[1] The Pacific Electric interurban system in the Los Angeles area was constructed and maintained by a workforce which was largely made up of traqueros.
[2] Many traqueros lived in characteristic shanty towns of old boxcars which could be seen throughout the U.S. Southwest and Midwest, as far north as Chicago.
Other communities of traqueros were founded as mobile tent camps, subsequently improved by the construction of more permanent dwellings, sometimes with the assistance of the railroad companies, but more often not.
[3] The Watts section of Los Angeles originated as a traquero settlement at the intersection of the two major lines of the Pacific Electric.
Black historian and journalist Thomas Fleming began his career as a bellhop and then spent five years as a cook for the Southern Pacific Railroad.