Very interesting tour of Pacific Electric's abandoned subway tunnel in Los Angeles:

http://www.westworld.com/~elson/larail/PE/tunnel.html

Other PE links (some no longer work):

http://pacific-electric-railway.borgfind.com/

Nice PE shot on the Glendale line at Brand and Broadway, 1955 or thereabouts. Did that PCC survive?

http://abpr.railfan.net/abprphoto.cgi?j ... ale_CA.jpg

The PE PCCs went to B. A., Argentina. One may be in a museum there. They had been stored in the unused subway tunnel for a few years, and were pulled up a ramp onto highway trucks after the track had been removed beside the substation outside the portal.

I don't think the cars lasted in Argentina that long. The operation in Argentina used them in three or four unit sets, with train doors cut into the bodies to allow the conductor to pass through.

I seem to remember reading that the cars were not in that good of shape after being stored in the subway, and they were replaced in Argentina by some other cars.

Thanks for posting that! I’d seen that location in lots of movies and TV shows over the years and always wondered if that was a former RR tunnel or not! I clearly remember that location being used in the TV show, "V" back in the 80s, and I found it funny that the website even mentioned that.

After the PE cars went to Argentina, the Key System articulated Bridge Units went to Argentina. In turn these I believe have been replaced by new Japanese (?) cars.

One Urban Railfan story is that when it came time to move the cars out of the subway a crew went to the substation at the portal to turn it on in order to run the cars out under their own power. Lo and behold, the building had been gutted. In asking around a hearby filling station operator said that he recalled seeing a work crew -- hard hats, regular hours, etc. -- that came in and scrapped out the building. It all looked on the up and up and so he did not think otherwise about it.

Some exPE equipment is "preserved" in deplorable condition at the Lynch depot in BA.

BA? Bay Area?

Please help us out on that one.

Buenos Aires

Sorry, Buenos Aires, Argentina, South America.

Yes, I saw some of that about seven years ago on a rare tour of the Lynch Depot. It was not much then for condition and I was amazed that a fan group could even exist considering the state of the Argentine economy. They also had an ex PE Hollywood car modified to serve as a line car, although most of the General Urquiza line ran third rail by then and the only wire in evidence was short segments in the depot and yards. I did not see a PCC but there was a very familiar looking Baldwin Westinghouse locomotive.

Bob Kutella

What is the latest on the PE subway tunnel. Is it accessable yet? I saw on the one site that there may be development nearby threatening the tunnel.

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