Quote:
Originally Posted by ProphetM
The ferry building had the good fortune of becoming the LA Maritime Museum. And right outside is the only place (so far as I'm aware) that you can ride a red car on an actual former PE line:
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Photo by me, 2007
They have 2 replica cars for daily service, and one genuine restored PE car (pictured above) used mostly on special occasions, on a short line which uses part of the former PE line as clearly illustrated by the older pic!
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ProphetM; the Pacific Electric car shown in your photo has an interesting history. It is a replica of a PE 1000 class or “Ten Hundreds” as they were known, it was built from the damaged remains of PE 950 Class car 963 by Richard Fellows at the San Pedro boat building firm of Fellows & Stewart between 1960 and 1963 It can be seen on the extreme left of my photo taken at Fellows & Stewart in 1962. A 950 Class car can be seen immediately to it’s right. Note the more rounded shape of the front on the 950 class as opposed to the flat with rounded corners of the 1058.
The PE “Tens” were the largest wooden cars on the system. They were retired from service in 1950 with the abandonment of the Venice Short Line. Numbered from 1000 through 1044, only two survived, the 1000 and the 1001. Both are at the Orange Empire Railway Museum in Perris, CA. I am not sure why Richard Fellows chose the number 1058, but it does reflect the current day practice of numbering restored railway equipment created from sources other than their original owner at least one digit higher then the last number in the type or class.
Following restoration of the carbody, the 1058 operated on rubber tires until the passing of Mr. Fellows and it’s return to rail operation at San Pedro in 2003. My color photo dates from the opening of the Metro Blue line on July 14, 1990 and the return of rail transit to Los Angeles.
Two PE “Tens” can be seen in the LAPL photo of the Municipal Ferry Building in Gaylord Wilshire’s original post.
The other wooden PE trolley currently used on the The Port of Los Angeles Waterfront Red Line is an outstanding modern reconstruction of a PE 500 class car.
On another note, I concede that
GW’s suggestion that the unidentified car in the foreground of the color photo taken on the ferry might very well be a Chrysler product rather than a Studebaker.
Photo by me
Photo by me