Pacific Electric Railway (aka the LA Red Car)
Electric trolleys first traveled in Los Angeles in 1887.The Pasadena and Pacific Railway was an 1895 merger between the Pasadena and Los Angeles Ry and the Los Angeles Pacific Ry (to Santa Monica.) The Pasadena and Pacific boosted Southern California tourism by living up to its motto "from the mountains to the sea."
During this time, by consolidation of many smaller railroads, the Pacific Electric Railway was established by railroad and real estate tycoon Henry Huntington in 1901. Only a few years after the company's formation, most of Pacific Electric stock was purchased by the Southern Pacific Railroad, which Huntington had tried and failed to gain control of a decade earlier. In 1911, Southern Pacific bought out Huntington except for the LARy, the narrow gauge street car system known locally as Yellow Cars, and SP also purchased several other passenger railways that Huntington owned in the Los Angeles area, including the Pasadena and Pacific. This resulted in what was called the "Great Merger" of 1911.
Major 1920s PE business was "taking the Red Car" for inland folks, such as in 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. On weekends, extra service beyond the normal schedules was provided, particularly in the late afternoon when everyone wanted to return at the same time. It was good times for residents of the region and good times for profits for the PE as this was the Roaring Twenties. 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 commandeers another and drives at breakneck speed through the streets of Culver City and Los Angeles.
After the Great Merger, Henry Huntington retained the narrow gauge Los Angeles Railway company. LARy provided local streetcar service in central Los Angeles and to nearby communities. These trolleys were known as the "Yellow Cars" and actually 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 (which was 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 to the Sears complex on Pico Boulevard.
There were several years when the company's income statement showed a profit, most notably during World War II, when gas was rationed and much of the populace depended on mass transit. Huntington's involvement with urban rail was intimately tied to his real estate development operations. 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.
Pacific Electric 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. 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.
The Gold Line
In 2004, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) began work on the Metro Gold Line Eastside Extension of its Gold Line through Boyle Heights. MTA had planned to run the line at grade level along 1st Street, but community opposition concerned for the potential loss of affordable housing led it to instead route the line through the district as a subway before it emerges as a standard grade-level light rail line in East Los Angeles. (this route was planned as part of the Red Line subway before 1998) The Eastside Extension opened on November 15, 2009.
Some streets in City Terrace and Boyle Heights are wide, and you can tell that the old streetcars ran down the center of these streets. They called the streetcar the "dinkie" on the line that ran along Evergreen St. and City Terrace Dr. because of its small (30 ft.) car run by one motorman/conductor, but there were several streetcar lines that would take you all over town for seven cents.
- Craig, DJ, Bryce
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