Relic Red Car Gets Chance to Make One Last Run Down Memory Lane

Whoo, whoo-o-o-o-o! Red Car 4601 is back.

Formerly covered by white shingles, the Red Car, one of the Pacific Electric trolleys that used to crisscross Los Angeles County, emerged into the sunlight last week.

Owner Virginia Wilson, whose family used the car first as a house and later as a machine shop, has offered to donate the historic vehicle to Torrance if the city will remove it.

The cars have special significance for Torrance, said Janet Payne, president of the Torrance Historical Society. They were a major form of transportation until they stopped running in 1961, and Torrance housed Pacific Electric’s maintenance shops.

Nobody has figured out what it would cost to move the vehicle, and city officials have not decided what to do.

Before the Wilsons bought the car, the 72-foot trolley traveled between Torrance and Long Beach. It was on a run in fog when the 72-foot trolley had a collision that killed the Red Car’s motorman.

The Wilsons bought the damaged car for scrap in 1946, paying $52. It cost them $204 to move it to land they own in the 3800 block of Newton Street. Cutting off the ruined motorman’s area left a structure that just fit onto their 75-foot lot.

From 1947 until 1963, Wilson, husband Forest and their four children lived in the converted car, which was expanded over the years with two bedrooms and a porch. Virginia, who had lived on a boat 10 feet wide, said the car provided more spacious living. It was 10 feet, 3 inches.

Daughter Barbara lived in the car until she was 8. “I never thought anything of it,” she said. “I used to try to convince everyone it was a streetcar and nobody would believe me.”

From the outside, the car resembled a long mobile home, according to pictures taken in the late 1940s. Inside, the rounded ceilings were concealed.

After the Wilsons built a home on an adjacent lot in 1963, the car “just sat there until my husband retired in 1974,” Virginia said. Her husband spent a year converting it to a machine shop that he used until he died last year.

Now she is preparing to construct a house where the trolley sits.

Last week she contacted the historical society, which in turn told the city administration of her offer.

Payne said her group would like to assist in restoration of the trolley and see it installed in a city park.