Last weekend, the twitter address @metrolibrary tweeted a picture of streetcar number 3111 from October 10, 1950 at Larchmont and Melrose.
It’s a vivid step back in time…you can shut your eyes and almost imagine the sound of the Los Angeles Transit Line streetcar rolling down Larchmont from Melrose… the sound of metal against metal. The clanging of the bell that signals the streetcar’s approach along the R Line.
According to the website GoLAStreetcar –
The Los Angeles Streetcar system was primarily operated by Pacific Electric (1901-1961) and developed into the largest trolley system in the world by the 1920′s. This breath of scale enabled residents and visitors alike to routinely traverse the Los Angeles region, and connected many of Southern California’s communities. The system operated for over half a century, and at its peak traversed over 1,100 miles of track with 900 electric trolley cars.
The Larchmont/Hancock Park area was served by the R Line. The Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority replaced the streetcars with diesel buses on March 31, 1963.
@metrolibrary is the twitter account for the Metro Transportation Library. The  Dorothy Peyton Gray Transportation Library and Archive at the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority is the largest transit operator research collection in the US. If you love the history of this City like we do, be sure to spend some time on the Metro Transit Library’s tumblr page.
