Just found this on your YouTube.

Well, I think it's great. Preserving a piece of rail history that may have otherwise been lost is always a good thing.

Don what a great show that was. i never knew gm mack firestone etc caused the demise of interuban transit systems. the footage you used was super which showed America at a better time. very informative!

They didn't.

Don - Don't have time to watch it all right now, but I saw was great.  Thanki for sharing.

Art

Don, did you already have all that footage?  if not, where did you find it?

was the Baltimore Park station ever turned into a museum?

Nice one Don!  Nicely edited. Doris sounded wonderful.

That station is still the same to this day. I had collected some footage but most came from  a guy in San Francisco that had been collecting for years. All his footage was original camera film, no copies. Don

Thanks for posting that! I enjoyed it!

Very nice.  I have a few of Don Olson's tapes, and think it is time to stock up on his CDs.

When these things just pop up on Utube, does it violate any copright protections?

I did not know a lawsuit was successful against those who trashed the trolleys.

"I did not know a lawsuit was successful against those who trashed the trolleys."

while the lawsuit was successful (low financial impact), current thinking, as smd4 points out, is that there was no conspiracy, they encouraged and took advantage of a deteriorating situation.

i like the conspiracy theory better.  

Thank you, I really enjoyed your effort.

Don:

Great video. Very informative. Thanks for sharing.

As for who killed interurban rail systems, it was a combination of things. The big thing was they were all losing money.

GM, Mack, Firestone, Standard Oil, Phillips, and a few others DID indeed set up a shell bus company to expedite the demise of the rail-based transit systems. The big thing was they got the municipal governments involved in mass transit which did three things -- eliminated the profit motive, further accelerated the removal of the rail systems and generated a permanent income stream because you know government won't stop spending on a system they've invested large sums of money on.

Was the consortium responsible for killing the rail-based transit? Despite conspiracy theorists' views on the subject, not really as private rail-based transit was dying a slow death due to lack of profitability and inability to expand to where people lived and worked. Let's just say they pulled the plug on a terminal patient. The freeway system, inspired by the Interstate Highway System (which, in turn, was inspired by the Autobahn in Germany) didn't help either.

Pacific Electric's Red Car system lasted longer in Southern California, but that may have been because it was somewhat subsidized by Southern Pacific freight operations and its own freight operations, plus southern California was engaged in a lot of war production activities that pushed ridership way up. The transition to buses, however, had begun before the war as PE was losing money. Just about all of the rail-based mass transit was private and when they started losing money they cut routes. A couple of PE's red car lines, as well as LA City Railway's (Yellow Car) were consolidated into a quasi-government operation known as the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA 1) which later became the Southern California Rapid Transit District (RTD) after the rail systems were shut down in 1963. RTD's operation was so screwed up, it got the nickname "Rotten Transit District" by many. Eventually, it was reorganized back into the Metropolitan Transit Agency (MTA 2). Typical government -- rename it and the problem goes away (not on a bet).

Sadly, the loss of PE's red car system and its private rights of way (the most important component of the system) was a major factor that caused the Los Angeles Riots in 1965. People lived in Watts. Watts was THE major junction between Long Beach, Downtown, Orange County, Torrance, Redondo Beach, and the City of El Segundo. When the red cars were replaced with buses that had to fight with the cars, a lot of people without cars couldn't get to work efficiently and lost their jobs. Local businesses shut down and the whole thing went into a death spiral from there. Ironically, the Watts PE depot is still there and the Metro (MTA 2) Blue Line stops next to it. The Blue line literally follows most of the old PE Long Beach line. To add another irony, MTA has been buying back the remaining rights of way from Southern Pacific and the remnants of the ATSF Pasadena Subdivision for light rail.

Gotta love it.

Matt, we used to take the streetcar to Venice Beach on weekends. My mom took the PE all over LA for shopping. I remember when the buses started. Everyone complained about the fumes and noise. Your right they were all loosing money but to replace the system we had in the bay area with Bart was a millions of dollar mistake. We should have kept them and have the cities pay as they do now. Look what LA is paying now for a system they already had at one time.

Every major city that kept their streetcar system kept their downtown. Those that didn't? Their downtowns were lost. San Francisco is a good example. Streetcars on top of Market Street, Bart under. Don

Matt, one other thing. We lived in the Palms area of Culver City. I remember a two stall engine house made of brick not far from our house. The line ran by M-G-M and Helms Bakery. There were one sometimes two Westinghouse Electric Locomotives inside. Someone told me they building is still there. Know anything about it? I think that's what got me interested in Electric overhead railroading. Thanks Don

Absolutely. One of my hobbies is spotting old rights of ways. It's pretty easy in Los Angeles -- you find a street that has a median that's WAY too wide, odd-angled intersections and alleys, streets that have no access to homes on either side (Santa Clara Blvd in Arcadia is an example), and other pavement structures that don't make sense. It's amazing how extensive the PE network was out here. They're still finding buried tracks when excavating.

There is a PE building still standing in Culver City. I'm not sure if it was a substation or a barn for the steeple cabs. The Helms Bakery building is also still there as is the big sign -- it's a historical landmark in the city. The PE Culver Blvd right of way that went out toward Marina Del Rey and Playa Del Rey has been turned into a hike/bike trail.

fascinating stuff.

amazing what we once had and which we now need so much.

You never know what you have until it's gone. Once it's gone it's not likely to come back.

We have and are still trying to get our little railroad back up and running. We have had meetings and interviews. The company wants to pull the tracks. If that happens it's all over. A group in Lahaina has held them off for another 30 days. We shall see. Don

Wow, nice show.  I loved it.  You did good work.

Thank you Don.  Nicely done and full of great info.  I particularly liked the old images of the street cars.  I am currently incorporating a street car line on my layout based on the Boston system. 

I live in Newport RI.  We experienced the same wipeout of our very efficient trolley lines. For us it was Walter Chrysler who purchased our trolleys' and immediately pulled them out of service.  For many years of repaving Broadway Ave, close to my home, I would see the reminisce of the trolley tracks.  This last repair was a major restoration of the Avenue and I watched them pull up the tracks.

For those that do not know the origins of the conspiracy here is a pamphlet prepared by E. J. Quniby in 1945.  You can find the pamphlet here.  The arrows take you to additional pages.

Don, what a great show.  I watched it twice.   Seeing the old rail systems is always interesting.   Thanks for posting this.

Great video, kind of sad too.  I grew up in the wrong era.  I wonder what the area looks like now.  Nick