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Originally Posted by ethereal_reality
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Nice Find,
ER!
I am going to go out on a limb here and suggest Washington Street Service. Note that in your top photo both the front and side roof mounted destination boards have been blurred out.
Post cards of individual streetcars from this early period of Los Angeles Railway history are few and far between and were probably taken as LARY promotional pieces. Its to bad there are no dates on the the cards as that might lend credence to the information below.
My comments here stem from a paragraph in Interurbans Special No. 11, Los Angeles Railway. This is a History of LARY and its predecessor companies.
The paragraph notes that "In 1902 Los Angeles Held its La Fiesta, an early day rival to Pasadena's Rose Parade. To transport the crowds downtown to witness the flower-bedecked floats, service was run on all LARY lines lines." The list contains 17 lines, one of which is Washington Street.
If anyone can find a better answer, please post it!
P.S., the 'Basket" on the front of the car was an early safety device to scoop up errant pedestrians who stepped in front of a moving streetcar. Many traction companies used these, and those on LARY cars were not changed to the later "Lifeguard" type until the company was taken over by National City Lines and renamed Los Angeles Transit Lines (LATL).
See:The first two photos on this PE Historical Society page for a comparison of the two types.
http://www.pacificelectric.org/categ...ailway/5-line/
The older Gent is probably the Paymaster.The others were probably the motorman and security.
Another thought occurred to me this morning. These may not be official postcards but rather snapshots from a postcard camera such as an Eastman Kodak 122A printed on heavy stock. This would account for the lack of information on the reverse. Also, additional research this morning finds that Car 189 in the top picture was acquired from the Pacific Electric and was built in 1899, coming to LARY in the the great merger of 1910. Does anyone know when Los Angeles held its last La Fiesta, as this dates the photo later than 1902? The 1910 merger resulted in the Pacific Electric coming under the control of the Southern Pacific Company and the city service lines going to Henry Huntington as Los Angeles Railway. Car 9000 in the lower photo was LARY's first Pay Car and was originally numbered 500. Employees entered the front door, collected their pay from the Paymaster and exited the rear door. This car was rebuilt as number 9000 in 1906 (which helps to date the photo but calls into question the WS Service on the reverse as it remained a Pay Car until dismantled in 1913. This was the only car of this type in LARY service. as a result of this mornings research I am inclined to suggest that WS stands for Work Service rather than Washington Street.
Cheers,
Jack
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That's the art deco Irving Thalberg Building in the background (just outside the east gate of MGM*) 
(I just noticed there's one on the back as well)
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