Red Car Era An Album: Memories of Los Angeles and the Pacific Electric Railway Paperback – Picture Book, July 19, 2010

I found this book to be quite good as a source of information. The author quite knowledgeable. The many photos are a useful resource. I would give the book a 5 star rating on that basis.However, it is not an original printing on good quality stock. It appears to be a print on demand book. The last page states that it was printed April 22, 2023. The Amazon product description does not state that it is a POD version. The poor quality paper is no better than low quality porous photocopy paper. As a result the many potentially excellent photos are blurry and washed out. Many pages have a vertical washed out streak running down the middle of the page ruining those images. I would give the book 0 stars as a result of the print quality. Too bad to have ruined an otherwise good book. I would return it if I could find a better version on good quality paper.

Great source for information not found elsewhere. The author relates his personal experiences, including the photographic. It's refreshing to have an opinionated author, even if you don't agree with all his opinions. He tries a dig at public ownership when telling of the yellow cars demise, by saying they were clean and free of dirt under private ownership. They were just as clean under public ownership, and it was not "politicians" who did-in the cars, but a pro-bus management crew. It's odd that he has coverage of the yellow cars until the end, his red car coverage stops in 1953 when a notorious private bus-loving owner (Metropolitan Coach Lines, owned by Jesse Haugh) bought them, and let them get filthy and rundown. A minor error is that April 8, 1961 is given as the date of the last red train to Long Beach, when actually it was the early morning of April 9. A major drawback is that most of the photos are of terrible quality. They are washed out and grey, as if taken through a thick fog. I'd love to see this book in an edition with high quality photos.

An excellent piece of work, having been a long time Pacific Electric fan (even though I live in Australia) I just soak up anything on this once great system. This book is different in it's view of the subject being from the author's memories and records, great to see photo's not used before.I would have like to have seen it on better paper but I understand this was a labour of love and done to a price, it only detracts to a minor degree.One point I would like to take issue with though is, the comments made on the closing of the former "Yellow car" system. This lamentable and criminal act is cited to have been caused by the deire to build a convention centre on the car barn site, this may have had some bearing but, if the sytem was wanted to be kept, the old South Park shops could have become a new barn. The real reason was due to automotive and bus interests on the MTA board. He strangely cites the Sydney Australia system as being closed for the same reason, to get Ft Macquarie depot (barn) for the Opera house!! As the depot closed in 1954 and the opera house was not built till 1972 and the fact that there were 9 other depots does not seem to have got in the way of his story, the sad fact is that Sydney, like LA, closed due to automotive interests and the mis-guided perception that was rife in the 50's and 60's that, anything on rails is old fashioned and had to go.That said, a great little book worth every penny.

This book is a real treat for any PE fan and history buff. The author shares his personal experiences as if he were sitting across the table with a cup of coffee. Very personable and even humorous at times. I found his interests to mirror my own and was delighted to find references to the minor details that are often undiscussed and left in the background. As an example there are two photos and personal informative text about the ACME traffic signals that were once unique to Los Angeles. Not a PE subject matter, but just as much a part of the times and places as the PE. Most of the photos were new to me as well as much of the information. The four elevation views of Oneonta Park Station and descriptive text are worth the price of the book themselves as are other detailed views, in this fan's opinion.Now the bad part. The printing of the photos is a bit too light as is the weight of the paper. But then the price is right, I guess, in today's market. It is because of these two detractions that the book gets 4 stars from me. I heartily suggest it. Thanks, Mr.Long.

Red Car Era- An Album by Raphael F. Long is a first hand account of the Pacific Electric System by a knowledgable individual deeply involved with saving many of the ephemeral and equipment from the PE System. He was a mover and shaker in collection of photo and documentation from the line. Most of these photos are Ray's own, or were given to him by his PE Redcar Friends. The album provides the readers with a first hand account of how things were done on the PE Many of us hope that others, triggered by Ray's album will provide him with their accounts, photos and PE collectibles to enable other first hand additions to this wonderful volume.If you want great photos and accounts of the Pacific Electric Railway System, this is newest and best source..Tom VanWormerMonument CO

I really like the book, it is a very complete photo tour of PE with lots of photos that I have not seen before and many that I have.The book is well constructed and printed in the USA.My only complaint is that the cheap paper detracts from the quality images,the book should have been printed on slick paper,don't let that stop you from buying the book,quality books on the PE are hard to find.Buy this book,you won't be sorry.TAH

And interesting historical look back at LA's past with public transportation that really worked! I've heard stories for years and ventured into purchasing this book and several others about the Pacific Electric Red Car Lines and I can't put it down!

Very good and well worth purchasing. One does, however, need some geographical knowledge of the LA area but this can be overcome to an adequate degree with maps, old photographs etc.