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The Pacific Electric Railway Company, nicknamed the Red Cars, was a privately owned mass transit system in Southern California consisting of electrically powered streetcars, interurban cars, 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 ...
- 1901–1961 (passenger), 1965 (freight)
- PE
- Los Angeles, California
- Greater Los Angeles Area
Learn about the history and legacy of the Pacific Electric and Los Angeles Railway through documents, images, oral histories and studies. Explore the online archive of photos, videos and stories of the PE/LARY and its operations, stations, cars and people.
Learn about the history and legacy of Pacific Electric, America's largest interurban electric railway system, at the Southern California Railway Museum. See over 35 pieces of PE equipment, including Hollywood Cars and Blimps, and explore the PE roster and map.
- History of The Pacific Electric Railway
- Big Player, But Not A Class I
- Boyhood Interurban Adventures
- Glamorous High-Speed Interurbans
- Wide Range of Car Types
- Post-Wwii Decline
- GeneratedCaptionsTabForHeroSec
By any standard, the Pacific Electric was the largest interurban electric railway in the United States. It boasted more than 1,000 miles of track and had 1,000-plus cars. It played a major role in building up the vast open areas surrounding Los Angeles. The cities and towns that Pacific Electric created, however, became populated with an ever-incre...
Interurbans were not considered Class I railroads (or any other class — they were not “steam railroads”), but from the very start, PE was big business. The California Railroad Commission said the property was worth $100 million in Depression dollars. Atypically for an interurban, the system served as a gathering network for carload freight shipment...
As a youngster living in the south coastal town of Laguna Beach during World War II, I was drawn to the PE. Monthly I would take a Greyhound bus to Long Beach, where I could get the Big Red Cars to downtown L.A. The usual drill was to get an early start, spend all day in the city, and as the shadows lengthened, board a speedy Santa Ana train, at wh...
More glamorous than the local lines were the high-speed interurbans to Long Beach, San Bernardino, Riverside, Santa Ana, Redondo Beach, Venice, and Newport Beach, most of which I rode — San Bernardino–Riverside and Redondo were already gone. Hundreds of trains left downtown L.A. every day for every point of the compass. The Long Beach run from PE’s...
Only superlatives can describe Pacific Electric’s wide range of passenger-car types, from a large fleet of wooden California-type cars (with both open and closed sections) in varied lengths and mechanical specifications, many inherited from predecessor companies, to longer and heavier steel cars ordered after the tragic Vineyard wreck of 1913, in w...
After the war, though, things went downhill rapidly. As soon as buses were available, Pacific Electric began wholesale rail passenger-service abandonments. The new freeways were regarded as the rapid transit of the future. PE President Oscar Smith saw one possibility for saving rail service — if the state would pay. Just before the war, a short sec...
A nostalgic look back at the largest interurban electric railway in the U.S., which served Los Angeles and its suburbs from 1895 to 1961. Learn about its history, routes, cars, and challenges from photos and stories.
Jun 9, 2022 · Learn about the once mighty Pacific Electric Railway, an electric interurban system that shaped Los Angeles and its suburbs. Discover why it still fascinates railfans and transit enthusiasts, despite its demise in 1961.
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Jun 12, 2023 · Learn about the world's most extensive interurban system that served Los Angeles and its suburbs from 1902 to 1965. See maps, photos, and details of the PE's routes, cars, and legacy.
Sep 6, 2018 · A map by Jake Berman shows the extent of Pacific Electric's streetcar network, which once connected people to real estate developments across Southern California. Learn how the rail system shaped LA's urban growth and why it was dismantled in the 1940s.
