Trolley Tuesday 1-26-21 - The Pacific Electric Western Division

If there was ever a more perfect image that represents the Pacific Electric Railway, or PE, then it would be a steel "Hollywood" streetcar rolling down the boulevard that shares its name. It's an image enshrined in film history, being replicated in films like Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Gangster Squad as well as serving as a nostalgic look back on the Los Angeles that once was. But the Western Division which housed the Hollywood Blvd line was more than just glitz and glamour, as it also fed into one of the largest continuous suburban developments in Southern California and contained the only subway system in Los Angeles until the opening of the Metro Blue (A) Line in 1991. Return with us now, to the thrilling days of yester-year, as we pull the curtain back on the Pacific Electric Western Division and see just how it shaped the Southland for almost 50 years!

The Los Angeles Pacific Railway

Gen. Moses Sherman in his
younger days, sporting a grumpy
militaristic moustache.
(Sherman Library and Gardens)

What eventually became the Pacific Electric's Western Division was first created in November 1894, when wealthy land developer "General" Moses H. Sherman (1853-1932) and brother-in-law Eli P. Clark (1847-1931) created the Pasadena & Pacific Electric Railroad Company of Arizona (P&P). The reason for the Arizona incorporation was due to laws forbidding the creation of too many consolidated companies in California, and Sherman certainly had plenty as he had bought up all of Los Angeles' narrow-gauge cable car and horsecar lines under the Los Angeles Consolidated Electric Railway Company (LACE) and the Pasadena & Los Angeles Electric Railway Company (P&LA). (More info can be found here.) The latter was especially important, as it was the first interurban line in Southern California, connecting the idyllic suburban town Pasadena with the hustle-bustle of Los Angeles via Sycamore Grove in Northeast Los Angeles.

Immediately, the P&P was forced into dire financial straits as Sherman and Clark's finances caught up with them by March 1895. After the LACE was spun off to its bondholders as the Los Angeles Railway (LARy), Sherman and Clark were able to keep a hold on the interurban lines, with the P&LA opening on May 4, 1895. The P&P construction was further helped by local land boosters in Santa Monica, and as the main route was passing through undeveloped farmland, construction was finished at just under one year from the P&LA, with the P&P opening to the public on April 1, 1896. However, Sherman and Clark were yet in more dire financial straits as the P&LA bondholders forced the company into receivership and reorganized it as the Los Angeles-Pacific Electric Railway Company (LAP), with Sherman and Clark remaining minority stockholders. 

An undated, possibly-early 1900s view of the LAP mainline through Oregon Avenue at Sawtelle, CA.
(Sawtelle, 1897-1950)

A Pasadena & Pacific car in 1900, bound for Santa Monica.
The location is unknown.
(Public Domain)

Under the new reorganization, Sherman and Clark put all of their focus into developing everything west of Los Angeles as the 1900s rolled in, beginning with a new branch line to Hollywood from Sherman. 1902 proved to be the biggest development boom in the LAP as private right-of-way was developed between Santa Monica and Venice Beach, along with the "Palms Division" from Vineyard Junction to Ivy Station (now Culver City). With the extreme boom in electric railway development, the nearby Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe quietly abandoned their line from Santa Monica to Inglewood via Venice and Alla, which the LAP quickly snatched up. The LAP continued to build down the coast, incorporating new companies like the Los Angeles, Hermosa Beach, and Redondo Beach (LAHBRB) as new divisions to connect Sherman and Clark land investments by rail, culminating in the reorganized LAP by 1903 which included the original company's tracks, the Los Angeles-Santa Monica Railway Company (which was developing the main connection to LA), and the aforementioned LAHRBR.

E. H. Harriman, wondering how to procure more
 real estate for his glorious moustache of business.
(HouseHistree)

However, there was on man in Sherman's shadow who was intent on having the LAP, with its lucrative beach service, to himself. Enter Edward Henry Harriman (1848-1909), owner of the Southern Pacific Railroad and thorn in the side of electric railway development in Southern California. It was long rumored that Harriman purchased the LAP to add it to his eventual rapid-transit empire in Los Angeles, but Sherman spent all of early 1906 denying these accusations. Sherman finally relented in March 1906 that Harriman indeed purchased a controlling interest in the LAP, on the condition that he guarantee the construction bonds so history wouldn't repeat again. Harriman agreed, and Sherman and Clark were left to manage the company as minority stockholders and directors. 

Harriman's Subway

One of the biggest plans Harriman had for the LAP was a grand subway from Fourth Street in Downtown LA to Vineyard Junction, almost 20 years before Pacific Electric opened its own subway out to Hollywood. The planned tunnel, five miles in length, was to hold four tracks, much like the competing Pacific Electric's four tracks to LA and Long Beach (detailed on Thursday). However, despite the planned terminal being constructed at Hill Street, the subway itself never even got off the planning stage. The 1907 Banker's Panic in October curtailed any major rail development in Southern California, and other projects under Harriman's watch meant that LA would have to wait for its own subway.

The Pacific Electric 950 class, built by St. Louis Car Company in 1907, was intended
to run the Harriman Subway between Fourth Street and Vineyard.
(Don Ross)

PE Hollywood Car No. 739 exits the Hill Street Tunnel
in the 1949 noir, "Criss Cross", starring Burt Lancaster
and Yvonne DeCarlo.
(Universal Pictures)

What did get built of the original subway was two tunnels north of Hill Street Station that allowed for easy access to cars bound for Hollywood, which opened on September 9, 1909, the same day as Harriman's death. Following this, Sherman and Clark oversaw the initial construction stages of the new San Fernando Valley (SFV) line via Cahuenga Pass (under yet another company, the Los Angeles,& San Fernando Valley Electric Railway Company) until they sold their shares to Southern Pacific on May 28, 1910. One year later, on September 1, 1911, the SP purchased Henry Huntington's Pacific Electric Railway and combined them (and other lines) under the "Great Merger." In the historic reorganization, the former LAP and the SFV line were now the Pacific Electric "Western Division". PE then finished the remaining half of the SFV line and opened it to the public on December 16, 1911, ready to serve the new land holdings of one "General" Moses H. Sherman.

The new Cahuenga Pass line in 1922, completed by the Pacific Electric.
In time, the railway would be squeezed on either side by the new 101 Freeway.
(Water and Power Associates)

Rails to the Beach

A section of the Pacific Electric's 1926 map, showing the entirety of
the Western Division to the Beaches and San Fernando Valley.
(Pacific Electric Railway Historical Society)

The Western Division maintained three major lines to the beach: The Santa Monica Line via Sherman, Beverly Hills and Sawtelle, the Venice Short Line from Vineyard Junction, and the Redondo Beach Line from Culver Junction. Of the Santa Monica Line, the most famous section was the loop from Sawtelle to Santa Monica which was originally dubbed the LAP's "Balloon Route". Excursions out along the Balloon Route took passengers along Sunset Boulevard to Morocco (now Beverly Hills), then to Old Soldiers Home, before finally stopping at Santa Monica's old Long Wharf and down Venice Beach, with a fish dinner in Playa Del Rey and a return trip back through Palms and the Venice Short Lie. The route was advertised as a "10 dollar tour for one dollar" and Pacific Electric continued the "Balloon Route" excursions until 1923.

However, despite the swift nature and short distance of the Santa Monica via Sawtelle Line, the Pacific Electric needed a faster way to Santa Monica from its 6th and Main terminal building. The answer to this came following the Great Merger in 1911, when the PE inherited the Los Angeles & Independence Railway and its line from Santa Monica's Long Wharf to San Pedro. This line was quickly revitalized into the famous "Santa Monica Air Line", a quicker and straighter way to get to Santa Monica using private right-of-way via Amoco Junction, rather than following Sunset Blvd and Santa Monica Blvd out of downtown. With the opening of the Air Line, service on the Sawtell portion was curtailed, then closed, in 1923.

A "Balloon Route" parlor car of the LAP, named "Hermosa", photographed in the early 1900s.
(KCET) 

The Venice Short Line at Hill Street Terminal,
during wartime rush hour in 1945.
(Metro Library Archive)

Supplementing the Santa Monica Air Line was the much-more densely-packed Venice Short Line, which split from the earlier Santa Monica-Sawtelle Line at Vineyard Junction and followed a more southern route along Venice Blvd. Despite plenty of passenger travel to the beach, the line was notorious for large delays and journeys from Hill Street Station to Venice lasting almost 52 minutes. If the proposed Fourth Street Subway were built, perhaps this line would have survived longer in service. Also, interestingly, the Venice Short Line was the only line on the Pacific Electric system to serve an actual cemetery, that being the Rosedale Cemetery crossing the LA Railway's V (for Vermont) line. 

Finally, the Redondo Beach Line (also known as the Redondo Beach-Playa Del Rey Line) was one of only two routes of the PE to run on sand (between El Segundo and Redondo Beach). Unlike the other two lines, service on this rather barren line was sparse, with one or two cars often being the maximum limit of service. Its main draw, possessing uninterrupted views of the Pacific Ocean, meant that it carried more passengers in the summer months, but in other schedules service was rather slow, with 23.4 miles an hour being the maximum schedule speed at all times. 

Pacific Electric "Eight" No. 841 leaves Redondo, northbound for Manhattan Beach.
This section of line, from Redondo to El Segundo, is now a bike path.
(Pacific Electric Railway Historical Society)

The 1913 Vineyard Junction Disaster

A three-car train of 950s, led by 981, streak by on Venice Shortline Service in 1945.
This was typical of the service offered on the line, similar to the one headed by No. 874.
(Gordon Glattenburg, PERYHS)

Two Pacific Electric "800s" work the Santa Monica via
Sawtelle line close to when the line was abandoned.
(Ralph Cantos, PERYHS)

With the busy nature of the Western Division's beach lines thoroughly established, it then seemed very odd that most of the network was governed not by signals, but by a time card and streetcars spaced by vision alone. This dangerous combination of laissez-faire railroading came to a head on the night of July 13, 1913, when a three-car train of beachgoers returning from Santa Monica smashed into the back of another three-car train carrying beachgoers returning from Venice. Train no. 532 (made up of three "Fives") was stopped at Vineyard Junction due to a wire break just past the station, and the non-stop limited (The 874, a train of "Eights") was due to pass by any minute. Just before 9:20PM, the conductor of the 532 sent the flagman down the line to alert the 874 to stop behind the 532. Unfortunately, either the flagman (a 24-day-old new-hire that never worked on a train before) neglected to alert the 874, or the 532's rear car had its whistle played by rowdy teenagers, alerting accidentally that the 532 was set to move, but disaster struck anyway. At 30 miles an hour, well over the junction speed limit of 10, the larger train of Eights smashed into the Fives. 

A newspaper photograph of the wreck site the morning
after. The wreck site is just to the right of the "SLOW" sign.
(Atlas Obscura)

Due to both trains using wood cars, the impact was great enough to start telescoping and crushing cars. Two cars on each train ended up piled and crunched into one another, with the collision also knocking out the lights on a very remote section of the line. Survivors and rescuers alike were separated for over two hours before the cleanup could begin, and it was eventually found that 15 people had died and almost 200 sustained serious injuries. In the ensuing investigation (which lasted a rapid 10 days), blame was firmly placed on the lax safety procedures on the Western Division and PE's officials, rather than hunker down and protect their money, immediately vowed to build new block signals to avoid a repeat event. PE also vowed to begin design and construction on new steel-bodied streetcars, while their wooden cars were demoted to slower, more local services as the years went on.

And all the Vampires/Walkin' through the Valley/Move west, down/Ventura Boulevard

The Southern Pacific-Pacific Electric Depot at Lankershim in North Hollywood,
close to the end of service.
(Valley Relics)

Sherman Way in downtown Owensmouth, 1920,
showing just how much the communities built
around the streetcar.
(Public Domain, LA Public Library)

Despite not being a Huntington Enterprise, the San Fernando Valley Lines of the Western Division was definitely more of a Huntington Enterprise than the Beach Lines were. Out past the Hollywood Hills were thousands of acres of untapped land, and under "General" Sherman, this land was later developed into a massive suburban metropolis. With the help of wealthy syndicate figures like Fred Eaton and William Mulholland (which, themselves, are a whole other story), the 47,500-acre land parcel that comprised the San Fernando Valley now came under one man and enabled him to create an enormous trolley easement to serve as far west as Owensmouth (now Canoga Park) and as far north as San Fernando via Van Nuys and Lankershim.

At Canon Drive, PE Steeplecab 1613 swerves around a
Hollywood Car unloading in Beverly Hills. The date is June 20, 1953.
(Alan Weeks, PERYHS) 

The Pacific Electric shared a symbiotic relationship with the Southern Pacific throughout the SFV, with streetcars running alongside Southern Pacific Freights, and stations in North Hollywood, Lankershim, and Reseda feeding both streetcar and heavy rail passenger trains. Freight was not so much a priority on the Western Division, as most of the rail traffic came from the film studios at Universal City and Studio City along with the newest film premieres along Hollywood Boulevard. Freight traffic was primarily run down to Santa Monica via Beverly Hills, which created such a sight to see a filthy freight train roll down what is now one of the most expensive places in all Los Angeles. If ever there was a more suburban railroad outside of the Pasadena lines, the San Fernando Valley lines were it. 

The Legendary Glendale-Burbank Line

Another busy day in Toluca Yard, with Hollywoods and PCCs filling up all the tracks
in preparation for war service in 1941.
(Ralph Melching, Ralph Cantos, PERYHS)

PCC Car 5015 crosses the Fletcher Avenue Viaduct
en route to Glendale (or Burbank) in a post-1952 photo.
(William "Dutch" Hendrick, PERYHS)

Last week, we talked about how the Hollywood Subway was built. Today, we're going to discuss what was located beyond it. The first half we'll cover is the Glendale and Burbank lines, originally the Edendale Line. One of the oldest lines on the PE, it originally began serving Angelinos in 1906 along the same route as the later Hollywood Subway, with the two lines sharing tracks between Toluca Yard to Glendale and Burbank. As such, the Edendale Line service was often some of the most congested in the system and the main factor in building the new Hollywood Subway to bypass it. The Glendale Line was inherited from L.C. Brand's (of Brand Boulevard fame) Los Angeles & Glendale Electric Company from 1902 and shared tracks with the Glendale & Montrose Railway between Brand and Glendale Blvd until 1929, when the PE inherited its tracks.

PE's Burbank Terminal on June 18, 1955, with PCC cars 5009 and 5017
laying over before returning to the Subway Terminal.
(Ralph Cantos, PERYHS)

On the Glendale half of the Glendale-Burbank Line,
PCC No. 5027 works an "Out of Service" train inbound
to the Subway Terminal, at the corner of Brand and Wilson.
Same date as above.
(Ralph Cantos)

As the line skirted along the crest of the Hollywood Hills and crossed the Los Angeles River to reach Glendale, much attention was paid to the bridges on the line as the route climbed and soared along Riverside Drive before crossing the LA River at Glendale Blvd, giving riders a sweeping view of Atwater Village. The line here was built to an absolute unmatched standard, with the smoothest rails and the strongest bridges carrying both elderly 500-class cars all the way to the most modern PCC cars. The access to the Subway Terminal also meant the line was heavily traveled by suburban commuters, which caused a minor skirmish in 1936 when the "Fives" were retired by PE and the line was subject to a "bustitution" that almost closed the whole line. This changed in 1939, when the California Railroad Commission (CRC) demanded rail service be reinstated between Glendale and Downtown LA and allowed for the purchase of the new PCC cars, keeping the system well-populated into World War II.

West Hollywood Shops and Toluca Yard

West Hollywood Car Shops on an unknown date, displaying their fleet of Hollywoods and PCC Cars.
(Alan Weeks)

The main shops of the Western Division were located at Sherman (now West Hollywood) and was a respectable 5.6 acres of land. Here, all cars from Santa Monica to the San Fernando Valley were furnished, serviced, and maintained to all but the heaviest rebuild work that was handled at Torrance Shops. Just before World War II, PE began maintaining its Motor Transit Lines buses at West Hollywood, and this further spelled doom as the lines out to the San Fernando Valley were closed into the 1950s. Eventually, in 1952, West Hollywood Shops closed and all maintenance for the Glendale-Burbank and Hollywood lines were undertaken at the even-smaller Toluca Yard at the mouth of the Hollywood Subway. Often, PCCs and Hollywoods alike were driven down to West Hollywood and loaded with whatever spare parts they could carry to keep the line alive. When the line finally closed in 1955, it was the most impeccably-maintained system on the Pacific Electric, with all cars (PCC and Hollywoods alike) rated for another 20+ years of service. 

Now a Cloverleaf Industry

In 1952, PE No. 5111 trundles past the Barham Passenger Shelter in Cahuenga Pass.
(Alan Weeks)

The last PCC service inbound from
Glendale poses for a photo op with its
its motorman before closing the book
on the Western District, June 19, 1955.
(Sandra de la Loza)

Closures on the Western District began almost too early, beginning with the Sawtelle Line in 1940. Under new owners Metropolitan Coach Lines (MCL), service to the San Fernando Valley closed in 1952, when buses replaced the streetcars along the new Hollywood Freeway (the 101), and the final nail in the coffin came in 1955, when the Glendale-Burbank Line became the last Western Division line to close. The cause was very simple: the streetcars were getting crowded, especially on the beach-going lines that hugged the streets that shared its name, but the closure of the Hollywood Subway brought the greatest deficit to the PE system. The Subway was still used by plenty of San Fernando Valley suburbanites and it was also an extremely practical way to get downtown, but MCL didn't care. Neither did they care about the closure of the Venice Short Line, another viable transit corridor. Southern Pacific continued to handle freights on the PE system until the late 1950s, when all tracks were removed through Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, and the San Fernando Valley.

Hollywood Forever

The new Glendale-Hyperion Footbridge over the LA River, with one of the supports
still displaying part of an old Red Car Mural.
(KCET)

The Ivy Park Substation today.
(Kendall Collins)

Aside from the Subway Terminal and most of the Hollywood Subway, only a few pieces of the Western Division remain. Along Riverside Drive and over Fletcher Drive, concrete pylons and cuttings belonging to the original PE line can still be seen, and the PE Bridge over the LA River is now a pedestrian and bike bridge using the original concrete pilings next to Glendale Blvd. In some places of Glendale and Burbank, especially across Glenoaks Ave, you can see the streets are still wide to accommodate two trolley tracks. At Vineyard junction, the Ivy Park Substation is also still standing as a community theater. Finally, the two remaining pieces of the Western Division's original stations are two station houses, the Palms Depot (which is now in Highland Park's Heritage Park) and the Southern Pacific/Pacific Electric North Hollywood/Lankershim Depot, which LA Metro restored following revitalization of its North Hollywood Station in 2014.

As for the remaining rail services, the Western Division is still healthily represented by three different lines of the Los Angeles Metro Rail and Bus system. The first of these pieces was the Red (B) Line, following most of the original route of the Hollywood/San Fernando Valley Line from Hollywood to North Hollywood via Cahuenga Pass. It also serves the original Subway Terminal Building at Pershing Square Station, with its northern exit across the street. The second original piece is the Orange (G) Line Busway, a (rather inefficient) suburban limited-stop service that runs the original PE and SP line from North Hollywood to Canoga Park. Finally, the Santa Monica via Sawtelle Line rose again from the ashes when the Expo (E) Line opened to much fanfare on May 20, 2016, serving most of the original Line from Palms to Downtown Santa Monica. The "Palms" station was of much contention when being developed, as locals wanted it named after the original depot to commemorate its heritage, while Metro wanted to name it "National/Palms". The original name stuck, and so LA Metro now has its own rapid transit to the beach once more.

The Metro Expo Line opening the Palms Station in 2015.
(Santa Monica Next)

Thank you for reading today's Trolley post, and watch your step as you alight on the platform. My resources today included the Southern California Electric Railway Historical Society, "Lines of the Pacific Electric - Southern and Western Districts" by Ira L. Swett, a Metro Primary Resources article on the 1913 Vineyard Junction Collision, another Atlas Obscura article on the same event, and photos from the Water & Power Associates Archives and the Pacific Electric Railway Historical Society. The trolley gifs in our posts are made by Brian Clough and can be found on his site, Banks of the Susquehanna. On Thursday, we complete our round-trip of the Pacific Electric system as we look at the last, and the first, piece of the Pacific Electric System, the Southern Division! For now, you can follow myself or my editor on Twitter, buy a shirt or sticker from our Redbubble stand, or purchase my editor's self-developed board game! It's like Ticket to Ride, but cooler! (and you get to support him through it!) Until next time, ride safe!