Dec. 28, 1952: A Night to Remember as Last Red Car Trolley Leaves the Valley

Editor's Note: New attention has been shined lately on the old Red Car trolley system that used to run through the San Fernando Valley after Metro earlier this year. In this story, Alan K. Weeks has provided Patch with his memories of the night of last Red Car trolley in the Valley. Make sure to check out the attached photos, which he took as a young man in the early 50s.

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In 1950, four other friends and I chartered a Los Angeles Chapter of Electric Railroaders Association. We were a group of like-minded people who liked to ride, photograph and try to preserve electric railroads (mostly streetcars). I don’t believe there are any founding members still living. The organization later became the Electric Railroad Historical Association of Southern California. It is still in existence today.

Los Angeles had two street car systems when I was growing up. The Narrow Gauge Yellow cars mostly in the city of Los Angeles. Then there was the better known Red Car system of Standard gauge interurban type lines. The Pacific Electric Railway lines covered 1,000 miles of track in Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. The late 1930s saw the beginning of the end of the Red Car system then owned by the Southern Pacific Railroad Company. A few lines were converted to buses before the war. Heavy ridership during the World War II saved the remaining rail lines from replacement. Ridership began declining after the war. Then, in 1949, the rail abandonments started up again.  Many rail lines were abandoned in 1950-51. 

In 1952, hearings were held by the California Public Utilities Commission (a state agency with control over railroads) concerning the application to abandon the Van Nuys red car line. They were granted permission to replace the rail lines with buses.

We were all saddened by this news. We were used to attending the last rides on many PERY rail lines so it was not unexpected. I was 20 years old when they announced that the L.A.—Van Nuys line would be abandoned and replaced by buses on December 28, 1952. It is still hard to believe that was 60 years ago this coming December.

We decided to charter a special rail car to follow the last regular passenger car on the night of December 28, 1952. Our chartered car was not a regular Van Nuys type car. It was one of the last new type cars delivered to the PERY in 1940. These cars were mostly used on the L.A. Glendale - Burbank Line. They were double-ended PCC cars.

We departed the Subway Terminal Building in Los Angeles right behind the last regular Van Nuys passenger car at  1:20 a.m. We followed the regular car and did not pick up any passengers. We arrived at Van Nuys Boulevard and Sherman Way approximately 2:40 a.m. There was almost a party atmosphere even though we were attending a funeral for this Red Car line. Yet underneath it all there was a sadness since we all knew the end of the rail era was going to continue until all rail lines were gone.

The regular last car was pulled into a siding track off of Van Nuys Boulevard and tied down for the rest of the night. We then placed multiple railroad torpedoes on the rails leaving Sherman Way. I believe they no longer use railroad torpedoes today. The torpedoes were a small explosive charges that were strapped to the rail head by lead clamps. When the rail wheels ran over them they exploded with a very loud noise. They were used to warn railroad crews of the need to stop or be prepared to stop. When we boarded our chartered car for a return run to the Subway Terminal Building, huge explosions and clouds of acrid smoke clouded the area. If that were done today we would all have been in jail. I remember our car racing along Chandler Boulevard and how, like in all murder mysteries, it was a dark and rainy night. It was a very fitting for the end of an era. We continued on into Los Angeles and ended our trip in the rail yard at the entrance to the Subway Terminal Building.

Until I recently saw a picture in a book, I did not realize that there was another official VIP trip run on the Van Nuys line the following day. The public was not able to ride this trip. It carried officials of the Pacific Electric Railway and civic officeholders.

It is interesting to note that this line did not have a large decline in ridership like most of the other P.E. rail lines. In fact, the huge increase in population in the San Fernando Valley gave the line a continuing large ridership. In fact, there was a 20-minute service during the bulk of the day. The Van Nuys line was part of an experiment by becoming incorporated in the center of what was to become the 170 (Hollywood) Freeway. It was called the Cahuenga Freeway. Had the Highway Department been less anti-rail, the Van Nuys line could have been continued to central Los Angeles in the center of the Hollywood Freeway. This was one of the numerous lost opportunities we had for early rapid transit. Never in my wildest dreams did I envision the very successful .

As successful as the Orange Line Busway is it could have been a high-capacity light rail line had the citizens of North Hollywood not fought and blocked this project. The future has never looked brighter for rail transit in Southern California. Proposition R, which passed in 2008, has sped up light rail construction in Southern California. Expo Line Phase 2 and the Gold Line Foothill Ext. Phase 2 are under construction. The Crenshaw Light Rail project is due to start late this year or early next year. Three lines will then be under construction with many more planned. We may have a chance to extend Prop R for another 30 years if it is on the ballot in November.