Events in the news this week.

The image of “little cable cars climbing halfway to the stars” usually conjures up thoughts of San Francisco, but Orange County can also be colored into that scenario--if only from the standpoint of nostalgia.

Until the middle of the century, railway cars were a mainstay of transportation for county residents, carrying passengers back and forth from outlying areas to resort communities. This intricate, interurban system of street cars, dubbed “The Red Cars,” kept Southern California mobile from Santa Monica to Riverside to Newport Beach, and helped stimulate population growth.

Operated by Pacific Electric Railway Co., the cars ran down the middle of the street. They were powered by overhead electrical lines and guided by rail tracks. However, with the advent of the automobile, the Depression and the federal government giving subsidies for California’s freeway system, the popularity of the system began to wane during the 1930s. By the ‘60s, it had altogether disappeared.

But Wednesday at 7 p.m., the old cars will come to life, if only for a little while, as historian William Myers of Southern California Edison acts as guest curator at a free lecture and slide show entitled “The Red Car of Orange County” at the Old Courthouse Museum at 211 W. Santa Ana Blvd., Santa Ana.

The exhibit will run in tandem with a related display, “Street Rail to Light Rail: California’s Trolleys,” sponsored by the California State Archives. “The Red Car of Orange County” is sponsored by the Orange County Historical Commission, and both exhibits will run through March 26. For more information, call the Old Courthouse Museum at (714) 834-3703 or (714) 834-5536.