BusTalk

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

Forgot to mention earlier........

In addition to the 125th Street Ferry, TARS streetcars (until 1933) also connected with the excursion boats of the "IRON STEAMBOAT COMPANY" (these boats ran to Coney Island)

And, until 1964, "SURFACE"/"MaBSTOA" buses connected with the boats of the "HUDSON RIVER DAY LINE", which docked at an adjacent pier at 125th Street...........

"NYO"

["ENTRANCE TO BOATS"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

Interesting.........

When the Subway Terminal and the Hollywood Subway closed in 1955, the PCCs were not scrapped but stored in the subway tunnel for several years, where the elements were NOT at all kind to them, before they were finally shipped to South America for further service.

I could have seen these cars going to Newark, for operating on the City Subway, and/or the Mattapan line in Boston.

Of course, by 1955, the City Subway had already been infused with the 30 ex-TCRT PCCs.............

"NYO"

['GLENDALE"}

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

It is also interesting that PE purchased "non-standard" PCCs; I can picture PE purchasing (either from ST. LOUIS or PULLMAN) PCCs that, while being double-ended, utilized the same "basic" styling used by hundreds of other cars for other systems, built prior to WW2..........

"NYO"

["HOLLYWOOD VIA SUBWAY"]

[Cyberider]

I thought they were standard pre-WWII appearance other than being double-ended?

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

PE's Long Beach line........

Had PE's Long Beach line (Metropolitan Coach Lines/MTA) been retained and not abandoned in 1961, it would have been interesting to see how this would have affected the rolling stock used.

Would the "Blimps" have been modernized/updated (thinking now of the RDG's "Blueliner" MUs)

Would new cars been built, possibly along the lines of the new generation of MUs then running on the LIRR and NYC, back East? (early 1960s)

Or, possibly renovating PCCs, to operate in MU trains.

It's always interesting to "speculate" on what might have been..........

"NYO"

["LONG BEACH"]

[Cyberider]

It's unlikely that the Blimps would have undergone another "modernization" since most of them were then 50 years old. Also, the Torrance Shops had been shut down in 1955 so there was no significant repair facility after that. in 1960, LAMTA borrowed some standard gauge PCC trucks from MUNI and installed them on an MCL PCC and made a few trips up and down the Long Beach line but nothing further was heard of that. PE/SP wasn't keen on having continued passenger service on their tracks. And, finally, freeway building was still in full swing and that was considered to be the way of the future. And that was that until LAMTA/SCRTD could get the taxpayers to cough up enough money to build an abbreviated new rail system, mostly over the same routes that had been used previously. LA didn't have enough downtown bound traffic like NYC had to justify the suburban rail systems that the greater NYC area had. So, now they have LRV's doing what interurbans once did and a short subway system that seems to stop short of any real destination.

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

Cyberider:

Good comments; thanks for sharing here.

So many.....TOO many factors......contributed to the ultimate and total downfall of the once-vast "Red Car" empire.

That the Long Beach line became the sole surviving active remnant of the PE, I find ironic, as that, today, 'Blue Line" LRV units now speed along the rails in territory that once belonged to the PE's Long Beach line.

Anti-rail local politics, along with the powerful, forceful trend to bus conversions, and freeway construction was simply too powerful a foe for the "Red Csr" to fend off.

How ironic, that today, long after the last vestiges of the far-flung "Red Car" disappeared, LA now has both light and heavy rail electric rail transit..........

"NYO

["LONG BEACH"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

See also:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Metro_Rail

["M"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

"Electric Rail Mentality" ("ERM") in Los Angeles.........

Truly makes you think that, by the 1950s/early 1960s, electric rail transit in and around Los Angeles was deemed outmoded and old-fashioned, not at all "in sync" with the ever-growing car/freeway culture, and the steady conversions to buses.

BUT, lo and behold, a few decades later, electric rail transit is suddenly now the "in thing" in Los Angeles, now boasting both light and heavy electric rail.

When you think of how what was once the WORLD'S LARGEST ELECTRIC RAILWAY SYSTEM IN THE WORLD was, bit by bit, dissected until NOTHING remained, it truly becomes a glaring, shameful example of TOTAL LACK of forward-thinking, thinking of a time when the freeways would be totally choked with traffic, with NO alternate means of getting from "A" to "B".

Now, think of what electric rail transit in LA would be like today, HAD what was the PE's far-flung electric network NOT been so foolishly and wantonly destroyed...........

"NYO"

["BEVERLY HILLS"]

[Cyberider]

I have a hard time imagining what something might have been when I've been so well versed on what was for most of my life. The PE was an amazing system and what they've built now can't compare in any way whatsoever. At this stage, I'll continue to live in my dream world of what was.

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

Recalling, PE's unique double-ended PCCs, check out this MAGNIFICENT restored double-ended MUNI* PCC (also, check out the historic photos, one of which includes a WHITE 798!!)

https://www.streetcar.org/streetcars/1006-1006-muni-wings/

*Note that MUNI later converted 15 of the double-enders into single-ended cars; Boston's "T" did the same with the ex-Dallas cars the MTA had purchases years earlier..........

["1006"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

Scroll down through page for a VERY diverse collection of traction photos, representing fleets from across the country!

https://thetrolleydodger.com/tag/sf-magic-carpet-cars/

["ST. LOUIS CAR COMPANY"]

[Cyberider]

The Dallas cars, delivered in 1945. had the prewar styling similar to PE's. Sounds like MUNI and Boston didn't purchase the Dallas cars for their double-ended feature.