Rails & Transit

How the city moved: the Pacific Electric "Red Cars" that built the region and were torn out, the 1939 Union Station, and the modern Metro rebuilding rail from scratch.

Part of Los Angeles

15 moments in this segment.

1. 1890 — Arcade Depot sold by Wolfskill. Los Angeles, 1890. From the Wikimedia Commons historical-photo collections.
2. 1892 — Horse-drawn streetcar on Main Street (c.1892). Before electrification — a horse-car at the Main Street post office.
3. 1895 — La Grande Station. Los Angeles, 1895. From the Wikimedia Commons historical-photo collections.
4. 1905 — Los Angeles-1905-Arcade Depot. Los Angeles, 1905. From the Wikimedia Commons historical-photo collections.
5. 1910 — Laurel Canyon Trolley Bus at Sunset 1908-09. Los Angeles, 1910. From the Wikimedia Commons historical-photo collections.
6. 1911 — Marvelous Scenic Railway, "Dragon Gorge" at Ocean Park, Cal. (pcard-print-pub-pc-51a). Los Angeles, 1911. From the Wikimedia Commons historical-photo collections.
7. 1912 — Pacific Electric stops, South Bay (1912). The Red Car map of the South Bay at the network’s height.
8. 1937 — Six Los Angeles Railway weekly passes 1937 - 1940. Los Angeles, 1937. From the Wikimedia Commons historical-photo collections.
9. 1939 — 1939 Pacific Electric Railroad Boosters trip (archive film). A 1939 excursion on the Red Cars, PeriscopeFilm archive.
10. 1944 — 1940s Pacific Electric — Long Beach line (archive film). The Red Cars running in the 1940s.
11. 1945 — The Pacific Electric Red Car system (archive footage). Vintage footage of the great interurban network.
12. 1948 — Tearing out the streetcar tracks (1948). The dismantling of the rail system that the freeways would replace.
13. 1955 — Angels Flight funicular (1955). The little railway up Bunker Hill, "the shortest railway in the world."
14. 1961 — The Red Car system — a final ride (historic video). Footage from the last days of the Red Cars.
15. 2025-05-03 — Union Station opens, May 3, 1939. The grand last great rail station of America.