public ownership and finale

The last remaining lines were taken over by the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority (a predecessor to the current agency, The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro)) along with the remains of the Pacific Electric Railway in 1958. The agency removed the remaining five streetcar lines (J, P, R, S and V) and two trolley bus lines (2 and 3), replacing electric service with diesel buses after March 31, 1963.[14]

List of routes

Map of the post-1921 numbered routes

Rolling stock

Unit #1407, one of 250 streetcars built for the LARy by the St. Louis Car Company, turns up Marmion Way. The air-operated folding doors were added in the 1930s to permit one-man operation.

Historian Jim Walker notes that there were three major classifications of LARy cars: the Huntington Standards, the all-steel cars, and the streamliners. All were built to run on narrow-gauge tracks spaced 3’ 6” apart. The type numbers referred to below were created by LARy in 1920 to categorize their cars; there were many sub-categories (e.g., B-2, H-3, K-4, etc.) not recorded here. [15]

The Standards

The Huntington Standard (Type B) was numerically LARy’s largest, with an eventual count of 747 cars. Designed in 1901-1902 by LARy engineers and originally 38’ long, these wooden “California Cars” had open sections on both ends and an enclosed center section, but their most distinctive feature was the five-window front, with two elegant curved corner windows. These cars seemed to dominate the Southern California landscape in the eyes of the world, to a large extent because they were featured in many early movies. The Standards were either rebuilt from older cars or were purchased from manufacturers between 1902 and 1912.[16]

Pay-As-You-Enter (PAYE) Standard - Beginning in 1910, Standards were lengthened to 44 feet and modified into a PAYE format. Each end of the original cars were lengthened and an additional entrance door was added so the conductor could collect fares without having to roam through the car.[17]

Center-entrance Cars (Type C), also called “sowbellies”, were modified older Standards with a low-step center entrance and exit to accommodate the “hobble skirt” craze of the early teens. Beginning in 1913, 107 older Standards were converted and 76 new cars were purchased from the St. Louis Car Company, but the conversions were stopped in 1914 because of a Jitney-caused drop in patronage and the eventual end of the hobble-skirt fashion. One significant drawback to this design was that they could not be converted to one-man operation. [18]

Over the years, less major variations in Type B car designs included different lengths, different seat arrangements, various center section window formats, mesh safety gates vs panels, modifications for cars that made longer runs, and modifications for one-man or two-man operation.[19]

Older Type B cars began to be scrapped beginning in the 1930s, and the last of these iconic cars operated through 1952.

The All-Steel Cars

All-Steel Cars (Type H) were configured very similar to the Type B cars with open ends and a closed center section. After the disastrous Pacific Electric wreck at Vineyard in July, 1913, the drawbacks of high-speed wooden cars led companies to turn to steel construction.[20] From November, 1921 through early 1924, LARy received 250 of these cars from the St. Louis Car Company. The cars were capable of running in multiple-unit trains for use on heavier lines and were assigned to the Grand Avenue-Moneta line and the S line. The use of multiple-unit operation was stopped in 1930, when reduced patronage due to the depression made the use of trains unnecessary.[21] These cars were updated to accommodate one-operator, two-operator operation between 1934 and 1936. In 1955, due to the abandonment of many rail lines, many of the units were sold to National Metals for scrapping.[22] In 1956, 41 Type H-4 cars were sent to Seoul and Pusan, South Korea as part of an aid program.[1]

LARy also built 50 wood copies (designated Type K) of these steel cars in their own shops between 1923 and 1925.[23] These were initially used on the E (later 5) line; during 1930, they were transferred to the W line. As with other cars, in between 1936 and 1938, many cars were updated to accommodate one-operator, two-operator operation.[24] Almost all of these two car types were scrapped after the abandonment of rail lines in 1955.

The Streamliners

LARy introduced the Streamliners (Type P) in 1937. The streamlined Presidential Conference Car, or PCC, developed by the industry as a hoped-for savior, were the very latest in transit engineering: modern, comfortable, sleek, and smooth-running . The city celebrated the arrival of these modern cars by creating Transportation Week, where the first car was unveiled by young actress Shirley Temple.[25] LARy only received 65 from the St. Louis Car Company, and successor Los Angeles Transit Lines (LATL) ordered 60 more which were placed in service in 1948 on the most popular lines.[26] The PCC cars were used until final abandonment in 1963.

Other Passenger Car Types

In addition to these three major categories, LARy had a variety of other cars.

Shorties or Maggies (Type A) - When the Huntington/Hellman syndicate acquired LARy, the line had a large variety of existing wooden cars. The group of short (35’ 5”), wooden cars, which were later designated ‘’’Type A’’’, were either Pullman cars purchased in 1896 or assorted city cars received from Pacific Electric, in 1910. Most of these cars ran on lighter-used lines due to their smaller capacity. Because many had magnetic brakes they were dubbed “Maggies”. Of the eventual 74 short cars, many were converted to other configurations between 1910 and 1923.[27] Twenty-eight were lengthened and converted to Type B Huntington Standards and twenty-two were converted to Type C center-entrance cars.[28] After sixteen more were converted to arch-roof cars by 1923, there were only eight of the short versions remaining, which were retired in 1939, after the I line was abandoned.[27]

Arch-Roof cars (Type F) - In 1922 fifteen of the short cars were converted into Pay-as-you-enter cars with walkover seats throughout and a distinctive arched roof. Initially used on the 5 line as two-man cars, after World War II, LATL rebuilt them for one-man operation in 1948 and they were used until 1954.[29]

Birney Safety Cars (Type G) - In 1919, LARy purchased seventy of these lightweight single-truck cars in response to the California Railroad Commission’s 1919 report which recommended 400 of them to bolster the company’s financial situation. These light cars needed only a single operator, consumed less electricity, and produced less wear on the tracks, which did result in reduced costs. First deployed in September, 1920 on lighter lines, their slow, rough ride, hard seats, and lack of open sections made the cars unpopular with riders. All were placed in storage by 1928, but a dozen were used during World War II. After the war, LATL used them on shuttle lines until they were abandoned in 1946.[30]

Funeral Cars (Type D and Type E) - LARy created two unique Funeral cars to serve the areas cemeteries. The first, a smaller car was rebuilt from a passenger car in 1909 and called “Paraiso”, but was converted again to a passenger car in 1911 when a new, larger car, named “Descanso”, was created. The larger Descanso was used until 1922, when it, too, was rebuilt as a passenger car, and the original, smaller car was re-rebuilt and named “Descanso”. The second Descanso was later donated to the Railroad Boosters.[31]

Experimental cars (Type L and Type M) - LARy purchased two special cars for possible future use. Type L was a low-floor, all-steel car delivered in March, 1925, and Type M, two Peterr Witt pay-as-you-pass cars with front entrances and center exits were delivered in March, 1930. The Depression prevented additional purchases, and by the time there was any opportunity to buy new cars, the new PCC car had been developed.[32]

Trolley Coaches - LARy had ordered a Twin Coach demonstrator trolley coach in 1937, to test its feasibility, but at that time didn’t order more. After 1945, LATL transferred 40 ACF Brill trolley coaches from the Oakland Key System to Los Angeles for use on the new Trolley Coach line 3 (converted from parts of rail lines D, U, and 3). Additional Brill coaches were purchased, and were used to convert rail line B to Trolley Coach line 2 in 1948.[33] The two trolley coach lines ran until 1963.

Work and Miscellaneous Cars

LARy had almost 150 work and maintenance cars designed to carry out a variety of tasks on the railway. This included pay and money cars, various specialized repair cars, fuel cars, locomotives and lighter-duty power cars, cranes, material haulers and flat cars, rail grinders, tower cars for overhead maintenance, maintenance-of-way cars for heavy construction, and emergency cars (wreckers).[34]

Colors

The railway was well known for its distinctive yellow streetcars.[35][36] Initially cars had a two-tone yellow paint scheme with a lighter shade for the roof.[36] Under NCL a three-color "fruit salad" scheme was adopted, with a yellow body, a white roof, and a sea-foam green midsection.[35]

  • Los Angeles Railway colors

    Los Angeles Railway colors

  • Los Angeles Transit Lines 'fruit salad' colors

    Los Angeles Transit Lines 'fruit salad' colors

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Walker 2007
  2. ^ "The Street Railway Journal". McGraw. April 9, 1904. Retrieved 19 September 2020.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Swett 1951, p. 35
  4. ^ a b c d Post 1989, p. 29
  5. ^ Post 1989, p. 105.
  6. ^ Swett 1962, p. 3.
  7. ^ Post 1989, p. 120.
  8. ^ a b c Swett 1951, p. 36.
  9. ^ Post 1989, p. 128.
  10. ^ Post 1989, p. 129.
  11. ^ "Finding Aid for the Los Angeles Railway Corporation Legal Records and Correspondence". Archived from the original on 2021-03-01. Retrieved 2012-11-19. the controlling interest remained part of the Huntington estate until 1945 when the Fitzgerald Brothers purchased those shares. LARy became part of the National City Lines, was renamed the Los Angeles Transit Lines, and eventually the streetcars were phased out, replaced by motor buses.
  12. ^ "Chicago Firm Buys L. A. Streetcar Line". The San Bernardino Daily Sun. Vol. 51. San Bernardino, California. 6 December 1944. p. 5. icon of an open green padlock
  13. ^ a b "Book Review: Los Angeles Railway Yellow Cars". Archived from the original on 2013-08-13. Retrieved 2010-10-26. By the end of World War II, the Huntington estate sold its majority interest to Chicago-based National City Lines. LARY became the Los Angeles Transit Lines, and bigger changes were in store. Many lines were converted to bus operation through the late forties and fifties. Never mind that NCL was partially owned by bus, tire, and gasoline suppliers. Though Federal antitrust action was taken against NCL, the damage was already done. Los Angeles was officially in love with the automobile.
  14. ^ "Vintage Photos of the Last Day of the LA Yellow Car | Untapped Cities". 4 February 2013. Archived from the original on 26 November 2020. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
  15. ^ Walker 1982, p. 13.
  16. ^ Walker 1977, p. 60.
  17. ^ Walker 1977, p. 64.
  18. ^ Walker 1977, p. 114-120.
  19. ^ Walker 1977, p. 72.
  20. ^ Walker 1976, p. 310.
  21. ^ Walker 1977, p. 160.
  22. ^ Walker 1977, p. 174-178.
  23. ^ Walker 1977, p. 186, 187.
  24. ^ Walker 1977, p. 187, 190.
  25. ^ Walker 1977, p. 210.
  26. ^ Walker 1977, p. 218.
  27. ^ a b Walker 1977, p. 50.
  28. ^ Walker 1977, p. 55.
  29. ^ Walker 1977, p. 142-144.
  30. ^ Walker 1977, p. 150-153.
  31. ^ Walker 1977, p. 114.
  32. ^ Walker 1977, p. 194 and 202.
  33. ^ Walker 1977, p. 284-285.
  34. ^ Walker 1977, p. 238-283.
  35. ^ a b "No.1080 Los Angeles Transit Lines". Market Street Railway. Archived from the original on 23 January 2021. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
  36. ^ a b "No.1052 Los Angeles Railway". Market Street Railway. Archived from the original on 23 January 2021. Retrieved 23 January 2021.

Bibliography

  • Post, Robert C. (1989). Street Railways and the Growth of Los Angeles. San Marino, CA: Golden West Books. ISBN 0-87095-104-1.
  • Swett, Ira (1951). Los Angeles Railway; Interurbans Special #11. Los Angeles, CA: Interurban Press.
  • Swett, Ira (1962). Los Angeles Railway Pre-Huntington Cars 1890-1902; Interurbans Special #22. Los Angeles, CA: Interurban Press.
  • Walker, Jim (2007). Los Angeles Railway Yellow Cars. Arcadia Publishing Library Editions. ISBN 978-1531629410.

Notes

  1. ^ United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (1951), para 33

Further reading

  • Bottles, Scott (1991). Los Angeles and the Automobile: The Making of the Modern City. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-07395-9.
  • Copeland, P. Allen (2002). California Trolleys In Color, Volume 1: San Diego and Los Angeles. Scotch Plains, NJ: Morning Sun Books, Inc. ISBN 1-58248-076-1.
  • Easlon, Steven L. (1973). Los Angeles Railway Through the Years. Anaheim, CA: Easlon Publications.
  • Fogelson, Robert (1967). The Fragmented Metropolis Los Angeles: 1850-1930. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
  • Freidricks, William B. (1992). Henry Huntington and the Creation of Southern California. Columbus, OH.: Ohio University Press. ISBN 0-8142-0553-4.
  • Hendricks, William O. (1971). Moses Sherman: A Pioneer Developer of the Pacific Southwest. Corona Del Mar, CA: The Sherman Foundation.
  • Longstreth, Richard (1997). City Center to Regional Mall: Architecture, the Automobile, and Retailing in Los Angeles, 1920-1950. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.
  • Moreau, Jeffrey (1964). The Los Angeles Railway Pictorial. Los Angeles, CA: Pacific Bookwork.
  • Perry, Louis B. & Richard S. Perry (1963). A History of the Los Angeles Labor Movement, 1911-1941. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.
  • Post, Robert C. (September 1970). "The Fair Fare Fight: An Episode in Los Angeles History". Southern California Quarterly. Historical Society of Southern California. 52 (3): 275–298. doi:10.2307/41170300. JSTOR 41170300.
  • Sitton, Tom (2005). Los Angeles Transformed: Fletcher Bowron's Urban Reform Revival, 1938-1953. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press.
  • Sitton, Tom (1992). John Randolph Haynes; California Progressive. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
  • Squier, Gerald (October 2013). "Los Angeles Railway". Motor Coach Age. Motor Bus Society.
  • Squier, Gerald (January 2015). "Los Angeles Transit Lines". Motor Coach Age. Motor Bus Society.
  • Stimson, Grace Heliman (1955). Rise of the Labor Movement in Los Angeles. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
  • Swett, Ira (1952). Los Angeles Railway All-time Roster; Interurbans Special #12. Los Angeles, CA: Interurban Press.
  • Swett, Ira (1964). Die Day In LA; Interurbans Special #35. Los Angeles, CA: Interurban Press.
  • Thorpe, James (1994). Henry Edwards Huntington: A Biography. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. ISBN 9780520082540.
  • Walker, Jim (1977). The Yellow Cars of Los Angeles. Glendale, CA: Interurban Press. ISBN 0-916374-25-4.
  • Walker, Jim (2007). Images of Rail Series: Los Angeles Railway Yellow Cars. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing.
  • Wilson, Jane (1990). Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Lawyers: An Early History. Torrance, CA: Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.

External links

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