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Incorporated in late 1871, the narrow gauge
North Pacific Coast Railroad provided transportation between Marin County
and a San Francisco ferry landing. The property attracted the interest
of investors of the Pacific Gas & Electric Company, who considered an
electrified NPC an ideal customer for their electric power. They purchased
the road and reorganized it as the North Shore Railroad (NSR) in 1902.
This one-of-a-kind, electric locomotive, called
the "Electra", was built that very year in a progressive step toward
an electrified, standard gauge railroad. "Electra" was built in NSR's
Tiburon shops on the north shore of the San Francisco Bay. Its unique
sloped ends were fabricated from steam locomotive tenders, wedged on
either side of the cab, and filled with water on one end and sand for
ballast on the other. It was not a complete success for the North Shore
Railroad. For that time, it drew such large amounts of electricity that
other electric cars along the line would slow to a crawl, and, for this
reason, was operated only during the early hours of the morning. In
1906, the "Electra" was shipped across the Bay to help San Franciscans
clear rubble after the earthquake, and later the Central Pacific purchased
it, and renumbered it #201, but may have merely stored it until 1917,
when the locomotive was purchased by Pacific Electric. Pacific Electric
put the "Electra" to work at various construction projects and switching
duties in Los Angeles until its retirement.
In 1925, the "Electra" labored on the construction
of the subway system in Los Angeles; specifically the subway tunnel
which ran underground from Glendale and Beverly Boulevards to Fifth
and Hill Streets, which is stripped of all its equipment, but is still
in existence today. The "Electra" performed its last duty as a switch
engine at P.E.'s vast Torrance repair shops, south of Los Angeles, until
its retirement in 1952.
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