Much of Henry Huntington's real estate development activity in the first decade of the 20th century was concentrated in the western San Gabriel Valley. An extensive network of electric railway lines was constructed by Huntington's Pacific Electric to serve these areas. Another major investor in the PE was John Slauson, whose Asuza ranch was also slated to become another major site of subdivisions along the Pacific Electric line to Monrovia and Glendora.
The Pacific Electric lines serving the San Gabriel Valley were called the "Northern District." Most of the lines of the Northern District funneled into a four-track trunk line which ran in the median of Huntington Drive from Oak Knoll Avenue (El Molino) to a location called "Indian Village" (Multnomah and Soto Streets). Construction of this mainline had begun in 1902 and four-tracking was in place by 1910. Four-tracking was important because it allowed commuter trains to operate nonstop for long distances on the center tracks, passing freight trains or local trains on the outer tracks.
In this tour we will look at the two most important passenger lines operating on this mainline in the late '40s -- the Sierra Vista Local line and the Pasadena Short Line.
The Sierra Vista local line operated on the outer tracks of the four-track trunk line, making stops at half mile to quarter mile intervals. Until 1950 the route was inter-lined with the Watts local line, and the two halves were connected by the street trackage along Main Street in downtown Los Angeles. The outer terminal of the line was at "Sierra Vista" -- a junction near the Los Angeles city limits (North Main and Huntington Dr.).Sierra Vista was 7.45 miles from the PE station at 6th and Main in downtown Los Angeles. More than three-fourths of the route was on private right of way.
The main area served by the Sierra Vista line was El Sereno. El Sereno is a low density blue-collar suburb that consists mostly of single-family detached houses. In the late '40s the Sierra Vista line was providing about 11,000 rides daily.
We begin our tour at the PE's Main Street station, located on the groundfloor of the 9-story PE headquarters building at 6th Street. In the image below (from the 1944 edition of the PE booklet "This is Pacific Electric") we see two Watts-Sierra Vista local cars passing in front of the PE station at 6th.
At the corner, in the image above, a Pasadena-bound express is turning onto Main Street from 6th. During World War II, because of the huge volume of traffic, Pasadena trains did not use the PE elevated terminal in back of the PE headquarters building, but looped via San Pedro, 6th and Main Streets. Inadequate terminal capacity on the elevated structure was the problem. In 1946 the California Railroad Commission recommended that PE build two extra tracks on the elevated structure to accommodate Pasadena trains, but this was never done. Eventually declining traffic enabled the Pasadena trains to use the elevated terminal by 1950.
Sierra Vista and Pasadena trains ran north on Main Street to First Street, where they turned right for one block to Los Angeles Street, and then north again. The trains turned east again at Aliso Street, passing the Union Station. Aliso street was slated by the '40s to become the Santa Ana Freeway soon. Between 1939 and 1943 the state constructed a new bridge for Aliso Street over the Los Angeles River, eliminating dangerous grade crossings with the Union Pacific and Santa Fe tracks on the banks of the river. This bridge was designed to freeway standards as it was intended to be incorporated into the freeway system. Of course it was realized that the PE track in Aliso Street would have to be relocated from the pavement. The state highway department determined that it would require payment of $125,000 for PE's share of the costs of relocation to a parallel right of way (such as the right of way now used by the El Monte Busway). PE used this as part of its rationale in its 1949 petition for abandonment of all Northern District rail passenger service. However, the main rationale was the heavy operating losses on Northern District rail operations.
After crossing over the Los Angeles River on the new Aliso Street bridge, PE trains reached private right of way on the east bank of the river and ran through the new San Bernardino-Santa Ana Freeway interchange (completed in 1943). In the photo below (circa 1950) an inbound train has just crossed under Macy Street and is about to cross over the inbound lanes of the San Bernardino Freeway.
Just east of the Macy Street bridge was the sprawling yards and shops where Pacific Electric cars were stored and maintained, as shown below. Much of this property is now owned by the MTA and used as a bus maintenance facility.
Note the four-track mainline here. This was a short half-mile long set of passing tracks. It was generally not very useful for express commuter trains to pass local streetcars because the local tracks (on the left in the photo) were usually blocked by standing freights. The four-track segment ended at Echandia Junction, shown below. The Echandia Junction local stop was accessible from Echandia Avenue in Boyle Heights by a pedestrian bridge (just visible on the left) over the freeway. (The pedestrian bridge no longer exists).
Around the curve in the photo above is the Charlotte Street stop, shown below. After crossing under the Charlotte Street bridge, the line passes through a shallow cut next to Lincoln Park, and then turns northward at Alcazar Street, running along the west side of Soto Street.
After crossing over Mission Road, the line turned northeast-ward, paralleling the north roadway of Hungtinton Dr. to Topaz Ave. After crossing Topaz Ave., the line curved eastward. The main local stop for Rose Hill was at the Monterey Rd. grade crossing. In the photo below (from the MTA Archives) the PE Monterey Rd. shuttle bus and the connecting inbound Sierra Vista local are shown at this stop.
After climbing over the saddle in the hills at Minto Court, the line descends to the main El Sereno local stop at Eastern Avenue. The next photo shows a Sierra Vista train approaching Eastern Avenue.
A quarter mile east the next local stop is at Pueblo Avenue. In the photo below (by Raphael Long), looking west, an inbound local stops at Pueblo Avenue.
A quarter mile further east is Van Horne Avenue. In the following photo an inbound express from Pasadena slips through the grade crossing. Pasadena trains ran nonstop from Charlotte Street to Sierra Vista -- a distance of about four and a quarter miles.
In the rush hour scene below an outbound Pasadena express is approaching the Sierra Vista station just behind an outbound Sierra Vista local.
The following photo shows the Swiss chalet-style station at Sierra Vista as it looked in the 1930s.
The station building contained a coffee shop. This was the terminal of the Sierra Vista local line. Pasadena Short Line trains continue on the center tracks of the four-track mainline from Sierra Vista to Oneonta Park Junction station -- a distance of 0.8 miles. In the photo below an inbound Pasadena Short Line train is about to turn onto the four-track mainline at Oneonta Park Junction station. The cupola on the station roof contained a switching tower. From this point to Colorado Boulevard the Pasadena Short Line follows Fairoaks Avenue.
From Huntington Drive to Monterey Road the Pasadena line was in the median of Fairoaks Avenue. From Monterey Road north the line ran on street trackage. In the following view, we see the main business district of South Pasadena near Mission St. in the 1920s.
Shortly after crossing the city limits the line passes the PE Pasadena electrical substation. Below we see a recent photo of this structure.
About a block further north, at Glenarm Street, we see an inbound Rose Parade train passing the pseudo-Spanish style mini-mall at Glenarm Street in the '40s.
The Pasadena Short Line reaches the end of its run at Colorado and Fairoaks. The following postcard, from the 1920s, looks east down Colorado Boulevard at Fairoaks. PE operated an extensive local streetcar network in Pasadena. We see a local streetcar approaching Fairoaks on Colorado in this image.
