Los Angeles Railway
51 on Route A at Temple
& Hill
1946
The A car is about to, and
the PE car on the right has just exited, the Hill Street tunnel, used by
both LARy/LATL and PERy. The A line was where, on a summer day in
1940, I discovered (at the tender age of 3.5) that I was a railfan (it's
a long story, but the nub is that I had to tell my mother something she
neglected to notice about one of these sowbellies that she wanted to use
to get home). The LARy tracks taking off to the right on Temple are
not in regular service, and haven't been for years. They just go
to Broadway to serve as a way around tie-ups, or for pull-ins/pull-outs
from Division 3.
The PE car on the right will
soon enter PE's own tunnel to Sunset Blvd. Even with the Subway Terminal,
PE still did a good business bringing people through downtown on Hill St.
The Hollywood Blvd. and Santa Monica Blvd. lines used Hill St., as did
the Echo Park Avenue (whose
cars went to Vera Cruz)
line, all turning back at 11th Street, right in the middle of traffic.
The PE car across the street
is in a storage track. PE always kept a car there, either to be pressed
into service should a regular car break down, or as a rush hour tripper.
Caption comments by Ken
Harrison
Robert McVay photo
Joe Testagrose collection
