Restrictions on Access
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Preferred Citation
Processing Information
UCLA Catalog Record ID
Scope and Content
Related Material
Contributing Institution:
UCLA Library Special Collections
Title: Photographs of Pacific Electric Railway Company motor coaches and railroad cars
Creator:
Pacific Electric Railway Company
Identifier/Call Number: LSC.94/6
Physical Description:
4 boxes
(875 photographic prints) : b&w, 27 x 33 cm or smaller in boxes 29 x 40 cm or smaller.
Date (inclusive): 1927-1950. Range of dates from dates on photographs and manufacturing specifications.
Abstract: Collection of 875 unmounted photographs (including duplicates) of motor coaches and railroad passenger cars in operation between
1927 and 1950 on routes of the Pacific Electric Railway Company and related bus and train systems of Los Angeles, California,
and environs.
Physical Location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact UCLA Library Special Collections
for paging information.
Language of Material:
English
.
Restrictions on Access
Open for research. STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact UCLA Library
Special Collections for paging information.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UC Regents. Literary rights, including copyright, are retained by the
creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright
owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Photographs of Pacific Electric Railway Company motor coaches and railroad cars (Collection 94/6).
UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.
Processing Information
We are committed to providing ethical, inclusive, and anti-racist description of the materials we steward, and to remediating
existing description of our materials that contains language
that may be offensive or cause harm. We invite you to submit feedback about how our collections are described, and how they
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Report Potentially Offensive Description in Library Special
Collections.
UCLA Catalog Record ID
Scope and Content
The photographs, probably assembled by the Pacific Electric Railway Company public relations department, for use in a pictorial
history book of early Southern California transportation, include detailed interior and exterior views of the different models
of vehicles in use by the Company, close-up views of some of the bus engines, and shots of the buses and trains carrying passengers
on routes throughout the Los Angeles area, in towns such as Glendale, Pasadena, Santa Monica, Torrance, San Pedro, and Riverside.
In several of the photographs, a Pacific Electric bus winds its way up Sunset Boulevard past the UCLA campus in its early
years--with Royce Hall, Powell Library, and Stone Canyon Reservoir visible in the distance--all the way to the end of the
Castellamare line in Pacific Palisades. In other street views, a bus passes Los Angeles High School; Otis Art Institute, at
that time housed in the Spanish-Moorish mansion donated in 1918 by Gen. Harrison Gray Otis, founder and publisher of the LA
Times; and the lotus-filled lake of Echo Park. Another early photo shows a 1911 coach surrounded by oil wells. Three photos
document the Pacific Electric Camp in Agua Fria, east of Highway 89, a vacation camp built in 1917 by the Company for its
employees in which they lived in tent houses, and enjoyed the dining room, social hall, swimming pool and other amenities.
Close-up views of the display window of a local travel agency reveal brochures and posters for Pacific Electric Company vacation
tours. There are also shots of railroad sidings, terminals, machine shops, track maintenance workers, railway personnel, drivers,
conductors, porters, and freight checkers, including one photo of a stylishly-dressed woman freight checker. Several photos
document hundreds of shipbuilding workers entering and leaving the shipyards in Long Beach. The United States Maritime Commission,
which oversaw ship construction had its own private railroad car, the subject of one of the photos. Buses, trains, and trucks
of other lines, including the Santa Monica Municipal Bus Line, Pacific Electric Motor Transport Company, the Los Angeles Motor
Coach Company, People's Motor Bus Company--known for double-decker buses, Southern Pacific Company, and Los Angeles Railway
are also documented. Included with the photographs are typed leaves of specifications of the vehicles, providing model series
numbers, body dimensions, paint details, upholstery, engine size, date of manufacture, manufacturer, and many other details.
Manufacturers included White Motor Coach Co., Mack Trucks, Inc., GMC, and Yellow Coach Manufacturing Company. Most of the
photographs bear the stamp of Arrow Studios of 1053 S. Hill St. in Los Angeles, although other studios, such as Isham-Robinson
(1722 Los Angeles St.), Keystone Photo Service, Arts Engraving Co., Inman Company, and Stagg are also represented.
Related Material
Additional information available at the website of the Pacific Electric Railway Historical Society at
peryhs.org.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Photographic prints.
Pacific Palisades (Los Angeles, Calif.) -- Photographs.
Transportation -- California, Southern -- Photographs.
Transportation -- California -- Los Angeles -- Photographs.
Mechanics (Persons) -- California -- Los Angeles -- Photographs.
Machine shops -- California -- Los Angeles -- Photographs.
Oil wells -- California -- Los Angeles -- Photographs.
Travel agents -- California -- Los Angeles -- Photographs.
Railroad passenger cars -- California -- Los Angeles -- Photographs.
Electric railroads -- Cars -- California -- Los Angeles -- Photographs.
Buses -- California -- Los Angeles -- Photographs.
Buses -- Design and construction -- Photographs.
Bus travel -- California -- Los Angeles -- Photographs.
Bus terminals -- California -- Los Angeles -- Photographs.
Railroad terminals -- California -- Los Angeles -- Photographs.
Railroad accidents -- California -- Los Angeles -- Photographs.
Railroad sidings -- California -- Los Angeles -- Photographs.
Road rollers -- California -- Los Angeles -- Photographs.
Bus drivers -- California -- Los Angeles -- Photographs.
Shipbuilding industry -- Employees -- Photographs.
Shipbuilding industry -- California -- Long Beach -- Photographs.
Trucks -- California -- Los Angeles -- Photographs.
Yellow Coach Manufacturing Company.
University of California, Los Angeles -- Photographs
Otis Art Institute.
Pacific Electric Railway Company -- Photographs
Arrow Studios.
Arts Engraving Co.
General Motors Corporation.
Inman Company.
Isham-Robinson Photography.
Keystone Photo Service.
Los Angeles High School (Los Angeles, Calif.) --Photographs.
Los Angeles Motor Coach Company --Photographs.
Los Angeles Railway --Photographs.
Mack Trucks, inc.
Pacific Electric Camp -- Photographs
Pacific Electric Motor Transport Company -- Photographs
Pacific Electric Railway Company --Employees --Photographs.
People's Motor Bus Company -- Photographs
Santa Monica Municipal Bus Lines -- Photographs
Southern Pacific Company --Photographs.
Stagg Photographer.
White Motor Coach Co.