WHAT'S NEW AT CERA!

MARCH 12 ZOOM PROGRAM

Friday, March 12 at 7 p.m. (Central), CERA presents: The Last Days of the Red Cars in Southern California

Harvey Laner moved to Los Angeles from Chicago in August of 1953 at fourteen years of age. Pacific Electric passenger service was in its final months, passing to Metropolitan Coach Lines in October of that year. The six remaining lines of the once vast Pacific Electric Red Car rail network were moved under the Metropolitan Coach Lines banner.

Harvey shares his experiences through photographs, slides and movies from his collection as one by one the rail lines are converted to buses. PE’s freight business of the mid-1950s is covered, featuring movies of the 1600 series electric freight motors still hard at work in the period just before dieselization. By the time the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority took over from Metropolitan Coach Lines

in 1958, the Hollywood Blvd. and Glendale-Burbank Lines were gone leaving only the Bellflower, San Pedro, Watts Local and Long Beach Lines. The program chronicles the events leading up to April 9, 1961, the last day of the red cars in Southern California.

All are welcome to the 2^nd Friday of the month Zoom presentation. Simply go to: https://tinyurl.com/herbdudb

The Meeting ID is : 851 9255 9508, the Passcode is: 450599

Make an evening of it!

Please note that Harvey will also be doing another program that night, "Argentina Rails and The Old Patagonia Express" for the Pacific Railroad Society and R&LHS, at 9:30 p.m. (Central) , 7:30 (Pacific). You can find that by visiting www.railmeeting.org which will take you to the Zoom meeting room.  The password is 3450.

MEMBERS ONLY ZOOM NIGHT Friday, March 26

Later in the month we return to our regularly scheduled monthly meetings, although we’ll still be virtual. The evening will consist of news about what we have been doing at CERA and what more is to come, along with an electric rail news round-up and a slightly shorter-form railfan program … all on Zoom. This will be the first of many Fourth Friday members’ Zoom meetings. In the months to come, we hope to be able to return to our live, in-person gatherings in Chicago during subsequent Fourth Fridays of the month, while adding the virtual meeting for our out-of-town members. Members will be provide a link through mail or email. 

MEMBERSHIP MAKES IT HAPPEN!

If you're new to CERA, or have just not joined or renewed, please consider becoming a 2021 Member. It is through membership dollars that we are able to produce our fascinating books, provide monthly virtual programs and - we hope in the near future - return to in-person programming and railfan trips.

Click on the Join link above today.

NEW RECORDING: CERA TIME TRAVELS ONCHICAGO'S METROPOLITAN "L"

On Friday, Feb. 12, 2021 Bruce Moffat presented: Chicago’s Metropolitan “L”.

The Zoom program recording is available here.

OTHER CERA ZOOM PROGRAMS

RIDE THE NORTH SHORE LINE AGAIN!

We were happy to see at least 282 viewers on our Jan. 22 program about the North Shore Line.
Now you can watch the recorded program  by following this link.

MORE ZOOM RECORDINGS:

MANHATTAN TRANSFER

David Wilson takes us on a trip to New York City in this recorded Zoom program.

CERA presents the Friday, Nov. 13 recording of Patrick Reardon's history of The Loop: The "L" Tracks That Shaped and Saved Chicago. The edited video of the program is now live.

Ray DeGroote's October railfanning in Hungary and the Czech Republic, is also available.

And from John Nicholson comes September's presentation ofthe Chicago South Shore and South Bend.

If you’d like to present a program with CERA via Zoom, contact us. We can scan your photos or slides and format them into a PowerPoint program for presentation.

NEW YEAR, NEW CERA MEMBERSHIP!

Please take a moment to renew your CERA membership for 2021! Or join us for the first time!

It is only through our members' support that we can bring you the programs, events, books and other media that keeps the history of electric rail alive!

Our simple membership form is available at the JOIN link above. You may pay electronically, or print out a form and send it to us.

Also, if anyone has any rail transit news to pass along to the membership, please send it along to us with any accompanying images you might have to ceraoffice@gmail.com. This is your website and we can all participate to make it interesting and exciting to all.

NEW RECORDING AVAILABLE! FEBRUARY 2021 ZOOM PROGRAM!

Listen as watch as long time CERA member and author Bruce Moffat takes you on a look back at one of the Chicago "L" system's major predecessor companies -- the Metropolitan West Side Elevated.  Opening in 1895, as the third elevated railway to serve Chicago, it was the first to open using electricity.

Bruce's Feb. 12 program is NOW AVAILABLE TO WATCH.