Pacific Electric
Remembering the Red Cars
Volume 1: Southern District
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Interurban Heaven in the City of Angels
Step back into a railfan's paradise - Los Angeles in the 1940's, where the world's largest interurban was scheduling 1,100 passenger trains a day. From thousands of feet of vintage film, producer-archivist Don Olsen has assembled an extraordinary record of this interurban empire. Volume 1, first in a trilogy of Pacific Electric videos, features the Southern District, with the Long Beach/San Pedro , Newport Beach, Santa Ana and El Segundo/Torrance Lines. The evolution of ten and twelve hundred class cars and the "blimps" which supplanted them is well documented.
Separate sections are devoted to carload freight and maintenance-of-way activities systemwide, including rail and overhead replacement and wrecks. As the system's premier freight hauler, electric, steam and diesel powered freights, plus box motors and RPOs kept the rails well polished with wartime activity, and these amazing scenes recall it all with vivid clarity.
Approximately 70 minutes, color and B&W, full soundtrack
Other Pacific Electric interurban titles:
Web links
The Orange Empire Railway Museum has dozens of Pacific Electric cars, some of which you can ride. There is also a brief history of the PE, and some links.
If you are interested in further exploring the PE's history, these sites will get you started:
The Electric Railway Historical Association of Southern California (The link to the Pacific Electric page is about in the middle of this page.)
The Red Cars of Los Angeles at USC.
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