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From the Archives: Used streetcars shipped to Argentina

Sep. 6, 1959: Old Pacific Electric streetcars sit at Berth 232 on Terminal Island waiting to be loaded aboard Moore-McCormack Lines' Mormacland for shipment to Buenos Aires.
Sep. 6, 1959: Old Pacific Electric streetcars sit at Berth 232 on Terminal Island waiting to be loaded aboard Moore-McCormack Lines’ Mormacland for shipment to Buenos Aires.
(Grant MacDonald / Los Angeles Times)
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After being sold, surplus Pacific Electric trolleys were shipped to Argentina for use in Buenos Aires.

A brief story in the Sept. 7, 1959, Los Angeles Times reported:

Eight former Pacific Electric streetcars were loaded aboard ship at Los Angeles Harbor yesterday, bound for use in Buenos Aires.

They were moved to the harbor from the old Subway Terminal tunnel near 4th and Hill Sts. where they had been stored since making their last trips on this county's former network of suburban trackage.

The Moore-McCormack freighter SS Mormacland will transport them to Buenos Aires.

These photos were taken by Long Beach-based reporter Grant MacDonald. The photo above appeared in the Sept. 7, 1959, Los Angeles Times.

This post originally was published on May 22, 2014.

Sept. 6, 1959: A barge-mounted crane, left, loads a streetcar onto vessel.
(Grant MacDonald / Los Angeles Times)
Sep. 6, 1959: Old Pacific Electric streetcars sit at Berth 232 on Terminal Island waiting to be loaded aboard Moore-McCormack Lines Mormacland for shipment to Buenos Aires.
(Grant MacDonald / Los Angeles Times)

See more from the Los Angeles Times archives here

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