Western Railroad Discussion > Red Car at San Pedro, Ca

What happened to the Red Car that operated in Front of Ports O' Call at the San Pedro waterfront.
Wasn't it cut back for some area redelevopment  but still continued to operate??
Thanx

Still owned by the port of LA. Future unknown.

ApproachCircuit Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What happened to the Red Car that operated in
> Front of Ports O' Call at the San Pedro
> waterfront.
> Wasn't it cut back for some area redelevopment
>  but still continued to operate??
> Thanx

I was down in San Pedro along the waterfront about a month ago. Unfortunately, they've torn up the track that the Red Car operated on. Don't know what happened to the cars themselves.

DRGWMark Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ApproachCircuit Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > What happened to the Red Car that operated in
> > Front of Ports O' Call at the San Pedro
> > waterfront.
> > Wasn't it cut back for some area redelevopment
> >  but still continued to operate??
> > Thanx
>
> I was down in San Pedro along the waterfront about
> a month ago. Unfortunately, they've torn up the
> track that the Red Car operated on. Don't know
> what happened to the cars themselves.

I believe that the cars are under cover at the maintenance facility near 22nd & Miner.  Some track still exists there as well as north of 6th St.

When it was closed down, there was some talk of incorporating it into the "San Pedro Public Market" redevelopment of "Ports of Call".  Work on that (now called "West Harbor") is proceeding very slowly, with completion dates constantly pushed further in the future and no further talk of the Red Cars.  I'll be VERY surprised if we ever see them again.
 

If there is no future for those Red Cars in the San Pedro area,  I'm sure SCRM  (OERM)  would like to have them and get them operating again.

Saw this article last month about the San Pedro Fish Market closing to make way for West Harbor.  The second article is from last year talking about construction finally starting on West Harbor, supposed to be complete by 2024.  It mentions boat slips for water taxis and personal boats, but I didn't see any mention about the Red Cars.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-02-10/san-pedro-fish-market-closing-ports-o-call

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-11-11/long-awaited-entertainment-complex-on-san-pedro-waterfront-begins-construction

Seeing that it only operated on weekends and did not carry a huge number of passengers tells me it was quietly phased out hoping nobody would notice.  They followed the Seattle Waterfront Streetcar method where it was quietly shutdown never to return.  It is really quite sad that the effort was not made to incorporate it into the new development.  According to Wikipedia the two cars were built in house by Port employees. That is impressive.  

 

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

webmaster Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Seeing that it only operated on weekends and did
> not carry a huge number of passengers tells me it
> was quietly phased out hoping nobody would
> notice.  They followed the Seattle Waterfront
> Streetcar method where it was quietly shutdown
> never to return.  It is really quite sad that the
> effort was not made to incorporate it into the new
> development.  According to Wikipedia the two cars
> were built in house by Port employees. That is
> impressive.  

I worked on setting it up. I heard from someone else on the team that one was built from scratch and one was authentic (maybe refurbished, restored?) but that was sole source info I never looked any further into.

TAW
>
>  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterfront_Red_Car

I believe that this is the true and complete info with one exception:
The maintenance facility still exists near 22nd St and some track still exists and extends for a short distance north of there.  I believe that the three cars are still stored there under cover.

Three cars - 2 built and 1 restored.  The last was only used on special occasions.

The relocation of Harbor Blvd (Sampson Way)  just south of the museum/old ferry terminal (6th St) blocked the original route with a high fill. 

I recall seeing a newspaper article around the time that it closed saying that operating costs were $30 PER PASSENGER. 

RIP.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/23/23 06:05 by jmonier.