LARy 1559

Built

1925

Type K - Home Built

Since its earliest days, the Los Angeles Railway prided itself upon its ability to build, as well as repair, its streetcars. This car is an example of the type of large-scale car building that the LA Railway was capable of. In 1925, the LA Railway shops built 82 of these ‘Type K’ cars as homemade copies of the predecessor ‘Type H’ class. Accustomed as their shops were to working in wood, the ‘Type K’ cars were constructed as clever wood copies of the all-steel ‘Type H’.

These ‘Type K’ cars used a steel underframe, but the framing above that was wood. A laminated steel/wood siding (an early version of plymetal) was affixed to the exterior, thus giving the appearance of an all-steel car. The use of truss-rods below the floor line (a structural necessity found on most wooden railroad cars), is the give-away that this is a wooden carbody.

1559 was purchased from the LATL by the Pacific Railroad Society, and has been at the Museum since 1958. It was formally donated to OERM in 2000. PRS' other cars at OERM include the Descanso, an SP articulated Chair Car, an SP Daylight Chair Car, and an SP baggage car.

Links: Pacific Railroad Society

Additional Photos:

November 11, 2000- OERM's Tom Jacobson accepts the donation of LARy 1559 from Will Walters representing the Pacific Railroad Society.	1559 sunning itself in front of Carhouse One in 2006.


The longitudinal steel sills are laid out	Wood fillers are added to the sills	The end bumper is added


The window posts (vertical frame members) are added	The roof and ends are added	End detail


Wooden side framing ready to accept the plymetal side panels	The "Haskelite" panels are added	Trim is added


An interior view of the finished installation	K Class car in service	1559 on its way to Travel Town in Los Angeles, August 26, 1955

All B&W photos this page, ERHA-SC / Ray Younghans Collection at OERM

Los Angeles Railway Page