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28 DIGS.NET | 1.10.2020 J A N U A RY 1 0 , 2 0 2 0 | I S S U E 2 2 0 722 1st Street, Unit D, Hermosa Beach, California, 90254 Office: 310.373.0142 South Bay Digs Magazine is published every other Friday by m3 Media, LLC. Reproduction in any form or by any means is strictly prohibited without the prior written consent from m3 Media LLC. The Publisher and advertisers are not responsible or liable for misinformation, misprints, or typographical errors. All advertised properties are subject to prior sale or withdrawal without notice. Real estate advertised in this publication is subject to the Federal Fair Housing Act. M3 Media will not knowingly accept any advertising for real estate which is in violation of the law. All persons are hereby informed that all dwellings advertised are available on an equal opportunity basis. Any and all submissions to this publication become the property of m3 Media, LLC and may be used in any media. 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JANUARY 10, 2020 DIGS.NET PRESENTED BY NEIL CHHABRIA AND ANAND CHHABRIA CHHABRIA REAL ESTATE COMPANY FEATURE ON PAGE 66 INSIDE CABIN FEVER THE MAKERS' MARKET LIFE, ARTFULLY DONE T USC A N Y o n the PACI FIC PRESENTED BY NEIL CHHABRIA ANAND CHHABRIA CHHABRIA REAL ESTATE COMPANY 310.902.7227 LIST PRICE $12,700,000 FEATURED ON PAGE 66 CREATIVE SERVICES & AD DESIGN/ORIGINAL ARTWORK PROVIDED EXCLUSIVELY BY SOUTH BAY DIGS. © 2019 m3 Media, LLC. All rights reserved. Publisher Associate Publisher Editorial Director Production Manager Marketing Director Digital Media Director Senior Graphic Designer Graphic Designer Contributing Writers Senior Staff Photographer Warren J. Dow Carol Skeldon Amy Adams Lauren Potter Kyle Coats Kieron McKay Ryan Lyse Jim Alba Wendy Bowman Jenn Thornton Constance Dunn Karine Monié Joclene Davey Abigail Stone Paul Jonason THE RED CAR LINE S O U T H B A Y History Tidbits DRE#: 01368971 Maureen Megowan 310.541.6416 mdmegowan@gmail.com Henry Huntington was a very major real estate developer and public utility system tycoon in southern California. In 1901 Huntington formed the Pacific Electric Railway ("PE") to serve his real estate development aims in the Los Angeles area. The largest of the suburban electric railways operating out of downtown Los Angeles in the early 1900s was not Huntington's Pacific Electric but the Los Angeles Pacific ("LAP").The heads of LAP also had extensive real estate development projects in Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, Playa del Rey and Hollywood. This very extensive railway ran streetcar lines out through Hollywood and suburban trolley lines to Santa Monica, Brentwood, and down the coast to Redondo Beach in what was called the "balloon route". In 1906 Edward Harriman, head of the Southern Pacific Railroad, gained control of the Los Angeles Pacific, and finally in 1910 he acquired Huntington's PE, and in 1911 merged the two into Pacific Electric. At that time, all of the transit cars were painted red, leading to the moniker "red car line". The Redondo Beach via Playa Del Rey line was one of two electric railway lines to Redondo Beach operated by PE prior to World War II, the other running from LA through Gardena and Torrance. The route that had the higher ridership in the 30s was the more scenic route down the coast from Playa Del Rey. This route led along the ocean from Playa del Rey through Manhattan Beach, then veering inland a bit through Hermosa Beach and ending in Redondo Beach. The developers of Palos Verdes in the early 1920's planned for the extension of the red car line into the Peninsula and provided wide median strips in Valmonte and Lunada Bay to accommodate the red car lines. One of the major problems with PE as a passenger railway was that when developers originally invested in the trolley lines to serve their subdivisions, they were interested in providing only the minimum facilities they needed in order to sell real estate, and they were not intended to make money providing passenger service. And in fact the PE passenger operations as a whole never made a profit. The Southern Pacific was willing to accept the perennial operating losses of PE because SP made quite a bit of money off the freight business that was fed to SP by PE. In the 20s to 50s era, PE was the main hauler of freight to and from the combined ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles. The red car line also could never be called "rapid transit", as it had to slog its way through surface street traffic. They were also very overcrowded. The trip from downtown Los Angeles to Redondo Beach took well over an hour. The increased ownership and convenience of the automobile spelled the demise of the Red Car. The red car line suffered severe operating losses throughout the 1930's and were slowly replaced by bus service through the 1940's. The Redondo Beach line was eliminated in 1940. The red car line is now only a nostalgic memory. The above is an excerpt from my book "Historic Tales of Palos Verdes and the South Bay". For more info see http://www.southbayhistory.com.

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