June 1991 Number 6 Timepoints Railroad Bridge), and Enter Downtown As Subway Op- the Southern California Traction Review Eration
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TIMEPOINTS Volume 79 June 1991 Number 6 Timepoints railroad bridge), and enter downtown as subway op- The Southern California Traction Review eration. The first station is Steel Plaza, from which a by shuttle connects with Penn Station, (the Amtrak stop The Electric Railway Historical Society of for Pittsburgh), followed by Wood Street and Gate- Southern California, Inc. way, (the terminus, where all cars and trains loop). The Free to members. Non-member subscribtions at $15.00 per rail system is divided into two parts, one run with new year. (January to December) light rail vehicles, and the other with refurbished Editorial Mailing Address Circulation, ERHA Business PCCs. The LRVs run on the 42SSouth Hills Village John Heller ERHA 822 No. Alexandria Ave. P.O. Box 24315 via Beechview, 42Mt. Lebanon Only, and 42L Hollywood, CA 90029-2504 Los Angeles, CA 90024 Library via Beechview lines. The PCCs run on the Association Board of Directors 1991 47Shannon Only via Overbrook, 47DDrake via President David G. Cameron Overbrook, and 47SSouth Hills Village via Vice-President Alan Fishel Treasurer George H. Foelschow Overbrook lines. All the lines run through the South Secretary Bill Smith Hills Tunnel. The split occurs at South Hills Junction, At-large John Heller with the PCC lines via Overbrook running to the Jaune Smith southeast and the LRV lines to the southwest. The Paul J. Ward, Jr. latter have been extensively rebuilt to high standards, Publisher Robert L. Schneider Contributors Robert C. (Bob) Bellinger and include street running, private right of way, and Leroy Demery subway segments. The route passes through Harre W. Demoro Beechview, Dormont and Mt. Lebanon before rejoin- Ralph Forty ing the Overbrook route at Castle Shannon Boro Hall. Jack Garcia All lines share a main line from Castle Shannon to M.D. (Doc) Isely Norman K. Johnson Washington Junction. At this point the 42L diverges Richard Kotulak to the southwest, terminating at Library. Years ago, John E. McEnhill this continued on as the interurban line to Charleroi, Ralph Melching but it was cut back to Library, the last stop in Allegheny Ben Minnick County. The PCC route from South Hills Junction to David Morgan Ted Wickson Castle Shannon via Overbrook is of great interest to Gary M. Woodley electric-railway historians because of its stretches of President's Notebook single track across elderly bridges and for the PCC Pittsburgh, Update equipment itself. There is now some discussion of whether to rebuild or abandon this route. From Construction on the current phase of Pittsburghs Washington Junction, the cars not destined to Library light rail system is complete. The system connects all use the old interurban line to Washington, which downtown with suburbs to the south. Previously, the was cut back to Drake just inside the county line. The streetcars emerged from the South Hills Tunnel, then Drake Loop itself is served by PCCs on the 47D Line, crossed the historic Smithfield Street Bridge and used while Line 42S LRVs and 47S PCCs turn west before surface streets in downtown, but now the cars turn reaching Drake. There is new trackage to reach a sharply to the right (east) as they emerge from the terminus at the South Hills Village shopping center, tunnel, (whose floor has been paved to allow buses to whose large parking lots are convenient for use by share it), cross the Panhandle Bridge, (an abandoned park-and-ride transit patrons. The rail system runs from about 5 or 6 AM to 12 or 1 AM, seven days a On the Cover, (top), Builder's photo of Brill RailLess car in 1922. week. Base headways on the 42L and 42S LRV Lines Car ran in a loop around LARY's South Park Shops for some are 10 minutes, Monday through Saturday, and 15 months, and then was stored until scrapped in 1946. (bottom), minutes on Sundays on the 42S, but 30 minutes on the RTD rendering of new 60ft articulated Trolley Bus. 42L, seven days a week. Monday through Friday, the (continued on page 7) Page 2 Timepoints Thirty ACF-Brill Model T46s, delivered in December, 1948. Weighing 19,000 lbs., these seated 46, were 36'10" long, 8'6" wide and had one GE 1213-J1 motor with dynamic brakes. Here, 9123 in "Fruit Salad" paint scheme of LATL in 1949, posed alongside Division One substation. Trolley Buses For Los Angeles - so many trolley bus systems is now itself an endan- The Fourth Time Around gered transit species on the verge of extinction. By Southern California has always been a place of firsts, 1995 federal emission standards will be so stringent a barometer for worldwide trends. It is the inventor of that it will be nearly impossible for new diesel engines televison, chili dogs, theme parks, smog, miniature to meet those standards, and transit systems nation- golf, California cuisine, and it is the birthplace of the wide will be forced to seek alternative fuels, such as trolley bus. In 1910 the Bungalowtown line of the natural gas, methanol, and electricity, as they replace Laurel Canyon Utilities Company became the first vehicles in their fleets. A joint study by the SCRTD revenue trackless trolley line in North America. The and LACTC has pointed to the proven technology and lined utilized two 16-passenger Oldsmobile motor bus non-polluting nature of the trolley bus, and has iden- bodies into which 15-horsepower electric motors had tified approximately 40 diesel bus routes that are been installed. For five years the little buses bumped viable candidates for electrification: the initial ten and lurched their way up a dirt road to a real estate routes to be in operation within seven years. This will development a mile-and-a-half up Laurel Canyon be Los Angeles fourth flirtation with trackless trol- from a connection with Los Angeles Pacifics Holly- leys, but its first commitment to a longterm relation- wood Boulevard streetcar. The Bungalowtown line ship? Seven years after the Bungalowtown line quit faded away in 1915, a fleeting Southern California operation, Los Angeles toyed with the trolley bus a first. Eighty years later Los Angeles may be up for second time. The Los Angeles Railway purchased a another first, the city with more separate eras of trolley Brill Rail-less Car, similiar to the ones in the small bus operation than any other city in the world; four in fleet that were to serve Philadelphias 80-Oregon all. The fourth benchmark has yet to be established, Avenue line starting in 1923. LARY car 100 was but it is probable that the SCRTD will be operating ten demonstrated on a test loop around South Park Shops, trolley bus lines by 1998, with the initial two lines and was then stored and forgotten until it was scrapped opening in 1995. Ironically, the diesel bus that doomed in 1946 by the new owners of LARY, National City Timepoints Page 3 Lines. Oddly enough, the test loop that had sat idle for August, 1946, when they were shipped to Los Angeles. 24 years became the training ground a year later for Another twenty-five Brill TC-44s of the same design Los Angeles third try at the trolley bus. (When NCL completed the initial LATL fleet. LATL ordered sev- inaugurated service on the nine-mile 3-West Sixth St.- enty additional trolley buses in 1948 to provide service Central Ave. line on August 3, 1947.) NCL was headed on Los Angeles second trackless trolley line, 2-Brook- by E. Roy Fitzgerald, a rotund and jowly former lyn Ave.-Hooper Ave., which replaced rail line B on railroad man, who along with his brothers bought up December 5, 1948. wo years later the final expansion scores of small and medium-sized street railways dur- of the trolley bus system took place when the 3 line was ing the 1930s, and almost without exception quickly extended three miles from Sixth & Wilton, north to motorized them. Among NCLs major stockholders Third and west to La Brea, on September 15, 1950. were General Motors, The extension re- Shell Oil, Firestone placed the West Tire, and Mack Truck. Third St. branch of At the time of NCLs the S rail line. greatest growth, follow- LATLs 110 trolley ing the second world buses far exceeded war, the government the needs of two was laying the ground- lines, and it was work to indict the com- planned to use the pany on anti-trust surplus on a third charges, (NCL was later line, by converting found guilty), and it the heavy 41- doesnt take a rocket Alvarado crosstown scientist to realize that bus route to electric NCLs sudden surge of power. Although interest in trolley buses engineering studies and new PCC cars for were completed the Los Angeles may have plan never came to been the ultimate pub- fruition. Los Ange- lic relations promotion les small trolley bus for the time. Neverthe- system was well- less, Los Angeles maintained and op- wound up with a fleet erated efficiently of 110 trolley buses and throughout the fif- 40 new PCC cars. The ties into the early six- first fifteen trolley buses ties. When LATL had been delivered in and Pacific Electric an orange and silver were merged into the paint scheme to NCLs Los Angeles Metro- Key System Transit politan Transit Au- Lines in Oakland, to replace streetcars on the 6- thority on March 3, 1958, the TCs continued to be College Ave. and 7-Arlington-Euclid lines. They had kept in good operating condition, as did the overhead. been ordered by the previous owners, and some LAMTA abandoned its vestigal trolley bus system on overhead was already in place.