While searching for the Venice Short Line map I found this interesting story that happened on the line at the intersection of Venice Blvd. and Lincoln Blvd.
Rescue and cleanup crews work on a horrific wreck involving a truck and Pacific Electric interurban on March 23, 1942.
P.E.Org.
Information gathered from commenters on these photographs:
--According to the L.A. Times report, the train was a westbound limited, which hit the army truck then derailed and struck the automobile, and all three then “jammed against a light post and a signal and burst into flames which demolished the truck.” Ten soldiers and eight civilians were injured and/or burned, several critically, and “more than twoscore passengers” as well as the motorman E.M.Adams and conductor R.D. Holbrook escaped injury. (That last sentence is grammatically confusing, but is the way it was written.)
--The license plate on the back of the car next to the truck is a 1941 plate with a 1942 date strip along the top, the only year CA used a strip along the entire length of the plate and the first year that CA did not issue a new plate for that year except for new registrants.
--PE 958 was repaired and returned to service; not scrapped until 1950.
--The brick building in the upper right hand corner above the gas station is still standing.