Лос-Анджелес электр көліктерінің тарихы

Electric interurban railway in Los Angeles, California

The Los Angeles Railway (also known as Yellow Cars, LARy and later Los Angeles Transit Lines) was a system of streetcars that operated in Central Los Angeles and surrounding neighborhoods between 1895 and 1963. The system provided frequent local services which complemented the Pacific Electric "Red Car" system's largely commuter based interurban routes. The company carried many more passengers than the Red Cars, which served a larger and sparser area of Los Angeles. Cars operated on 3ft6in narrow gauge tracks, and shared dual gauge trackage with the ussg Pacific Electric system on Main Street in downtown Los Angeles (directly in front of the 6th and Main terminal), on Hill St, on 7th St, on 4th Street, and along Hawthorne Boulevard south of Downtown Los Angeles toward the cities of Hawthorne, Gardena and Torrance.

The earliest streetcars in Los Angeles were horse propelled. The earliest horsecar railway, the Spring and Sixth Street Railroad was built in 1874 by Robert M. Widney, and ran from the Plaza area to Sixth and Pearl (Figueroa) Street; not much later, this line would be extended northeast to East Los Angeles (today’s Lincoln Park). A more ambitious horse driven line was the Main Street and Agricultural Park Railroad, which ran from the Plaza area, south on Main Street, to Washington Gardens and then to Agricultural (Exposition) Park. Transportation technology progressed, and Los Angeles acquired significant investments in cable technology. The first cable car system to open in Los Angeles was the Second Street Cable Railway. Opened in 1885, it ran west from Second and Spring Streets out First Street to Texas Street (Belmont Avenue). Each of these early railroads were built to further the sale of real estate that was considered too far away from the downtown area. The Los Angeles Cable Railway (later named the Pacific Cable Railway, and incorporated in Illinois) owned many exclusive franchises (agreements with the city to use public streets for transportation purposes) and by 1889 had constructed four major cable lines crisscrossing the growing downtown area, from Jefferson and Grand to East Los Angeles (Lincoln Heights), and from Westlake Park to Boyle Heights. Though considered the latest word in cable railway technology, construction was expensive, legal and operating problems plagued the system, and a rising new electric railway technology threatened to make the system obsolete.

The first electric railway in Los Angeles was built in 1887 to facilitate the sales of a real estate tract on Pico Street. The Los Angeles Electric Railway used the early Daft overhead system with a crude electric car and trailers. Though the real estate venture was successful, after an explosion in the power station, the Pico Street electric line closed, seemingly for good. Development of an effective electric transportation system based on the new Sprague based technology began in earnest with the arrival in Los Angeles of Moses Sherman, his brother in law Eli P. Clark and San Francisco investors late in 1890. Sherman, originally a teacher from Vermont, had moved to the Arizona territory in 1874 where he was involved in business and civic affairs, real estate, and street railways. Clark, too, came from the Arizona territory, and was similarly involved in business and civic affairs. Sherman became interested in opportunities in Los Angeles after vacationing there in early 1890. He joined the efforts of a group attempting to resurrect the Second Street Cable Railway, but persuaded them to electrify the line instead. He acquired the line in October, 1890 and renamed it The Belt Line Railroad Company. Sherman created an Arizona corporation called The Los Angeles Consolidated Electric Railway Company (LACE) on November 12, 1890 with Sherman as President and Clark as General Manager. Future mayor Frederick Eaton was chosen as Chief Engineer. The firm was incorporated in Arizona because Arizona incorporation held certain advantages over incorporating in California. In the autumn of 1890, the legislature passed the so called 5 block law, which enabled a street railway company to use another company's rails for up to five city blocks. This would help Sherman immensely with his plans for LACE, but later would be used against him. Sherman and Clark began work immediately. In 1891 alone, they accomplished the following:
After using the Pico Street facilities for a short time, they constructed a new power house, car house and shops at the intersection of Central Avenue and Wilde Street, east of the business district. Purchased the Depot Line on May 8, which ran from Second and Spring Streets to the Santa Fe Depot and to the Southern Pacific depot. Opened a line from Second and Spring Streets, past Crown Hill, to Westlake Park on July 1, replacing the Second Street Cable line. Acquired the Los Angeles and Vernon Street Railway, whose horsecar line ran down Central Avenue to Slauson, then connected to the Santa Fe Ballona branch. They opened it as an electric line on September 16. Built a new line to serve the University of Southern California and Agricultural Park; the new University line opened November 12. Opened the Maple Avenue Line in November and the newly rebuilt and re electrified Pico Street line on December 31. By the end of 1891, the railway had five electric lines running, all which used a 3 foot 6 inch gauge, which matched the gauge used by the cable lines: Crown Hill, University, Maple Avenue, Central Avenue and Pico Street. Pacific Railway’s problems were such that the company was thrown into receivership in 1891, with James F. Crank appointed as receiver. In 1892, Sherman and Clark electrified the Depot Line, and opened it on August 1. They extended the Crown Hill line east to the Santa Fe La Grande station, and also connected to the Southern Pacific Arcade station on Central. They also started a line to East Los Angeles (Eastlake Park) in 1892, laying track on North Spring and North Broadway Streets. They were forced to build a bridge over the Los Angeles River and Santa Fe rails, which postponed the opening of the line until September 26, 1893. The Great Depression hit the railway hard, and revenue shortfalls forced the modification of the Type H cars to allow operation by a single driver and the closure of the Division 2 car house. The sale was announced December 5, 1944, but the purchase price was not disclosed. National City Lines, along with its investors that included Firestone Tire, Standard Oil of California (now Chevron Corporation) and General Motors, were later convicted of conspiring to monopolize the sale of buses and related products to local transit companies controlled by National City Lines and other companies in what became known as the General Motors streetcar conspiracy. National City Lines purchased Key System, which operated the streetcar system in Oakland, California, the following year. The company was renamed as Los Angeles Transit Lines. The new company introduced 40 new ACF Brill trolley buses which had originally been intended for the Key System, which was being converted to buses by National City Lines in late 1948. Many lines were converted to buses in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Historian Jim Walker notes that there were three major classifications of LARy cars: the Huntington Standards, the all steel cars, and the streamliners. All were built to run on narrow gauge tracks spaced 3’ 6” apart. The type numbers referred to below were created by LARy in 1920 to categorize their cars; there were many sub categories (e. g., B 2, H 3, K 4, etc.) not recorded here.

The Huntington Standard (Type B) was numerically LARy’s largest, with an eventual count of 747 cars. Designed in 1901 1902 by LARy engineers and originally 38’ long, these wooden “California Cars” had open sections on both ends and an enclosed center section, but their most distinctive feature was the five window front, with two elegant curved corner windows. These cars seemed to dominate the Southern California landscape in the eyes of the world, to a large extent because they were featured in many early movies. The Standards were either rebuilt from older cars or were purchased from manufacturers between 1902 and 1912. Pay As You Enter (PAYE) Standard Beginning in 1910, Standards were lengthened to 44 feet and modified into a PAYE format. Each end of the original cars were lengthened and an additional entrance door was added so the conductor could collect fares without having to roam through the car. Center entrance Cars (Type C), also called “sowbellies”, were modified older Standards with a low step center entrance and exit to accommodate the “hobble skirt” craze of the early teens. Beginning in 1913, 107 older Standards were converted and 76 new cars were purchased from the St. Louis Car Company, but the conversions were stopped in 1914 because of a Jitney caused drop in patronage and the eventual end of the hobble skirt fashion. One significant drawback to this design was that they could not be converted to one man operation. Over the years, less major variations in Type B car designs included different lengths, different seat arrangements, various center section window formats, mesh safety gates vs panels, modifications for cars that made longer runs, and modifications for one man or two man operation. Older Type B cars began to be scrapped beginning in the 1930s, and the last of these iconic cars operated through 1952.

All Steel Cars (Type H) were configured very similar to the Type B cars with open ends and a closed center section. After the disastrous Pacific Electric wreck at Vineyard in July, 1913, the drawbacks of high speed wooden cars led companies to turn to steel construction. From November, 1921 through early 1924, LARy received 250 of these cars from the St. Louis Car Company. The cars were capable of running in multiple unit trains for use on heavier lines and were assigned to the Grand Avenue Moneta line and the S line. The use of multiple unit operation was stopped in 1930, when reduced patronage due to the depression made the use of trains unnecessary. These cars were updated to accommodate one operator, two operator operation between 1934 and 1936. In 1955, due to the abandonment of many rail lines, many of the units were sold to National Metals for scrapping. In 1956, 41 Type H 4 cars were sent to Seoul and Pusan, South Korea as part of an aid program. Initially cars had a two tone yellow paint scheme with a lighter shade for the roof. Larger systems generated or purchased high voltage alternating current (AC), which could be transmitted over longer distances to a substation, which used a transformer to drop the current to a voltage that motor generator sets could use to generate the 600 volts DC required by the streetcars. Sherman and Clark’s original 1891 plant at the company’s Central Avenue and Wilde Street facility generated direct current by utilizing five pairs of two oil fired Sterling boilers to power a variety of steam engines, which in turn drove several 550 volt generators which generated 5,000 horsepower (hp). In August, 1902, a second power plant was built as part of the expansion of the Central Avenue facility, which then encompassed a large property at Sixth and Central (later called Division One). This new steam power station adjoined the 1891 power station, and was also capable of generating 5000 hp. In mid 1898, The Los Angeles Railway power station was connected to power generated from a hydroelectric plant that had been created by William G. Kerckhoff and Allan C. Balch’s San Gabriel Electric Company. Located near Azusa at the mouth of the San Gabriel Canyon, the Azusa plant transmitted 15,000 KW AC power 23 miles via power lines to their downtown Los Angeles substation. From there, the power was converted to 500 volts DC and was sent to the LARy power house, and ultimately to the streetcars. On March 6, 1902, Huntington’s group and Kerckhoff and his investors formed the Pacific Power and Light Company (PL&P), first, to supply power for the expanding electric railways, and second, to sell excess to parts of Los Angeles County. The Huntington group owned 51% of the stock, held in the name of the Los Angeles Railway. Capitalized at ten million dollars, the new company absorbed the San Gabriel Electric Company, the Sierra Power Company, and the Kern River Company, the latter which had been working on a hydroelectric power plant 11 miles south of Kernville. LARy then began constructing substations which would convert the higher voltage AC power to the 600 volts required by the motors used on the cars. The first substation was built near Agricultural Park. Two more were quickly constructed and opened in June, 1903, one near Westlake Park and the other at the Los Angeles Plaza. Each substation was fed by 15,000 volt transmission lines, which were connected to transformers that transformed the power to 2,200 volts. The resulting power was fed to motor generator sets which produced the 500 volts direct current, which was fed to the overhead via feeder lines. At its peak, LARy had 16 substations which distributed electricity to all their lines. Electricity from PL&P’s completed Kern River Company’s hydroelectric project reached Los Angeles in December, 1905. With a generating capacity of 17,500 KW, its output was transmitted over 123 miles to a receiving station in Los Angeles, which then distributed the power to its primary customers, the electric railways. Earlier that same year, Huntington acquired the Redondo Land and Improvement Company and the Los Angeles and Redondo Railway, an electric railway that operated from Los Angeles, through Rosecrans and Gardena, to Redondo Beach with an eye toward developing the town as a resort and a port for lumber deliveries. PL&P began construction on a steam plant nearby in December, 1906, which opened in March, 1908, generating 25,000 kw for the LARy, the Pacific Electric, the Los Angeles and Redondo Railway and other railways and areas. After the 1910 agreement between Huntington and the SP, in which Huntington’s interests in the Pacific Electric were turned over to the Southern Pacific, and SP’s interest in the LARy was acquired by Huntington, Huntington had a much larger LARy. gained the Pacific Electric’s former city routes, the former LA Traction Company’s lines, and LA and Redondo Railway’s the lines north of 116th Street, totaling 122 additional miles of track. The system now had 345 miles of track. These changes, along with the prospect of supplying power to the larger PE Railway underscored the need to create even more power. The cost of electricity generated at the efficient Redondo steam plant was 4 cents per kilowatt hour, whereas power generated by hydro power cost less than one tenth of one cent per kilowatt hour. In order to build these new projects, Huntington organized a new Pacific Light and Power Company, capitalized at 40 million dollars, in early 1910. This new company enlarged the Redondo Beach plant in December, 1910, adding two 12,000 KW generators. The new PL&P began its most ambitious project, a large hydroelectric system on the San Joaquin River called Big Creek. In November, 1910, Huntington hired the engineering firm Stone and Webster to oversee what would be the first phase of the Big Creek project. After two years of construction on the South Fork of the San Joaquin River, and the expenditure of 13.9 million dollars, the Borel station of the Big Creek project began generating 60,000 KW of electricity to Los Angeles in December, 1913, which enabled Huntington close the remaining steam plants, though the Redondo plant was kept as a standby. In 1917, after Huntington had begun to concentrate more on his legacy art and book collections, he sold his interest in PL&P to Southern California Edison, but not without negotiating a contract for the company to continue to furnish power to LARy and the Pacific Electric Railway.