Los Angeles Pacific Railroad


The Los Angeles Pacific Railroad was an electric public transit and freight railway system in Los Angeles County, California. At its peak it had of track extending from Downtown Los Angeles to the Westside, Santa Monica, and the South Bay towns along Santa Monica Bay.

History

Sherman and Clark

Originally a teacher from Vermont, Moses Sherman had engaged in a variety of activities in the Arizona Territory, one of which was creating a street railway in Phoenix, Arizona. He was interested in the possibilities such a system offered in Los Angeles. After his arrival in Los Angeles in 1890 Sherman and his brother-in-law, Eli P. Clark, consolidated old lines and created new lines for a narrow-gauge street railway called the Los Angeles Consolidated Electric Railway Company. In addition, they acquired and electrified existing horsecar lines in Pasadena.
On April 11, 1894, Sherman and Clark incorporated the Pasadena & Los Angeles Electric Railway Company, southern California’s first interurban line. This line connected the Pasadena lines with the LACE Railway system at Sycamore Grove.

The Pasadena and Pacific Electric Railroad Company

In November, 1894, they incorporated the Pasadena & Pacific Electric Railroad Company of Arizona, to build a second interurban line from Los Angeles to Santa Monica.
But all the construction on the LACE, P&LA and P&P properties stretched Sherman and Clark’s financial situation, and LACE defaulted on a bond payment. In March, 1895, the LACE Railway bondholder group acquired the LACE lines and organized a new company, the Los Angeles Railway Company. Sherman and Clark negotiated with the group and managed to keep the P&LA and P&P lines.
The Pasadena and Los Angeles line opened on May 4, 1895.
Construction to Santa Monica via Colegrove of the narrow-gauge electric line began shortly thereafter, on June 11, 1895, with Clark serving as contractor, using the roadbed of the old Elysian Park Street Railway and the Los Angeles and Pacific Railway. They negotiated an agreement with LARy to use that company’s track to enter the downtown area. Car shops and a rail yard were built midway between Los Angeles and Santa Monica, in an area they named Sherman. Santa Monica promoters Robert S. Baker and Senator John P. Jones provided 225 acres near the Soldier’s Home, and Sherman and Clark sold it to raise funds for construction. The property became part of Sawtelle.
On April 1, 1896, after passing through fields of wildflowers and freshly plowed farms, the first car entered into Santa Monica, where its arrival was celebrated.
On November 9, 1896, Sherman and Clark incorporated the Pasadena and Pacific Railway Company of California, and built a line from Los Angeles, then known as the Sixteenth Street Division, via West 16th Street, to Beverly. Shorter by two miles and faster to the beach than the line through Colegrove, it was called the “Santa Monica Short Line”, and opened July 1, 1897.
Again, financial difficulties arose. The P&LA defaulted on its bond payments in 1897 and the bondholders forced the company into receivership in January, 1898. The P&LA was sold by the court on April 27, 1898 and then reorganized as the Los Angeles-Pacific Electric Railway Company. Henry E. Huntington bought the LA&P and the local Pasadena lines in late 1898, leaving Sherman and Clark with their western lines and, as Henry Huntington noted, a nice profit.

The Los Angeles-Pacific Railroad Company

They then created another corporation on June 4, 1898, the Los Angeles-Pacific, and folded the existing lines into this corporation. They followed this practice of creating new corporations for new lines, and then combining the new line and old lines into another new corporation for years.
On December 15, 1899, Sherman and Clark started a line on Prospect Avenue in Hollywood, just north of the Colegrove line. Prospect Avenue, opened in 1887, would be renamed Hollywood Boulevard in 1910. Though much construction was financed though bonds, various people paid a bonus to the LAP to help with construction of various Colegrove and Hollywood lines, a common practice for Sherman and Clark.
1902 was a very active year. A section of private right of way, the first section of what would be called the Trolleyway, was built between Santa Monica and Venice.
The Palms Division was built, encompassing a line from Vineyard through Ivy Station to Ocean Park. Called the Venice Short Line, this would become LAP’s most popular line. A new powerhouse in Ocean Park was built to handle the increased power requirements. The company purchased new cars to carry the additional traffic.
The Santa Monica Short Line and the Venice Short Line took away much of the Southern Pacific and Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway's passenger business. After the Santa Fe received permission to abandon their line from Santa Monica to Inglewood, LAP acquired it. At the time, it was the only standard-gauged line that LAP owned.
By June, 1902, the company had 102.635 miles of equivalent single track.
In September, 1902, the Los Angeles, Hermosa Beach and Redondo Railway Company was formed to create a line down the coast. The Del Rey Division was built from Ivy to a new resort development named Playa Del Rey, whose many investors included Sherman and Clark. Opened on December 7, 1903, it was followed by a line from Playa Del Rey to Redondo Beach, which was inaugurated in late summer, 1904. The Redondo line passed by Hermosa Beach, where Sherman and Clark also had major investments.
With the Redondo and Del Rey Divisions well underway, the Los Angeles, Hermosa Beach and Redondo Railway Company was merged into a new company, the Los Angeles Pacific Railroad Company of California on June 16, 1903, along with another line, the Los Angeles-Santa Monica Railroad Company, and the original LA-P.
During 1902 and 1903 there was a competitive threat to Sherman and Clark's plans. William Hook, principal behind the Los Angeles Traction Company, and developer Abbot Kinney were building a line to Venice as well. After much wrangling between the two groups, the Southern Pacific purchased the stock of LAT, who then abandoned the proposed line, freeing Sherman and Clark to proceed with their plans.
In 1903, a new, larger power house was built at Vineyard which replaced both the damaged Sherman power equipment and the Ocean Park power house.
In 1905, the Lagoon line, the line from Santa Monica to Venice, was extended from Venice to Playa Del Rey. When Robert C. Gillis' new Brentwood Park subdivision was being built in 1906, LAP built tracks for the Westgate Line, which ran on San Vicente Boulevard to Ocean Avenue and then turned south to the Santa Monica Main Line.
In February, 1906, there were persistent rumors that E. H. Harriman, of the Southern Pacific Railroad, had purchased the Los Angeles Pacific, but Clark denied them. Finally, in March, 1906 it was revealed that Harriman had purchased control of the Los Angeles Pacific. Sherman had asked Harriman to guarantee LAP bonds, and Harriman agreed, on condition that he receive a controlling interest. Sherman and Clark continued to manage the company.

The Los Angeles Pacific Company

The Southern Pacific incorporated a new company on April 4, 1907, the Los Angeles Pacific Company, capitalized at $20,000,000. 107,100 shares were held by Epes Randolph on behalf of Harriman.
From 1907 through 1909, all the company’s lines, which had almost all been narrow-gauge, were rebuilt to standard-gauge.
Plans for a subway from Fourth Street to Vineyard, along with a large terminal building were announced, along with addition a third and fourth track to the Venice Short Line, and tunnels north of the Hill Street station that would benefit the Hollywood line, but a business panic in 1907 and other projects interfered with these plans. The Pacific Electric Railway would later build a different version of the subway and the Subway Terminal Building in the mid-twenties.
In 1908 LAP leased the Southern Pacific Santa Monica Line and the Long Wharf, and electrified it from Santa Monica to Sentous, which would become the interchange point with the SP for freight.
In 1909, the company did build two tunnels north of the Hill Street Station, designed to make entry to Los Angeles easier for the Hollywood and Colegrove cars. These opened on Tunnel Day, September 9, 1909, and cut 10 minutes off the time to Hollywood and Colegrove. In addition, they started preliminary engineering work on a line to the San Fernando Valley via Cahuenga Pass, a project that would ultimately be completed by the Pacific Electric Railway, which opened the line in 1912.
By October, 1909, the Los Angeles Pacific had grown to 213.5 miles of track, all standard gauged.

1911: LAP becomes part of the new Pacific Electric

Sherman and Clark remained minority stockholders, executive officers and directors of the company until May 28, 1910 when they sold their shares to the Southern Pacific and retired from active participation in the company. SP then pressured Huntington to sell his shares in the Pacific Electric Railway.
On September 1, 1911, in what is called “The Great Merger”, the Southern Pacific consolidated seven electric railways into the new “Pacific Electric Railway Company”. The Los Angeles Pacific lines, along with the Glendale–Burbank Line and the soon-to-be-completed San Fernando Valley Line, would become the Pacific Electric’s Western Division.
In September, 1911, the Los Angeles Pacific brought to the new Pacific Electric Railway the following:
  • of owned track
  • of leased track
  • 172 passenger cars
  • 194 freight cars
  • 25 line and other service cars
  • $21 million in outstanding stock and $14,201,000 in bonds.

    Lines

LAP passenger cars operated local service in the cities of Los Angeles, Pasadena, Hollywood, Sawtelle, Santa Monica, and Ocean Park.
LAP’s best performing interurban lines included these four:
  • Santa Monica Short Line – Hill Street to Santa Monica, Ocean Park and Venice by way of Vineyard and Beverly
  • Venice Short Line – Hill Street to Venice, Ocean Park and Venice by way of Vineyard and Ivy
  • Hollywood Line – Hill Street to Gardner Junction in Hollywood by way of Sunset, Prospect Ave and private right of way.
  • Redondo Beach via Playa del Rey Line – Hill Street to Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach and Redondo Beach by way of Vineyard and Del Rey.
Other important interurban lines included these:
  • Colegrove Line – Hill Street to Santa Monica, Ocean Park and Venice by way of Colegrove and Sherman.
  • Western and Franklin Avenue Line – From Hill Street to Hollywood and Vine by way of Sunset, Santa Monica Boulevard, Western Ave, Franklin Ave, Argyle Ave, Yucca St, and Vine Street.
  • Westgate Line – Hill Street to Santa Monica by way of Vineyard, Sherman, Beverly, Sawtelle, Soldier’s Home and 26th Street.
Local service was primarily provided on these lines:
  • Lagoon Line – Seventh and Montana in Santa Monica to Playa Del Rey. Was exceptionally popular on beach days. Part of the route used private right of way called the Trolleyway.
  • Brush Canyon Line – From Franklin Avenue north on Brush Canyon to a quarry.
  • Highland Line – From Santa Monica Boulevard north on Highland to Cahuenga Pass. Was in the process of being extended to San Fernando Valley when LAP was consolidated with other railways to form the Pacific Electric.
  • Elysian Park Line – From Sunset north on Echo Park Avenue to Cerro Gordo.
  • Rodeo Line – From Santa Monica Boulevard north on Rodeo Drive to the future Beverly Hills Hotel on Sunset Boulevard.
  • South Loop, North Loop – local lines in Santa Monica.
  • Santa Monica Air Line –From Fourth Street station to Vineyard and Ivy to Santa Monica. Only one car daily but regular service was offered between Ivy, Santa Monica and Port Los Angeles.
  • Inglewood Line – From Fifth and Santa Monica to Santa Monica Depot in Inglewood. Used mostly for freight but a single, daily passenger car was used to preserve the franchise.
  • Santa Monica Canyon Line – From Colorado in Santa Monica to Port Los Angeles.
  • Laurel Canyon Line – From Hill Street via the Hollywood Line to Laurel Canyon Boulevard. In 1910, an interesting feature was an electric “Trackless Trolley” at its terminus which served “Bungalowtown” at the head of the canyon.
  • Soldier’s Home – From Sawtelle Station on Santa Monica Boulevard, north on Sepulveda Boulevard to the Soldier’s Home, where it made a loop,
  • Motordrome Spur – a spur off the Redondo Line, near Playa Del Rey, that served an auto Motordrome from 1910 to 1913. The racetrack featured drives such as Barney Oldfield.