Red Cars at Disney California Adventure -- July 22, 2012

We just got back from vacation. We drove down I-5 to Hollywood and visited with relatives.  We had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, my first time.  The food was good.  The memorabilia was interesting.  We continued on to the Disneyland Hotel.  The construction project was finished.  We went to 5 o'clock mass at Saint Boniface. 

The great revision of Disney California Adventure (they lost the apostrophe s) was finished.  They tried to make the park look like Los Angeles when Walt Disney arrived in the 1920s.

One feature of this is a Red Car line that runs from the main gate to the Tower of Terror, with stops at Carthay Circle and Hollywood Boulevard.  I saw two cars, 623 in an older Pacific Electric livery, and 717, painted like a PE Hollywood car.  July 17 was the date that Disneyland opened.  The cars are double ended.  The terminals are stub ended.  There is a passing track on Hollywood Boulevard, closer to the outer terminal than the inner. 

There is an overhead electric wire which is not energized.  I learned on my first ride, when the trolley pole dewired, that the correct (rear) pole has to be up and in contact with the wire or the car will not move. 

A cast member (Disney's term for employee) explained that the people working on the Red Cars rotate through three jobs: motorman/motorette, conductor and station agent.  The station agents work at the terminals and stops, answering questions and getting people to wait in line.  When the crowds are heavy, an agent will walk in front of the car to ask people to get out of the way. 

One car makes a short turn at Carthay Circle when a musical show is performed there.  The other car is used as a background for the show. 

The tracks disappear behind a gate at the outer terminal. 


I took the photo last week. 

The new Cars Land is a lot of fun.