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Southern California's mild climate led to the development of what probably was the most famous streetcar of its day - the so-called "California Car", with open sections on either end of an enclosed section. Large numbers of these cars were built for and used by West Coast trolley lines and they sometimes appeared in older movies still often shown today on television.
Seashore's No. 521 is one of nearly 750 California cars of what was known as the "Huntington Standard" (Type B), named for traction tycoon Henry E. Huntington and built mostly by the St. Louis Car Company (a few of the last ones were built by American Car Company, the Brill subsidiary in St. Louis) for the Los Angeles Railway between 1902 and 1912. Car 521 of the 1906 production, was regularly operated in the City of the Angels until 1950. At one time it was used as a prepayment car and was modified in 1937 for one man operation (not requiring a conductor) as a Type BF. Number 521's trucks were designed for the Los Angeles track gauge of 3 ft. 6 in., and hence it cannot presently be operated at the museum. The successor company, Los Angeles Transit Lines, donated the car to Seashore in 1954, and it came to Boston on the S.S. President Tyler via the Panama Canal at the end of that year.
History from Historic Cars: The National Collection at the Seashore Trolley Museum by Ben Minnich
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