Pacific Electric

Pacific Electric

File:PELogo.png
The main depot circa 1910.
Overview
Headquarters	Los Angeles, CA
Reporting mark	PE
Locale	Greater Los Angeles Area
Dates of operation	1901–1961
Technical
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)

Pacific Electric, also known as the Red Car system, was a privately owned mass transit system in Southern California consisting of electrically powered streetcars, light rail, and buses and was the largest electric railway system in the world in the 1920s. Organized around the city centers of Los Angeles and San Bernardino, it connected cities in Los Angeles County, Orange County, San Bernardino County and Riverside County.

The system shared dual gauge track with the 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) narrow gauge Los Angeles Railway, "Yellow Car," or "LARy" system on Main Street in downtown Los Angeles (directly in front of the busy 6th and Main terminal), on 4th Street, and along Hawthorne Boulevard south of downtown LA toward the cities of Hawthorne, Gardena, and Torrance.

Districts

Los Angeles Pacific Electric (Red Cars) network (interactive version)

The system was divided into three districts:

• Northern District: San Gabriel Valley (including Pasadena, Alhambra, El Monte, Glendora, Pomona,and Monrovia), as well as San Bernardino, Riverside, and Redlands in the Inland Empire.
• Southern District: Long Beach, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, San Pedro via Dominguez, Santa Ana, El Segundo, Redondo Beach via Gardena, San Pedro Via Torrance.
• Western District: Hollywood, Burbank/Glendale, San Fernando Valley, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Manhattan/Redondo/Hermosa Beaches, Venice, Playa Del Rey.

Originally, there was an Eastern District, but this was incorporated into the Northern District early in the company's existence.

History

Origins

Electric trolleys first traveled in Los Angeles in 1887. In 1895 The Pasadena and Pacific Railway was created from a merger of the Pasadena and Los Angeles Railway and the Los Angeles Pacific Railway (to Santa Monica.) The Pasadena and Pacific Railway boosted Southern California tourism, living up to its motto "from the mountains to the sea."

Early years

Old Mission Trolley streetcar of the Pacific Electric makes a stop at Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, circa 1905.

File:Pioneer And South Street Historical Photo.jpg

Pacific Electric railway car approaching intersection of Pioneer Blvd. and South Street in Artesia, California, circa 1915

Three tickets for passage on the PE. The top two (front and back views) between downtown LA and Santa Monica, the bottom for a transfer from Hollywood to the San Fernando Valley.

The Pacific Electric Railroad was created in 1901 by railroad executive Henry Huntington and banker Isaias W. Hellman. As a Vice-President of the Southern Pacific Railroad (run by his uncle, Collis P. Huntington), Henry Huntington had a solid background in electric trolley lines in San Francisco where he oversaw the SP's effort to consolidate many smaller street railroads into one organized network. Hellman, the President of the Nevada Bank, San Francisco's largest, became one of the largest bond holders for these lines and he and the younger Huntington developed a close business relationship. The success of their San Francisco trolley adventure and Hellman's experience in financing some early Los Angeles trolley lines, led them to invest in the purchase of some existing downtown Los Angeles lines which they began to standardize and organize into one network called under the Los Angeles Railway. When his uncle Collis died, Henry lost a boardroom battle for control of the Southern Pacific, to Union Pacific President E.H. Harriman. Huntington then decided to focus his energies on Southern California. In May 1901 Hellman, who had been Southern California's leading banker for almost three decades (and had much property down there), wrote Huntington that "the time is at hand when we should commence building suburban railroads out of the city." Hellman added he already tasked engineer Epes Randolph to survey and lay out the company's first lines which would be to Long Beach. In 1901, Huntington and Hellman incorporated a new entity, the Pacific Electric Railroad, was formed to construct these new electric rail lines to connect Los Angeles with surrounding cities. Hellman and his group of investors owning the controlling majority of stock (double that of Huntington's) and the newspapers of the time referred to it as the Huntington-Hellman syndicate.Using surrogates, the syndicate began purchasing property and rights-of-ways. The new company's first main project, the line to Long Beach, opened for business in July 1902.

Railroads were only one part of the enterprise. Revenue from passenger traffic was rarely enough to turn much, if any, profit. Freight traffic usually was profitable. The real money for the investors was in the supplying electric power to these new communities and in real estate. To get railroads and electricity to their towns, local groups would offer the Huntington interests opportunities in local land. Soon Huntington and his partners had significant holdings in the land companies developing Naples, Bay City (Seal Beach), Huntington Beach, Newport Beach and Redondo Beach.

By 1903, Huntington's insistence on reinvesting profits into costly expansion rather than paying any stockholder dividends, caused the Hellman group to offer a great part of their stock to E.H. Harriman, making him and Huntington equal partners. After an overnight trip to San Francisco, an arrangement was worked out between Harriman and Huntington. Huntington could expand the PE as he saw fit, but he was not to compete with existing SP lines. A by-product of this sale was that Harriman sold the banking unit of his Wells Fargo Company to Hellman who merged it with his Nevada Bank operations and established the Pacific Coast's largest most powerful bank.

Pacific Electric and Salt Lake Railroad station in Long Beach, 1905

Still, Huntington continued to expand his railroad and not declare profits. After Huntington's purchase of the Redondo Railroad in 1905, the Hellman group sold the rest of their shares to Harriman, leaving the PE in effective control of Harriman and the Southern Pacific. Harriman continued to leave Huntington alone until 1910 when the SP refused to allow the Pacific Electric to run a line to San Diego that would compete with the SP's existing line.

On March 19, 1906, an agreement was reached to sell all the Los Angeles Pacific Railroad lines, owned by Moses Sherman, for $6 million to the Pacific Electric Railway, this turned over all the lines in Pasadena, San Fernando Valley and West LA to PE.

At this point, Huntington sold out all his PE stock to Harriman and in what was called the "Great Merger" of 1911, the SP and PE basically became one single operation, with all electrical operations now under the Pacific Electric name. Huntington retained control of the Los Angeles Railway, (Hellman had kept his interest in this unit as well) the narrow gauge street car system known locally as "Yellow Cars," until this company was sold off by Huntington's estate in 1945.

Following these acquisitions, PE was the largest operator of interurban electric railway passenger service in the world, with 2,160 daily trains over 1,000 miles (1,600 km) of track. It ran to destinations all over Southern California, particularly to the south and east.

During the Roaring Twenties, profits were good and the lines were extended to the Pasadena area, to the beaches at Santa Monica, Del Rey, Manhattan/Redondo/Hermosa Beach, Long Beach in Los Angeles County and to Newport Beach and Huntington Beach in Orange County. Extra service beyond the normal schedules was provided on weekends, particularly in the late afternoon when many wanted to return simultaneously. Comedian Harold Lloyd highlighted the popularity and utility of the system in an extended sequence in his 1924 film, Girl Shy, where, after finding one Red Car too crowded, he commandeered another and drove at high speed through the streets of Culver City and Los Angeles.

PE operated frequent freight trains under electric power throughout its service area (as far as 65 miles to Redlands, including operating electrically powered Railway Post Office routes, one of the few US interurbans to do so. This provided important revenue. The PE was responsible for an innovation in grade crossing safety: the automatic electromechanical grade crossing signal, nicknamed the "wigwag". This device was quickly adopted by other railroads. A few wigwags continued in operation as of 2006.

During this period, the Los Angeles Railway provided local streetcar service in central Los Angeles and to nearby communities. These trolleys were known as the "Yellow Cars" and carried more passengers than the PE's "Red Cars" since they ran in the most densely populated portions of Los Angeles, including south to Hawthorne and along Pico Boulevard to near West Los Angeles to terminate at the huge Sears Roebuck store and distribution center (the L.A. Railway's most popular line, the "P" line). The Yellow Cars' unusual narrow gauge PCC cars, by now painted MTA two-tone green, continued to operate until the end of rail service in 1963.

Large profits from land development were generated along the routes of the new lines. Huntington Beach was incorporated in 1909 and developed by the Huntington Beach Company, a real-estate development firm owned by Henry Huntington, which still owns both land in the city and most of the mineral rights.

There are other local 'streetcar suburbs'. Angelino Heights was built around the Temple Street horsecar, which was later upgraded to electric streetcar as part of the Yellow Car system. Highland Park was developed along the Figueroa Street trolley lines and railroads linking downtown Los Angeles and Pasadena. Huntington owned nearly all the stock in the 'Pacific Electric Land Company'. West Hollywood was established by Moses Sherman and his partners of the Los Angeles and Pacific Railway. Moses Sherman, Harry Chandler, Hobart Johnstone Whitley, and others bought the entire southern San Fernando Valley in 1910. The electric railway and a "$500,000" boulevard called Sherman Way connected the three townsites they were selling. These included Van Nuys, Marion (now Reseda), and Owensmouth (now Canoga Park). Parts of Sherman Way are now called Chandler Bl and Van Nuys Bl.

The railway company "connected all the dots on the map and was a leading player itself in developing all the real estate that lay in between the dots".

Decline

Map of Pacific Electric rail routes, 1920.

Huntington's involvement with urban rail was intimately tied to his real estate development operations. Real estate development was so lucrative for Huntington and SP that they could use the Red Car as a loss leader, however when most of the company's holdings had been developed by 1920 their major income source began to deplete. Many rural passenger lines were unprofitable, with losses offset by revenue generated from passenger lines in populated corridors and from freight operations. The least-used Red Car lines were converted to cheaper buses as early as 1925.

In the pre-automobile era, electric interurban rail was the only way to connect outlying suburban and exurban parcels to central cities.

Although the railway owned extensive private rights-of-way, usually between urban areas, much PE trackage in urban areas such as downtown Los Angeles west of the Los Angeles River was in streets shared with automobiles and trucks. Virtually all street crossings were at-grade, and increasing automobile traffic led to decreasing Red Car speeds on much of its trackage. At its nadir, the busy Santa Monica Boulevard line, which connected Los Angeles to Hollywood and on to Beverly Hills and Santa Monica, had an average speed of 13 miles per hour (21 km/h)

Traffic congestion was of such great concern by the late 1930s that the influential Automobile Club of Southern California engineered an elaborate plan to create an elevated freeway-type "Motorway System," a key aspect of which was the dismantling of the streetcar lines, replacing them with buses that could run on both local streets and on the new express roads.

When the freeway system was planned in the 1930s the city planners planned to include light rail tracks in the center margin of each freeway but the plan was never implemented.

The Whittier and Fullerton was cut in 1938, Redondo Beach, Newport Beach, Sawtelle via San Vicente, and Riverside in 1940. When the San Bernardino Freeway opened in 1941 but was not yet connected to the Hollywood Freeway, while the "Four Way" overpass was being constructed, westbound car traffic from the SB freeway poured onto downtown streets near the present Union Station. PE's multiple car trains coming and going from Pasadena, Sierra Madre, and Monrovia/Glendora used those same streets the final few miles from private right-of-way to reach the 6th and Main PE terminal and were totally bogged down within this jammed traffic. Schedules could not be met, plus former patrons were now driving. The San Bernardino line, Pomona branch, Temple City branch via Alhambra's Main St., San Bernardino's Mountain View local to 34th St., Santa Monica Blvd. via Beverly Hills, and all remaining Pasadena local service were all cut in 1941.

PE carried increased passenger loads during World War II, when Los Angeles County's population nearly doubled as war industries concentrated in the region attracting millions of workers. There were several years when the company's income statement showed a profit, most notably during World War II, when gasoline was rationed and much of the populace depended on mass transit. At peak operation toward the end of World War II, the PE dispatched over 1000 trains daily and was a major employer in Southern California. However, the equipment used was in many cases very old and maintenance was difficult.

The nation's last interurban Railroad post office service was operated by PE on its San Bernardino Line. This was inaugurated comparatively late, on September 2, 1947. It left LA's Union Station interurban yard on the west side of the terminal, turned north onto Alameda Street at 12:45 pm and reached San Bernardino at 4:40 pm, taking three hours for the trip while making postal stops as required. It did not operate on Sundays or holidays. This last RPO was pulled off May 6, 1950.

Aware that most new arrivals planned to stay in the region after the war, local municipal governments, Los Angeles County and the state agreed that a massive infrastructure improvement program was necessary. At that time politicians agreed to construct a web of freeways across the region. This was seen as a better solution than a new mass transit system or an upgrade of the PE.

The coming of the freeways

Pacific Electric 1299 "Business Car"

Large-scale land acquisition of right-of-way for new freeway construction began in earnest in 1951. The original four freeways of the area, the Hollywood, Arroyo Seco (formerly Pasadena), Harbor, and San Bernardino, were in use or being completed. Partial completion of the San Bernardino Freeway to Aliso Street near downtown Los Angeles led to traffic chaos when inbound automobiles left the freeway and entered city streets.

The Southern District's passenger service to Santa Ana and Baldwin Park ended in 1950 as did the Northern District's Pasadena's Oak Knoll line, and the Sierra Madre line. The Western District's last line to Venice and Santa Monica also ended. The Pasadena and Monrovia/Glendora lines quit in 1951 due to the new LA freeways which were being constructed and opened in sections.

The various public agencies—city, county, and state—agreed with the PE that further abandoning service was the thing to do, and the PE happily complied. PE management had earlier compared costs of refurbishing the Northern District interurban lines to Pasadena, Monrovia/Glendora, and Baldwin Park versus the alternative of converting to buses, and found in favor of the latter. Now they could do it.

Remaining PE passenger service was sold off in 1953 to Metropolitan Coach Lines, whose intention was to convert all rail service to bus service as quickly as possible. Jesse Haugh, of Metropolitan Coach Lines was a former executive of Pacific City Lines which together with National City Lines and General Motors acquired local streetcar systems across the country with the intention of shutting them down and converting them to bus operation in what became known as the Great American Streetcar Scandal.

Several lines operating to the north and the west which used the Belmont Tunnel from the Subway Terminal Building downtown ceased operation – the Hollywood Boulevard and Beverly Hills lines were shut down in 1954 and service to the San Fernando Valley, Burbank and Glendale using newly acquired PCC streetcars lasted only to 1955. The Bellflower line to the south closed in 1958 as the Golden State/Santa Ana (Interstate 5) neared completion.

Public ownership

The Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority had been formed in 1951. It was known as the MTA but is unrelated to the current MTA. This agency had been founded to study the possibility of establishing a publicly owned monorail line running north from Long Beach to downtown Los Angeles and then west to Panorama City in the San Fernando Valley. In 1954, the agency's powers were expanded to allow it to propose a more extensive regional mass-transit system and in 1957, its powers were again expanded, this time to allow it to operate transit lines.

In 1958, the California state government through its Public Utility Commission took over the remaining and most popular lines from Metropolitan Coach Lines. The MTA also purchased the remaining streetcar "Yellow Car" lines of the successor of the Los Angeles Railway, then called Los Angeles Transit Lines. LARy/LATL had been purchased from the Huntington estate by National City Lines in 1945. The MTA started operating all lines as a single system on March 3, 1958.

The interurban Los Angeles to Long Beach passenger rail line served the longest, from July 4, 1903, until April 9, 1961. It was both the first and last interurban passenger line of the former PE. It still had long stretches of open country running on private right-of-way. With this closure the final rail link was replaced by the interurban Motor Coach 36f ("F" representing Freeway Flyer) route. This former PE route was the first of the new MTA light rail lines, rebuilt as the dual track Metro Blue Line.

The few remaining trolley-coach routes and narrow gauge streetcar routes of the former Los Angeles Railway "Yellow Cars" were removed in early 1963. The public transportation system continued to operate under the name MTA until the agency was reorganized and relaunched as the Southern California Rapid Transit District in September 1964.

PE's lucrative freight service was continued operation through 1964 under the Pacific Electric name by the Southern Pacific Railroad using diesel-electric locomotives on the heavy-duty PE rail-bed and rails and tripping the iconic "Wig-Wag" crossing signals of the former PE. A Christmas tree lot was operated in the small stub yard at the northwest corner of Willow and Long Beach Blvd. – the stock arrived in and was stored in a steel sided box car until the Christmas trees were prepared for sale – the busy intersection was where dual trackage departed Long Beach Blvd and joined the private right-of-way from Huntington Beach and Seal Beach towards Los Angeles. The crossing signal there was the first installation of the final design of the Magnetic Watchman wigwag crossing signal and crossbucks. Oil tank cars were still shuttled to Signal Hill even as the surface street tracks were torn up from the center of Long Beach Blvd. long after the copper overhead catenary supply wires had been removed. Southern Pacific (now part of Union Pacific) continues to operate freight service utilizing former PE right-of-way.

Revival

Main article: Metro Rail (Los Angeles County)

1970 – present

During the 1970s, there was serious discussion about the need for additional mass transit systems based on environmental concerns, increasing population and the 1973 oil crisis. A 1974 inquiry in the Senate heard allegations about the role that General Motors and other companies, including Pacific City Lines, played in the dismantlement of streetcar systems across the USA and in particular in Los Angeles in what became known as the Great American Streetcar Scandal. The plot of the 1988 movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit is loosely modeled on the alleged conspiracy to dismantle the streetcar lines in Los Angeles.

In 1976, the state of California formed the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission to coordinate the Southern California Rapid Transit District's (SCRTD, advertised and known locally by Angelinos as the "RTD") efforts with those of various municipal transit systems in the area and to take over planning of countywide transportation systems. The SCRTD continued planning of the Metro Rail (Los Angeles County) Subway (the Red Line), while the LACTC developed plans for the light rail system. Construction began in 1985. In 1988, the two agencies formed a third entity under which all rail construction would be consolidated, and in 1993, the SCRTD and the LACTC were merged into the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA).

When the Metro Blue Line commenced commuter service in 1990 from downtown Los Angeles to Long Beach, electric rail passenger train service returned to Los Angeles, using much of the PE right-of-way that ceased in 1961. Since then, the LACMTA has opened more lines.

Metro Red Line opened next in three parts, first from Union Station in central Los Angeles connecting with the very short subway which forms the northern terminus of Metro Blue Line at 7th/Figuroa station, and then west under Wilshire Blvd. onward to Western Ave. Construction halted due to an unrelated explosion of petroleum fumes in an underground portion of a store along the proposed route turning north at Fairfax Ave. to Hollywood, which was to service the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum Row and the La Brea Tar Pits. The second portion was the diversion north under Vermont Ave. to Hollywood Blvd. turning west to Highland Avenue. When the Hollywood Freeway was built, two Pacific Electric tracks remained in the center, entering the canyon to Cahuenga Pass under the freeway at what is now the northbound Highland Ave. onramp. The PE tracks continued to provide mass transit efficiently until the line was closed and the right-of-way became additional lanes to widen the 101 freeway, thereby reducing automotive congestion on the world's heaviest traveled road. RTD bus service replaced the rail service and remained the highest daily passenger volume corridor. When the third expansion of Metro Red Line subway opened, most long distance commuter bus routes from Downtown Los Angeles to the San Fernando Valley were trimmed to connect with the new subway stations, reducing Diesel fumes and motor vehicle congestion. It tunnels deep under that corridor and far – the next station, Universal, boasts the world's longest continuous underground escalator. At the northern most Metro Red Line terminal, North Hollywood, connections can be made to several MTA bus routes of the San Fernando Valley, including several routes along the private right-of-way Metro Rapidway Metro Orange Line (route 901) dedicated exclusively for MTA vehicles that replicates many PE thru lines by transferring buses.

Metro Green Line opened in 1995. Its right-of-way was planned from conception to be entirely isolated and protected, running in the median of Interstate 105, the Century Freeway west from Norwalk, connecting at Rosa Parks Station with Metro Blue Line, then further west to Los Angeles International Airport, and then south on elevated tracks to Redondo Beach. The Century Freeway, named for Century Blvd. the equivalent of 100th St., was the world's first freeway built to bypass and relieve traffic congestion from another freeway – the 91, Artesia Freeway.

Metro Gold Line opened in 2003, connecting downtown Los Angeles to Pasadena. Mostly at-grade, the line runs along the former Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad (AT&SF) historic Super Chief right-of-way, which was converted to dual track overhead electric light rail. California's oldest surviving iron railroad bridge, built across the Arroyo Seco (1895), was also included in the conversion. The Gold Line Eastside Extension now connects Union Station, Downtown Los Angeles to East Los Angeles. A second extension will extend east from Pasadena, again utilizing the former ATSF right-of-way in the median of Interstate 210, the Foothill Freeway.

Metrolink (Southern California) provides weekday interurban commuters with high speed reversible trains – consisting of Diesel Locomotives hauling double-deck high capacity passenger cars servicing much of Los Angeles County and operating to connections in Ventura County, San Bernardino County, Riverside County, Orange County, and San Diego County as well.

Waterfront Red Car in San Pedro, California. No. #501 PE "Huntington" type wooden streetcar is a replica operated on heritage tracks

Waterfront Red Car 1.5-mile (2 km) streetcar line connecting the World Cruise Center south to Ports O' Call and the 22nd St. terminal, where a shuttle bus connects other attractions along the San Pedro waterfront. Two newly constructed Red Car replicas, #500 & #501, provide service along the line on cruise ship arrival/departure days as well as weekends – Friday, Saturday and Sunday. In addition, a restored 1907-vintage Pacific Electric car, No. #1508 originally rebuilt from two wrecks as a unique motor coach, is available for special rail excursions. It began operation as a tourist attraction on July 19, 2003. The Port of Los Angeles financed, constructed and operates the replica equipment on heritage PE track, one of many of its waterfront revival projects. A new pedestrian esplanade featuring public art and fountains, sculpture and fountains has been built alongside the track from the World Cruise Center to the Maritime Museum and Fire Boat Station. It connects to the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium and other San Pedro attractions when using the Waterfront Red Car trolley/shuttle. There are plans to extend the Waterfront Red Car line approximately two more miles south to the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium and the tidepools of Cabrillo Beach. Current plans for an extension of the line north into Wilmington to Avalon Blvd. along existing trackage is in effect as a part of the waterfront improvement plan. Trackage is in place, but funding for additional improvements has not yet been identified. Some transit advocates have proposed linking this line to the Metro Blue Line Long Beach terminus, a very intensive and expensive expansion.

Proposed developments

More rail lines are in the planning and building stages. Light rail is being designed to connect the city center of San Bernardino with the University of Redlands via the Redlands Subdivision by 2016.

If construction funds are identified, the "Foothill Extension" of the Gold Line will extend the service to Montclair, or possibly all the way to LA/Ontario International Airport, but the current construction schedule calls for the line to open to Azusa by 2016, so any extensions past that would open much later.

There are several plans in motion to connect the congested West Los Angeles area with rail service. Service has begun on the Expo Line, a light-rail line, as of April 28, 2012 to the intersection of La Cienega and Jefferson; and then as of June 20, 2012, about .8 miles further west, to the corner of National and Washington Boulevards, just east of central Culver City. In 2011 construction began on Phase Two of the Expo Line, continuing from Culver City to Santa Monica, which is scheduled to open in 2016.

In May 2012, the MTA approved plans to extend the Purple Line to the west as far as Westwood, on an alignment mostly following Wilshire Boulevard, the city's most densely populated corridor, as was originally planned in mass transit plans designed as early as the 1920s. In 2005, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa made as one of his most publicized campaign promises a pledge to set the wheels in motion for eventual construction of the "Subway to the Sea" as he called it.

Also under consideration is a new passenger rail line on the abandoned Harbor Subdivision railway corridor, connecting Carson to downtown Los Angeles via Torrance and the LA west side. Connections to the Harbor Subdivision from the World Cruise Center cruise ship terminal in the San Pedro District of Los Angeles Harbor to the Long Beach Transit Mall and the Metro Blue Line are also under evaluation.

Heritage and popular culture

Pacific Electric Inland Empire Trail, Fontana

Car #1734 has been turned into the Pacific Electric Museum, at the corner of Main Street and Electric Avenue in Seal Beach, California

The "Pacific Electric Trail" is a 21-mile rail trail for cyclists and walkers that has been constructed along the former San Bernardino Line. The city of Rancho Cucamonga acts as lead agency with the San Bernardino Associated Governments (SANBAG) and surrounding cities. The first sections were completed in 2006 and further sections in 2009. As of March 2013, approximately 18 miles have been completed, from the planned western terminus at Huntington Drive in Claremont (34.09528°N 117.70274°W / 34.09528; -117.70274 (Pacific Electric Trail Western Terminus)) to the temporary eastern terminus at Maple Avenue in Fontana (34.10138°N 117.40538°W / 34.10138; -117.40538 (Pacific Electric Trail Eastern Terminus (March 2013))). An additional segment is planned from this point into Rialto, as well as connection to a 6.9-mile rail trail project being planned to run from Claremont to San Dimas. On San Bernardino's Electric Av., a grassroots group wants to develop a linear greenbelt heritage park on the Arrowhead Springs Pacific Electric right of way between Hillside Elementary School & 40th St.

The 1988 movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit is loosely modeled on the alleged conspiracy to dismantle the streetcar lines in Los Angeles.

In The Simpsons episode titled "Postcards from the Wedge" that aired March 14, 2010 on Fox, the film shown at the beginning of the episode is based on GM's promo films from the 1950s; in addition, the cars from the abandoned Springfield Subway are modeled after the PE cars.

A transportation attraction based on the PE, the Red Car Trolley, is at Disney California Adventure at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim. It features replicas of PE rolling stock and is the first attraction in the park to provide transportation. Construction began on January 4, 2010.

Streetcars of the PE are featured as atmospheric elements in L.A. Noire.

Routes and facilities

See also: List of Pacific Electric Railway lines

• Mount Lowe Railway
• West Hollywood Car Barn and Yard
• Ocean Park Car Barn and Yard
• Torrance Shops
• Pacific Electric Building (6th & Main Station)
• Subway Terminal Building (4th and Hill St. Station)
• Belmont Tunnel (Hollywood Subway)
• Substation No. 8
• Substation No. 14

Fleet

San Francisco Municipal Railway #1061, a rebuilt PCC streetcar painted in honor of the Pacific Electric Railway, is seen in service on the F Market heritage line in December, 2004. This single-ended car was originally built for the city of Philadelphia in 1946 (Pacific Electric only operated double-ended PCC's).

Pacific Electric 1001

Pacific Electric 1624 "Juice Jack"

Interurban cars

• Blimp MU (61 – Pullmans)
  • St Louis Car Co Blimp MU 1930–1959
  • Pullman Car Co Blimp MU coach 1913–1961
  • Pullman Car Co Blimp MU baggage coach 1913–1959
• St Louis Car Co MU coach 1907–1950
• Jewett Car Co. 1000 "Business Car" 1913–1947
• Jewett Car Co. 1000-class MU interurban 1913–1954
• American Car Co trailer coach 1908–1934
• American Car Co trailer coach 1908–1934
• Pullman Car Co officer's car 1912–1958
• J.G. Brill Portland RPO-baggage 1913–1959
• 500-class interurban cars
• American Car Co 800 class interurban
• Standard Steel Car Co. 1100-class interurban car – Hammond, Indiana
• Pressed Steel Car Co. 1200-class Berdoo MU interurban 1915
• Pullman Car Co. 1222-class Long Beach MU interurban 1921
• Pullman Car Co. 1252-class Portland MU interurban 1912
• Pullman Car Co. 1299 "Business Car" 1912, converted from Portland trailer 1929

City and suburban cars

• St Louis Car Co double-truck Birney 1925–1941
• Pullman Car Co Submarine 1912–1928
• J. G. Brill Birney 1918–1941 (69)
• St Louis Car Co baby five MU coach 1901–1934
• St Louis Car Co medium five MU coach 1909–1934
• St Louis Car Co Hollywood car MU 1922–1959 (160)
• St Louis Car Co Hollywood car 1922 (50) numbered 600–649
• St Louis Car Co Hollywood car 1923 (50) numbered 650–699
• J. G. Brill Hollywood car 192x (50) numbered 700–749
• St Louis Car Co Hollywood car 1924 (10) numbered 750–759
• Pullman Standard PCC 1939 (30) numbered 5000–5029. Sold to Argentina in 1959
• St. Louis Car Co. 500 class DE streetcars

Work cars

• LAP trolley wire greaser 1898–1957
• PE tower car 1915–1957

Locomotives

• 1600 class electric locomotives

Freight cars

• LA&R flat-top caboose 1896
• PE flat-top caboose PE 1939
• LS&MS caboose 1915
• LV caboose 1926
• RF&P caboose 1905
• SSC box car 1924

Buses

• GM yellow coach

See also

• Belmont Tunnel
• Historic Downtown Los Angeles Streetcar
• Pacific Electric Building
• Pacific Electric Railroad Bridge
• San Diego Electric Railway
• Subway Terminal Building

References

• Bail, Eli (1984). From Railway to Freeway Pacific Electric and the Motor Coach. Interurban Press. ISBN 0-916374-61-0.
• Bottles, Scott (1991). Los Angeles and the Automobile: The Making of the Modern City. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-07395-9.
• Coscia, David (2011). Pacific Electric and the Growth of the San Fernando Valley, 240 pages. Bellflower, CA: Shade Tree Books. ISBN 1-57864-735-5.
• Copeland, Allen P. (1999 and 2002). Pacific Electric in Color, Vol 1; Vol 2; and California Trolleys in Color. Scotch Plains, NJ.: Morning Sun Books. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)
• Crump, Spencer (1977). Ride The Big Red Cars: How Trolleys Helped Build Southern California, 256 pages. Corona Del Mar, CA: Trans-Anglo Books. ISBN 0-87046-047-1.
• Crump, Spencer (1978). Henry Huntington and the Pacific Electric Railway: A Pictorial Album, 112 pages. Trans-Anglo Books, Corona Del Mar, CA. ISBN 0-87046-048-X.
• Demoro, Harre W. (1986). California's Electric Railways. Glendale, California: Interurban Press. p. 201. ISBN 0-916374-74-2.
• Long, Raphael (1983). Red Car Days, Interurbans Special #92. Glendale, CA: Interurban Press.
• Swett, Ira L. (1943 to 1988). Lines of Pacific Electric, Northern District; Southern District; Eastern District, plus addendums, Interurbans Press Special #16 and #60; Pacific Electric All Time Roster, Specials #3 and #13; Cars of Pacific Electric, Specials #28 and #36; Official PE Car Records, Special #38; Passenger Service of Pacific Electric, Special #21; Pacific Electric in Pomona, Special #46. Glendale, CA. (Ira Swett, author and founder of the Interurbans publishing company spent his lifetime producing approximately 50 publications about interurban railways nationwide, particularly in California and Utah. Many are in the Library of Congress. Included were approximately 20 publications regarding the Pacific Electric. Mr. Swett died in 1975, but Interurban Press continued publishing until 1993). {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: location (link)
• Swett, Ira L. (1943 to 1988). Interurbans Press publications regarding predecessor traction lines to the Pacific Electric: Los Angeles Pacific, Interurbans Special #18; Los Angeles and Redlands, Special #20; Los Angeles and Redondo, Special #20; Riverside and Arlington Electric Railway, Special #27; Los Angeles Pacific Album, Special #39; Ontario and San Antonio Heights Railroad, Special #48; Trolleys to the Surf, Special #63. Glendale, CA. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)
• Thompson, Gregory Lee (1993). The Passenger Train in the Motor Age: California's Rail and Bus Industries, 1910–1941. Ohio State University Press, Columbus, OH. ISBN 0-8142-0609-3.
• Walker, Jim (2007). Images of Rails Series: Pacific Electric Red Cars. Arcadia Publishing, 128 pp, paperback, ISBN 978-0-7385-4688-9.

External links

• Pacific Electric Railway system map, 1920s
• Pacific Electric Railway system map, 1949
• Pacific Electric Railway Elec Railway Historical Association of So. California guide to PE traction heritage.
• Pacific Electric Railway Historical Society Online Image Archive
• Bill Volkmer collection of Red Car photos and post cards
• Orange Empire Railway Museum PE equipment site
• L.A. San Pedro waterfront Red Car line restoration and operation
• Pacific Electric photos (Jim Stubchaer)
• Pacific Electric Railway Monuments archival photographs
• Pacific Electric Subway photos (Elson Trinidad)
• Proposal to bring the Red Car back to Downtown Los Angeles year 2000
• The Red Cars of Los Angeles (USC archives)
• Pacific Electric Subway – Toluca Portal: 1925 – 1955 – 2008 photos (Harry Marnell)
• Tours in a Bygone Era (Tom Wetzel)
• Educational and informative documentary on the rise and fall of the Pacific Electric Red Car system in Los Angeles
• Article about the history of the Pacific Electric and other L.A. streetcar systems, with archival photos
• DVD Documentary – This Was Pacific Electric – Complete documentary on the Pacific Electric. Movies, stills, and interviews.