A beautifully rendered (just look at those lovingly drawn mountain ranges!) old-school map of the famous “Red Car” network at its absolute zenith.

It was pretty much all downhill after this: real estate sales from land that had been opened up by the network (the real money that allowed the rail service to continue to run despite operating losses) began to decline and many rural services were converted to cheaper buses around this date.

In the 1930s, plans for an extensive “Motorway System” around Los Angeles were drawn up. Originally, rail tracks were planned for the median of these new freeways, but were quietly dropped without much protest. The convenient age of the automobile had arrived, and – despite a short renaissance during World War II – the Pacific Electric faded slowly away and ceased passenger operations in the early 1960s.

Compare to this awesome relief map of the same network from 1920 (October 2011, 4.5 stars).

Prints of an almost identical map from 1933 are available at the Transit Maps print store.

Our rating: Lovely early 20th Century cartography. 4 stars.