The top photo was taken at the intersection of Brand and Glenoaks boulevards in 1954 or 1955. The bottom photo was taken at the same location on Wednesday afternoon.
Can you spot the similarities and differences? Here’s one: the 92 bus doesn’t appear to make the turn onto Brand Boulevard in the same place as the streetcar.
The top photo was taken in April 1955 at Brand Boulevard and Mountain Avenue — literally the end of the Pacific Electric line. Bottom photo was taken yesterday.
The intersection hasn’t changed dramatically in the past 58 years. At some point since then, development creeped into the mountains above.
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Categories: History, Inside Metro
Steve:
Better too much info than not enough info.
You and esecially info and photos from Alan Weeks help The Source, etc.
—“Ken” Ruben—
The Red Cars went down the medium in the middle of Glenoaks like many P.E. cars did in other parts of the system.
When is a streetcar not a streetcar? When it’s a Pacific Electric PCC. 😉
These cars were unique to the P.E., in that they were specified for interurban-style operation, including their double-ended configuration and multiple-unit control. Unfortunately, they were comparatively slow, with a tendency to overheat during sustained running, and were relegated to the Glendale line due to their light weight and soft suspension.
Wonderful pictures!! 🙂 I grew up very close to where those pictures were taken. I remember many times going to the Library at Brand and Stocker and seeing the stairs to the underground station. I was not around when the red car was here…but part of me really misses it. What I do remember though is the 92 bus going up there on some of their timetables and other times it would turn on that little street next to the church. Such WONDERFUL MEMORIES…Thank You for having these pictures, it is fun to see how it used to be… 🙂
The 92 bus turns to Brand blvd. It’s just making a wide turn.
Hi Chris;
The problem is there’s big Glenoaks Boulevard (the southernmost one with the median) and there’s little Glenoaks Boulevard, which is immediately south of the church.
I think the streetcar ran on big Glenoaks whereas the bus comes down little Glenoaks and makes the turn, thus the reason I couldn’t take a pic of bus and streetcar turning in the same place.
I’m pretty sure I was close to the original photographer’s location, the only differences is I had a fixed 35mm lens on a DX digital camera and original photog probably had a 50mm lens on a film (FX digital equivalent) camera. At 52mm on my DX Nikon, I would have been closer and the perspectives more similar.
I know. Probably more than you wanted to know.
Steve Hymon
Editor, The Source
All of these cars still had many years of service left on them and were sold to other countries where they operated for many years.
So sad,,,,,,,,,To the people responsible for getting rid of the Red cars,,,,Damn you,damn you all to hell……………
Concerning Brand and Mountain. Look closely and in the middle of street you see a iron fence. Even into the RTD when Buses layed over there the operators used an underground restroom gained access via this gated entrance.
I honestly cannot believe that there aren’t “then” streetcar pictures available for any of the alignments that have returned to trolley service.