Steeple-cab electric 1601
PE 1601 was the first of 18 900 h.p. Baldwin-Westinghouse steeple-cab freight motors built during 1912–20. Using General Electric equipment, PE’s shops assembled 13 similar units in 1924–25. The 31 1601s and 1619s handled the bulk of PE’s heavy freight work.
Ira Swett
SW1 diesel switcher 1011
SW1 1011 was among a number of switcher and road-switcher diesels PE leased over the years from parent SP. The visitors got PE lettering and trolley poles to activate signals, but generally kept their SP numbers. The 1011 is at PE’s 8th Street Yard in L.A.
Stuart A. Liebman
44-ton diesel switcher 1653
GE 44-ton diesel 1653 trundles down the four-track main line along Long Beach Avenue south of downtown Los Angeles. 44-tonners 1650–1654 were the first diesels on PE, arriving in 1943–44.
Stuart A. Liebman
Steeple-cab electric 1599
PE’s Torrance Shops built 800 h.p. locomotive 1599 in 1923 for switching service; it was identical to motor 1600, built in 1905. In this April 1946 shot of 1599 working L.A.’s 8th Street Yard, note the built-out extension for the motorman, and the “trolley pup” sitting on the hood to tend the pole.
Donald Duke
Gas-electric 1649
PE 1648 and 1649 were built by Brill for the Northwestern Pacific as 72-foot combination passenger-baggage motor cars, each powered by two 300 h.p. Hall-Scott engines. They came to PE in 1943 to help with wartime freight traffic. Too long for PE’s sharp curves, each was shortened by 29 feet. PE 1649 is seen on its usual assignment, the isolated 1.8-mile Orange-Marlboro District, in August 1946.
Harold F. Stewart
VO660 diesel switcher 1022
Baldwin VO660 1022 was built for SP in 1941. It’s seen at San Bernardino in August 1950 while on lease to the PE.
Paul Dailey, Louis A. Marre collection
0-6-0 steam switcher 1506
Originally SP 1123, this six-wheel switcher was renumbered when it was leased to PE in 1938. The 1906-built steamer is working in Wingfoot Yard, a joint PE and Santa Fe facility near Huntington Park, in May 1939.
Harold F. Stewart
Steeple-cab electric 1565
Motor 1565 sports a wooden cab and hood in October 1940. It was the last of 10 units (1556–1565) turned out by PE’s shops between 1907 and ’12. Five of them put out 560 h.p., but the others, including 1565, packed only 300 h.p. The arrival of the 1601 class spelled the end of 1556-class construction.
Gerald M. Best
DRS-6-6-15 diesel road-switcher 5212
Baldwin DRS-6-6-15 5212 was, like most diesels that operated on the PE, leased from the SP. The 1,500 h.p. unit was assigned to PE’s Northern Division.
Stuart A. Liebman
Six-wheel diesel-mechanical switcher 1647
Built in 1929 as a gas-mechanical unit for a construction contractor, this not-so-mighty mite was repowered with a diesel in 1946. In the meantime, it helped build Hoover Dam and worked at a Southern California steel plant. PE got it in 1946 but sold it 4 years later. Here the 1647 is on a team track in the middle of Sepulveda Boulevard in El Segundo.
Donald Sims
All this month, October 2020, Classic Trains editors are celebrating the legacy and heritage of the Pacific Electric Railway.
This week, we’re featuring the motley mix of electric, diesel-electric, diesel-mechanical, and steam locomotives that all operated on the Pacific Electric in Southern California.
If you like this photo gallery, you might also like a history of the Pacific Electric Railway, a photo gallery of PE passenger service, or a photo gallery of Pacific Electric freight service.
