This beautiful reproduction poster has been re-mastered from an early 1946 advertising timetable/brochure for the Pacific Electric Railway's Rail & Coach system.
The vibrant colors and detail of this classic image have been painstakingly brought back to life to preserve a great piece of history.
The high-resolution image is printed on heavy archival photo paper, on a large-format, professional giclée process printer. The poster is shipped in a rigid cardboard tube, and is ready for framing.
The 13"x19" format is an excellent image size that looks great as a stand-alone piece of art, or as a grouped visual statement. These posters require no cutting, trimming, or custom framing, and a wide variety of these frames are readily available at your local craft or hobby retailer, and online.
A great vintage print for your home, shop, or business!
History of The Pacific Electric Railway
The Pacific Electric Railway Company (PE), 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 connected cities in Los Angeles County, Orange County, San Bernardino County and Riverside County.
The system shared dual gauge track with the 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) narrow gauge Los Angeles Railway, "Yellow Car," or "LARy" system on Main Street in downtown Los Angeles (directly in front of the 6th and Main terminal), on 4th Street, and along Hawthorne Boulevard south of downtown Los Angeles toward the cities of Hawthorne, Gardena, and Torrance.
In the 1920’s, automobiles increased in popularity, and PE service to some communities was discontinued. During the Great Depression of the 1930’s, ridership continued to drop. PE Began to use busses to augment their system and replace their less profitable lines.
During World War II, the PE experienced a brief resurgence, and travel on the system hit an all time high in 1944. By the 1950’s, automobiles had become the primary mode of transportation in Southern California. Lines were closed and abandoned, and all operations on the Pacific Electric Railway ceased in 1965.
