In Southern California, they called them “the Big Red Cars,” the streetcars and interurbans of the famed Pacific Electric Railway, that once connected downtown Los Angeles to destinations as far-flung as San Bernardino and Newport Beach.
PE, as it was widely known, only had a handful of PCC streamliners, honored by the eye-catching livery on Muni’s car No. 1061. That paint scheme was inspired by the “Daylight” steam train colors of PE’s big brother Southern Pacific (as modeled by preserved locomotive 4449 in this video clip). PCC No. 1061 has been out of service for an extended period while specific parts were on order. In the meantime, it was freshly repainted and had roof repairs completed.
Today, it’s back on the street in all its glory…the red right in tune with the season.
Ho ho ho!
Great to see #1061 back in service!!
I suggest everyone click on the link of the locomotive 4449 video, painted in Southern Pacific Daylight Colors and pulling a Daylight train. It’s has to be one of the most beautiful trains ever!! Turn your sound up and enjoy!!
I am glad 1061 is back in service. It has been down way too long. I’m glad she was repainted and had some roof repairs done. So that’s cincinnati, Chicago and Pacific Electric that have gone through a mini rehab so to speak. The railroad video was awesome. What a beautiful train. Thanks for sharing.
I just noticed 1052 Los Angeles is now out of Service. Wasn’t this car repainted already? Just trying to see why it’s out of service Just trying to keep up with the cars’ statuses.
Yes, the car is finishing up a repainting. However, often times there is other work to be done on a repainted car before it can go back into service. We don’t have the resources to find out, and then describe, details of individual car repairs. We limit ourselves to trying to keep up on which cars are available for service and which are not.
the PACIFIC ELECTRIC PCC looks good but the ORANGE paint should be a few shades liter so as to stand out a little more frome the red…other then , she looks great… Ralph Cantos .. Los Angeles
We’ve said it many times; we’ll say it again: Muni has a limited number of paint colors they can stock. It’s simply not possible to match every nuance from original liveries (most of whose lead paint oxidized pretty quickly anyway, rendering them “a few shades” off their own original look by the end of their lives. Certainly agree, though, that Muni does a great job keeping the streetcars looking great.