Pacific Electric / Los Angeles Streetcars Combo - Pentrex
The Pacific Electric Railway-once the largest interurban railway in the nation-and the unique streetcars of the Los Angeles Transit Lines exist now only in memory and on film. Two outstanding documentaries from Pentrex have been combined on one DVD to let you relive the final years of these two transportation legends.
Pacific Electric - The Twilight Years After serving Southern California"s transportation needs for over sixty years, by the 1950s the PE"s rail passenger service had been reduced to five lines. View the last of the once-famous Hollywood cars on the Watts Local and the Big Red Cars, often referred to as "blimps," on the Long Beach, San Pedro, Bellflower, and Catalina Lines. You"ll also see memorable railfan trips, the tower cars on the four-track mainline, and the last of the "Juice Jacks" in action on Santa Monica Boulevard and at Butte Street Yard. Filmed by noted rail photographer Bruce Ward, this is an unforgettable journey to enjoy again and again. (30 minutes)
Los Angeles Streetcars - The Final Years Los Angeles commuters fondly referred to their narrow-gauge streetcars as "Yellow Cars." We"ll take you on an end-to-end tour of the W and S lines, the last to use H-Series standard type streetcars. In 1958, the MTA took over and converted the whole system to streamlined PCC-type cars, most of which were painted two-tone green. You"ll see the entire routes of the five remaining lines: R, S, V, P and J. Then you"ll go to the Georgia Street Car House on the last day of operation and the Vernon Yard as retired cars are placed in storage. It"s a remarkable look at a memorable system. (35 minutes)
DVD Special Feature:
Chapter Menus provide instant access to program segments.
1 Hour 5 Minutes In Color with Hi-Fi Sound and Narration Full-screen (4x3) Format No region code; can be played in any NTSC DVD player worldwide Packaged in Sturdy Vinyl Clamshell Case ISBN: 1-56342-165-8 UPC: 7-48268-00448-3
List Price: 29.95
Our Price: $ 23.95
Length: 65
Item#: REDCARS-DVD
Format:
Pressed DVD
Stock Status:
Yes!
Region Code: 0 Plays Anywhere
Customer Reviews
Added 2008-04-08 21:35:17 by Jeffrey Ornstein
Two collections of vintage films makeup this video on the street railways of Los Angeles.
The first one, on the PE, is mainly of their big red and Hollywood cars that traveled to the outlying sections of LA. Most of the photography is pretty good. However, I really wished they had a section on the subway terminal which was strangely missing from this video. Some of the scenes seem to feel a bit duplicated after awhile, but most of it is fine.
The second film is on the MTA's trolley lines. Lots of PCCs as well as older equipment is seen. There's some footage of the busy intersections in downtown LA, but it didn't seem to be as good as it could have been and it's somewhat limited in scope(same intersections seen several times).
The major problem I had with this video is that if you are not familiar with the geography of Los Angeles, you are not going to understand where you are, except for maybe the downtown area. It would have been helpful if Pentrex had described each vantage point a bit more with maps, as this was quite a flat, non-descript city in many respects.