BEFORE THERE WERE CARS, THERE WERE THE TRAINS
The Railway That Built Southern California
The Pacific Electric Railway was once the largest interurban railway system in the world, with over 1,000 miles of track linking cities across Southern California — from the San Fernando Valley to San Bernadino, Santa Monica to Newport Beach. The Newport-Balboa line ran from downtown Los Angeles reached Seal Beach (then Bay City) and Anaheim landing in late May 1904.
The Car That Kept It All Running
The train on the Green Belt wasn’t a passenger car — it was a tower car. It had a platform on top that could be raised up to allow repairman to repair and replace the overhead wires carrying the 6,000 watts that kept the Red Cars rolling. It was a rolling repair shop that ____
Rescued, Restored, Renewed
The PE was most active prior to 1925. After that, the growing number of cars in Los Angeles, not only attracted more customers, but they also crowded the streets, making it more difficult for the Pacific Electric trains to stay on schedule. The passenger trains through Seal Beach were stopped in 1939. They reopened briefly for World War II but the lines were abandoned for good in 1949.
Car 1734 continued in service for a few more years, but when all Pacific Electric activities closed down in 1960, the car was sent to a scrapyard where it remained until it was rescued by the Seal Beach Historical Society in 1972. Using money funded in part by the American Bicentennial organization, society members lovingly restored the car and in 1975, it was placed on its original route – on tracks that had been placed on Electric Avenue, the old PE right of way.
Today the Seal Beach Historic Resources Foundation has plans to renovate the car and surrounding properties and open it to visitors once again.
The Red Car made Seal beach. Now Seal Beach is returning the favor.