This silent short, “The Big Red Cars” shows interurban trolley cars of the Pacific Electric Railroad. It was shot by Leo Caloia, a municipal worker who shot short films in his free time, including some of the earliest motion picture footage of Marilyn Monroe. Some of these films were marketed by a company called World in Color Productions for the home market. At :34, shots of 1950s Los Angeles with car 1535, also known as a “blimp”. Car 1519 is shown at 1:31. At 2:08 the Winona station is shown, just north of Compton on the Long Beach Line. Car 1524 passes at 2:26.

The cars shown in the film are an arch-roof, double-end, double-truck, steel coach with a smoking compartment. They have distinctive porthole style windows on the ends. This type of car was known as a “blimp” on the Pacific Electric. The Pacific Electric lines in the Los Angeles area were electrified at 600 volts DC.

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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com