Remembering Pacific Electric passenger service

Three big “Blimp” cars leave downtown Los Angeles behind them as they proceed down PE’s four-track right of way toward Long Beach, August 1953.

An open car runs through an incongruously snowy landscape on the Alpine Division of PE’s Mt. Lowe line.

Trains occupy three of the four main tracks on a foggy day at Amoco Tower on PE’s Southern Division.

Among the largest cars ever used by an interurban, PE’s Blimps featured high-capacity 3-2 seating.

Half-open/half-enclosed “California cars” like No. 257 operated all over the PE except on the line to San Bernardino.

Blimp 431 dwarfs a Greyhound bus in Los Angeles as it begins a run to Long Beach in 1951; narrow-gauge tracks were used by city streetcars.

Three 950-series cars await departure from Santa Monica’s Ocean Avenue station for a run to downtown Los Angeles via the Venice Short Line in the late 1940s.

Interior of 1000-series car after refurbishing at Macy Street Shops, 1942.

Outbound and inbound Long Beach limiteds pass in southwest Los Angeles, August 1953.

Double-ended PCC No. 5002 crosses the Fletcher Drive trestle on a run from Burbank to downtown Los Angeles in August 1954.

A Hollywood car on an inbound local from Watts starts up the ramp to the Main Street terminal in downtown L.A., August 1953.

Blimps and an 1100 car fill the tracks at the terminal at 6th and Main streets in Los Angeles, 1950.

Two 1100 cars stop at the Sierra Vista station on a run from Pasadena to Los Angeles, February 1951.

Two PCCs on a Glendale–Burbank run cross the trestle over Fletcher Drive in May 1954.

Inbound car 1112 crosses the Santa Fe First District main line at Arcadia, February 1951.

Car 312 stands at the San Pedro station after a run down from Los Angeles in August 1951. A pickup truck working for the Post Office has met the car, and the motorman for the return trip to L.A. walks toward the car with his stool.

Three 1000-series cars are about to depart the Ocean Park car house to go to work on the Venice Short Line in 1950. The 1914-vintage cars were among the last wood interurbans built.

Car 1128 departs the Main Street terminal on a run to Pasadena in December 1948.

Five “Ten-Hundreds,” saved from scrap by World War II traffic, dash toward Long Beach in 1942.

Two Blimps meet on Ocean Boulevard Street in Long Beach in front of PE’s station next to Lincoln Park in the late 1940s.