You are viewing the hard cover book, that I have posted in my Ebay Store, titled “Ride The Big Red Cars, The Pacific Electric Story”.
This book was published by Trans-Anglo Books.
Spencer Crump is the author.
Book is the Sixth Edition, Summer 1983
ISBN is 0-87046-047-1
Book has 256 pages, including the index.
Book contains numerous black and white photographs from the history of the Pacific Electric.
“Ride the Big Red Cars” takes its name from the famous slogan of the Pacific Electric, whose comfort-able and speedy interurbans linked Southern California’s mountains, beaches, orange groves, and cities for more than half a century.
The P.E., at its peak, had 1,164 miles of track and operated 6,000 scheduled cars daily.
The Pacific Electric boasted that it was the “world’s greatest electric railway,” and it provided rapid transit in an era when autos were primitive and there were few roads.
Author Spencer Crump tells how and why the trol ley era began and ended. He shows how the Pacific Electric was responsible, more than any other single factor, for Southern California’s growth into virtually one big city of many communities instead of a single compact city.
Added to this edition is a listing of every major Pacific Electric interurban line, including details of the exact routes followed (you can retrace them, if you wish) and when and how frequently the electric cars operated.
The 75,000 word text reports the dramatic battles that came when Henry E. Huntington, planning in the early 1900s to use electric interurbans to break the monopoly of steam railroads in California and possibly the nation, clashed with tycoon E.H. Harriman.
The fervor of competition to build trolley lines was matched only by the eagerness of boosters in virtually every Southern California village to obtain an electric car link to start a local boom.
The more than 200 illustrations range from a rare sketch of the first Mrs. Henry Huntington (whose divorce made newspaper headlines) to informative maps from the early days.
And, of course, there are many photographs o: early-day streetcars, interurbans, and other trolley equipment as they were used throughout the Southern California area served by the Pacific Electric.
Besides the detailed route information, the appen-dix includes charts comparing the population from 1850 to 1950 of cities served by trolleys, numbers of passengers carried annually by the Big Red Cars, financial reports, and the Pacific Electric’s articles of incorporation, which detailed routes and engineering data.
Author Spencer Crump’s research for “Ride the Big Red Cars” included many interviews with those associated with the Pacific Electric and Henry Huntington, the use of yellowing newspaper files, engineering studies, court records, and early day documents.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Spencer Crump, born in San Jose, California, earned his undergraduate and both graduate degrees at the University of Southern California. He has been a newspaper reporter and editor and now is a college professor. He is a member of the California Historical Society, the Railway and Locomotive Historical Society, National Railway Historical Society, and the Orange Empire Railway Museum. He also is a member of the American Association of University Professors and Sigma Delta Chi Professional Journalism Society.
