The P was the busiest line on LARY. It ran through Boyle Heights on East 1st St., on Broadway, and then out Pico Blvd. to Rimpau Blvd. The most important source of passengers was the Pico-Union area — a dense working class neighborhood.
In this photo, from the early 1960s, a streetcar on the P line is headed south on Broadway at 3rd Street. The Giant Penny Stores is still at this location but the upper floors in that building are now vacant (tho rumored to be rehabbed for expensive apartments soon).
In the next shot we are looking north up Broadway. The street curving in at the right is Broadway Place. The streamlined streetcar in the foreground is operating on the P line. When this shot was taken in 1947, no buses operated on Broadway.
In 1934 Los Angeles Railway built a streetcar-to-bus transfer loop at Rimpau and Pico Blvds. This was the transfer point between the Los Angeles Railway and Santa Monica Municipal Bus Lines. Below is a diagram of the loop as originally constructed.
