Street car construction reveals street car remnants

Pacific Electric tracks uncovered. (Photo Bob Walker)

Bob Walker just sent me these great photos of the old Pacific Electric Railway ties and railbed being uncovered on Santa Ana Blvd. near Bristol Street as the road is chopped up for the new Santa Ana/Garden Grove street car project. This neatly cut cross-section is a peek back into a time when Orange County was very different.  

When the Pacific Electric's "Red Cars" were at their peak, each city or town was its own little population cluster, had a business hub or downtown at it's core, and there were miles of fields or orchards between the edge of town and the edge of the next town. 

Pacific Electric tracks uncovered. (Photo Bob Walker)

The notion of urban/suburban sprawl wasn't even on our radar. Southern California was somewhat sparsely populated, there were relatively few roads (many of them bad), and a large portion of the population did not have regular access to an automobile. The Red Cars filled a real need and new development often popped up on the open land along their tracks.

Early rail lines through Santa Ana (by Steve Donaldson and Bill Myers)

By comparison, today almost every inch of Central Orange County is built out. Nearly everyone has a car. Roads are good and ubiquitous. And nothing is centralized. The businesses you patronize, the points of interest, the places you and our friends and family work and live are sprawled out will-nilly over a vast manmade environment that stretches from somewhere in Ventura County down to Camp Pendleton and all the way inland to the desert. And with the death of even our shopping malls, there really are no truly functional downtown or town square-like environments. Everyone needs access to everywhere.

Pacific Electric "Red Car" on W. 4th St., Santa Ana, circa 1920

After World War II, the already waning Pacific Electric Railway system slowly declined and was dismantled, with busses (which could be re-routed as needed and were were not reliant on tracks) and freeways helping take their place. The demise of the "Red Cars" was not a conspiracy, as some (including the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit) suggest. It was primarily a matter of the unavoidable market forces of supply and demand, combined with the march of time and technology.

Map of the new Street Car system, under construction, 2020.

At this point, it's hard not to see trolleys as somewhat romantic and colorful rather than strictly utilitarian. So it's hard not to smile when you see a long-hidden piece of track uncovered after all these decades.