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PE 500s Original artwork Howard Nourse |
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The Original Cars The wooden “500 class” rail cars date back to the very
beginning of the Pacific Electric’s corporate existence. They were the
first new cars ordered by the PE, and were also Southern California’s
first standard gauge electric interurban cars. Built in three groups
beginning in 1902, the “Fives” were used for light interurban and
suburban service. They embodied all of the unique trademarks of early
Southern California electric car design, including an open-air section and
5-window ends with distinctive curved corner glass. These same design
elements were subsequently applied to hundreds of PE and Los Angeles
Railway cars in the ensuing decades, becoming something of a trademark and
earning the design its “Huntington” nickname. Although the Fives were
quickly overshadowed in importance by their larger and faster interurban
cousins, they did open service on several early PE interurban lines, and
many of the cars served the system for over thirty years. The Fives were divided into two basic groups of fifty cars
each, the “Small” Fives, or 500s, ultimately numbered 500-549, and the
“Big” Fives, or 550s, numbered 550-599. All of the cars were visually
very similar, and unlike many of their contemporaries, all retained their
open sections until retired. Cars 500-549 were built by the St. Louis Car
Company over two orders between 1902 and 1909. Cars 550-599 were created
in 1911-1912, when the PE extensively rebuilt a group of older cars
inherited from a predecessor company. A 1922 article on equipment
assignments in the Pacific Electric Magazine described the Fives as general-purpose
utility cars: “The
500-class cars, being smaller and lighter are used for short haul suburban
service where frequent stops make high speed impossible and are used as
general utility cars to meet emergencies in all class of service.” The arrival of modern steel equipment, and ultimately the
effects of the Great Depression (which cut heavily into transit ridership
nation-wide in the early 1930s), combined to reduce the need for the
Fives. Official retirements of the 500s began in 1934, although many had
already been in storage for long periods of time. All of the Fives were
retired from passenger service by 1940. Following retirement, the bodies
of many 500s were sold to the public for use as “pre-fab” structures,
finding use as storage buildings, restaurants and even as housing. Because
they were reused in this way, several survived long enough to be
preserved. Of the four
carbodies known to exist today, three are at the Orange Empire Railway
Museum in Perris, California. |
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The Replicas The two replica Pacific Electric 500-class cars that now serve the Port of Los Angeles Waterfront Red Car Line were completed at a Port of LA facility in Wilmington, California, directly across the channel from where they are now running. The
replica 500s
are a compromise between the original design and the requirements for a
modern heritage trolley operating in an urban environment. The
new cars feature a welded steel frame carrying a wooden superstructure
that accurately replicates the appearance of a PE 500-class suburban car
circa 1920. Vintage running gear obtained from the Seashore Trolley Museum
was completely rebuilt with new wheels and refurbished motors. A new
magnetic-contactor control system was provided by Goodman
Equipment of Chicago, and the airbrake system has been designed by RPR
associate Dave Garcia using all commercially-available components from
WABCO and other suppliers. The new cars
seat
48 passengers, and are equipped for both high level and ground level
boarding. Space for wheelchairs is provided through the use of folding
seats and a slightly modified seating arrangement. As on the original
cars, a traditional "California Type" open-air section has been incorporated,
complete with heavy canvas curtains that can be pulled down during our occasional
inclement weather. It seems fitting that these new cars were patterned after
the historic 500-class design which helped inaugurate service on the PE
almost 100 years before. Click here to download a scale drawing of the 500-series replica (requires Adobe Acrobat)
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