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NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629
BusTalk's Offical Welcoming Committee
Joined: 18 Dec 2007
Posts: 29756
Location: NEW JOISEY
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 Posted: Sat Sep 13, 2025 4:02 pm Post subject: |
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| Cyberider wrote: | | Good books if you have good eyes. Wish they were on a larger format, though. I have those and many others. My most treasured books on CA transit were put out by Interurbans which became Interurban Press in later years. If you can locate any of these, you won't be disappointed. |
Cyberider:
Received BOTH of these books today, and, with one exception, was MORE than pleased with them both! 
TRULY AMAZING at how only a small handful of LARy and PE cars still survive today; and how once-vast, complex yards and other facilities have been totally obliterated, as though they never existed.
LOVED the vintage bus photos as much as I did those of the electrics!
Was VERY surprised to learn that PE once rostered prewar "slant-back" TWIN COACHES; the one photographed looked QUITE smart in PE red! (two local independent companies still had some of these unique buses well into the 60 in Hudson County......VERY FORTUNATE to have memories of these interesting (and NOISY) old buses! 
The ONE problem I had with the PE book was that, outside of two opening-day photos, there were NO PHOTOS AT ALL of the Subway Terminal in operation, NO interior views, NO photos of Toluca Yard.
As this facility was a BEEHIVE of activity for the PE until 1955, I'm still scratching my gray head, wondering HOW this neglecting to have any detailed coverage of the Subway Terminal happened in the first place (I was always greatly interested in this once-bustling terminal!)
Other than that, the PE (and the LARy book) were OUTSTANDING works; though I found the photos of scrapped Yellow Cars and Red Cars stacked up in the scrapyard, awaiting the torch.
Photos like that will always greatly sadden me, 
In any event, I DID indeed learn quite a bit and indeed will be going through them again, later this evening!
"NYO"
["LOS ANGELES RAILWAY"]
["PACIFIC ELECTRIC"] |
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Cyberider
Joined: 27 Apr 2007
Posts: 1137
Location: Tempe, AZ
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| Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2025 3:47 pm Post subject: |
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| The only excuse I can suggest is that the subway was only 2 miles of a 1000-mile system. It is covered in other books but still no more than a few pages. Most of the published photos are the same ones that are online today. Interurbans Special 60 PE Southern and Western Districts addresses it since it was in PE's Western District. there is another volume that covers PE's Northern and Eastern Districts. These are the original descriptions and photos by Ira Swett, an early PE history guy who started Interurbans in the 1940's. He also did three volumes on PE equipment and other books about specific areas and PE predecessors. I highly recommend these if you can find them. Interurbans and Interurban Press covered systems all over CA and elsewhere around the country. There were three volumes on PCC's alone. These are what my transit library began with and my most treasured volumes. |
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Cyberider
Joined: 27 Apr 2007
Posts: 1137
Location: Tempe, AZ
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| Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2025 3:50 pm Post subject: |
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| Getting back to Chicago, it's interesting that the first 6000's were built in 1950 and 51. They stopped for a couple of years and started up again in 1954 and continued building them through 1959. |
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NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629
BusTalk's Offical Welcoming Committee
Joined: 18 Dec 2007
Posts: 29756
Location: NEW JOISEY
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| Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2025 4:53 pm Post subject: |
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| Cyberider wrote: | | Getting back to Chicago, it's interesting that the first 6000's were built in 1950 and 51. They stopped for a couple of years and started up again in 1954 and continued building them through 1959. |
Cyberider:
To this very day, many regard (as I do) the "6000s" as the MOST iconic cars to ever operate in Chicago; think of it.....they even shared "L" trackage with the big interurbans of the CA&E and North Shore!
Like the famed, long-lived "4000s", there were a number of "6000s" that could also operate off of overhead wire, making them even more interesting!
One of the things I have always loved about the "6000s" was that they featured both standee windows and folding doors (PCC heritage was ALWAYS with them!)
I rode these famous cars back in 1978 and, again, in 1986..... man, could they MOVE!!!!!!! 
They REALLY put the "rapid" in "RAPID transit!"
["LOOP"] |
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Cyberider
Joined: 27 Apr 2007
Posts: 1137
Location: Tempe, AZ
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| Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2025 6:12 pm Post subject: |
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| I never had the pleasure, unfortunately. I think the cars that came after them had folding doors too but not the standee windows. I haven't read that far in my "new" book, just looked at the photos. |
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NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629
BusTalk's Offical Welcoming Committee
Joined: 18 Dec 2007
Posts: 29756
Location: NEW JOISEY
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| Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2025 6:54 pm Post subject: |
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| Cyberider wrote: | | I never had the pleasure, unfortunately. I think the cars that came after them had folding doors too but not the standee windows. I haven't read that far in my "new" book, just looked at the photos. |
Cyberider:
Too bad you never had the experience; trust me, it WAS indeed an EXPERIENCE, after so many years of reading about them, to actually RIDE along the "L" aboard one of these classic rapid transit cars!
When they were retired in later years, they also had the distinction of being the LAST "L" cars to share the rails with the CA&E and the CNS&M.
From what I've read, not only were these cars popular with passengers, but also with their crews.....and NO WONDER!
'NYO" |
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NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629
BusTalk's Offical Welcoming Committee
Joined: 18 Dec 2007
Posts: 29756
Location: NEW JOISEY
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Cyberider
Joined: 27 Apr 2007
Posts: 1137
Location: Tempe, AZ
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| Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2025 7:29 pm Post subject: |
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| And if it weren't for those almost new streetcars the CTA bought after the war, the 6000's might not have been! |
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NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629
BusTalk's Offical Welcoming Committee
Joined: 18 Dec 2007
Posts: 29756
Location: NEW JOISEY
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| Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2025 7:35 pm Post subject: |
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| Cyberider wrote: | | And if it weren't for those almost new streetcars the CTA bought after the war, the 6000's might not have been! |
Cyberider:
Good point to bring up!
IMPOSSIBLE to picture the "Ls" in Chicago without the ever-present 6000s rumbling overhead!
"NYO"
["CTA"] |
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NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629
BusTalk's Offical Welcoming Committee
Joined: 18 Dec 2007
Posts: 29756
Location: NEW JOISEY
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Cyberider
Joined: 27 Apr 2007
Posts: 1137
Location: Tempe, AZ
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| Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2025 3:57 pm Post subject: |
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| There was a similarity in appearance but they lost a lot of the PCC-look the 6000's had, which made the 6000's appealing to a PCC enthusiast. Haven't read that far yet but I suspect they may have lost most or all of their PCC underpinnings too. |
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NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629
BusTalk's Offical Welcoming Committee
Joined: 18 Dec 2007
Posts: 29756
Location: NEW JOISEY
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| Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2025 4:07 pm Post subject: |
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| Cyberider wrote: | | There was a similarity in appearance but they lost a lot of the PCC-look the 6000's had, which made the 6000's appealing to a PCC enthusiast. Haven't read that far yet but I suspect they may have lost most or all of their PCC underpinnings too. |
Cyberider:
Indeed, that distinctive "PCC" look is what endeared these iconic cars to generations of railfans, and further enhanced their overall appeal.
None of the CTA's postwar cars looked anything like what was then running in New York; in fact, the only prewsr CRT cars that bore a strong resemblence to those in New York were the wooden open platform cars, which were indeed clones of what ran on the New York "Els" for many decades........
"NYO"
["CHICAGO RAPID TRANSIT"] |
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Cyberider
Joined: 27 Apr 2007
Posts: 1137
Location: Tempe, AZ
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| Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2025 5:34 pm Post subject: |
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| I've admired CRT's early rapid transit cars in Vol. 1 since I got it about 40 years ago. As for Vol. 2, looks like the 6000's are the highlight. The book was published in 1976 so don't know what came after but it probably isn't as of much interest as what came before. |
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NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629
BusTalk's Offical Welcoming Committee
Joined: 18 Dec 2007
Posts: 29756
Location: NEW JOISEY
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| Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2025 6:30 pm Post subject: |
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| Cyberider wrote: | | I've admired CRT's early rapid transit cars in Vol. 1 since I got it about 40 years ago. As for Vol. 2, looks like the 6000's are the highlight. The book was published in 1976 so don't know what came after but it probably isn't as of much interest as what came before. |
Cyberider:
What I found quite interesting, in one of the "IMAGES OF RAIL" books I have on Chicago, was that, right up until the demise of wooden "L cars in 1957, though most had electric heating installed decades earlier, there were STILL some cars using heating stoves!
In New York, when the oldest elevated cars were electrified, the old heating stoves were removed, and extra seating installed.
PSNJ also followed this practice with their oldest streetcars.........
"NYO"
["SHOPPER'S SPECIAL"] |
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NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629
BusTalk's Offical Welcoming Committee
Joined: 18 Dec 2007
Posts: 29756
Location: NEW JOISEY
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| Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2025 8:40 am Post subject: |
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| Cyberider wrote: | | There was a similarity in appearance but they lost a lot of the PCC-look the 6000's had, which made the 6000's appealing to a PCC enthusiast. Haven't read that far yet but I suspect they may have lost most or all of their PCC underpinnings too. |
Cyberider:
Back in the early 80s, I bought a copy of Brian J. Cudhay's excellent "DESTINATION LOOP", not look after it appeared in bookstores.
Excellent coverage of the "L", rolling stock over the years, rosters, interurbans, Loop track plans, etc.
It even features an excellent "mini chapter" on those iconic 6000s!
Quite a bit of VERY interesting DETAILED information in this "mini chapter", for sure!
This is a book I've also used for much research, over the years....
"NYO"
["LOOP-ALL STATIONS"] |
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