One hundred years after being built by J.G. Brill Company, Pacific Electric "Hollywood" car 717 is still rolling up the miles. This suburban car, seen transporting visitors to the Southern California Railway Museum (originally the Orange Empire Trolley Museum), was built in 1925, one of 160 such cars from two builders. PE 717, initially retired in 1958, was officially taken out of service in 1960.
PE cars 700-749 were the Brill cars, essentially clones of the earlier St. Louis Car Company cars, PE 600-699. (The final ten cars, PE 750-759, were once again built by SLCC.)
PE began in 1949, with the 600-class cars rebuilt to one-man operation (in which the motorman also collected fares). Upon completion, in 1950, cars 600-731 were renumbered into the 5050 class, with PE 732-759 remaining “two man” cars. However, in 1951 PE began retiring these "Hollywood" cars following the abandonment of many lines, such as the Northern District to Pasadena and Glendora, with several other cars sold to transit lines in other states (such as Portland, Oregon's Portland Traction Company) or other countries (such as Argentina).
Pacific Electric's passenger operations were transferred to Metropolitan Coach Lines (Los Angeles' bus system) on October 1, 1953, and MCL was itself absorbed in March 1958 by the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority. LAMTA renumbered their remaining 5050-class cars (former 600-class cars) into the 1800-class.
In 1960 Orange Empire Trolley Museum member Walter Abbenseth purchased five of the 600-class "Hollywood" cars (LAMTA 1801 [ex-PE 637], 1803 [ex-PE 635], 1812 [ex-PE 626], 1814 [ex-PE 716] and 1815 [ex-PE 717]), with PE 717 being in the best condition and repainted into the PE's red and cream "Valley Seven" colors. In the 1990s, as part of an extensive restoration, PE car 717 (the now-Southern California Railway Museum's only operating "Hollywood" car) received a new paint job replicating the Pacific Electric's original dark red paint scheme, as seen here operating in the car's centennial year. (Perris, California – March 8, 2025)
