Tower Cars are used for construction and maintenance of the overhead power collection system used by electric railroads and streetcar companies. The cars carried tools, reels of wire, and spare parts. Linemen worked on the overhead by the use of a insulated tower built into the car.
Los Angeles Railway 9351 was constructed in 1907 by the Los Angeles Railway, originally as power car (motorized flat car) 9202. 9202 was converted by the Los Angeles Railway into a tower car in December 1911 and renumbered 9351. The car was in continual service through several ownership changes, including Los Angles Transit Lines in 1945. Special tower trucks made tower cars obsolete in areas where the railway ran in the street. 9351 saw less frequent service with the abandonment of much of the Los Angeles Transit Lines system in the 1940’s. 9351, as a complete and operable car, was purchased from Los Angeles Transit Lines by Ray Ballash for $150 in 1954. 93511 was placed on display in Travel Town, in Griffith Park with other cars Ballash had purchased. Later, 9351 was moved to the newly founded Orange Empire Trolley Museum.
Today, 9351 resides at the Southern California Railway Museum with the Los Angeles Railway Collection in Carbarn 1.
