San Fernando Line

The San Fernando Line was a part of the Pacific Electric Railway system in Los Angeles County, California. It was designed to increase the reach of public transportation from the Downtown Los Angeles and Hollywood into the San Fernando Valley, to support land speculation and development expanding Los Angeles.

San Fernando
First car over Cahuenga Pass, December 16, 1911
Overview
Owner	Southern Pacific Railroad
Locale	Southern California
Termini	Downtown Los Angeles San Fernando, California
Stations	36
Service
Type	Interurban
System	Pacific Electric
Operator(s)	Pacific Electric
Rolling stock	PE 5050 Class PCC Cars (last used)
History
Opened	1911
Closed	1952
Technical
Line length	27.5 mi (44.3 km)
Number of tracks	1-2
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 ^1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Electrification	600 V DC Overhead lines
Route map San Fernando Southern Pacific RR San Fernando Mission Wheeler Hickson Plummer Misslanco Mission Acres Pacoima Wash Midway Park Wyondotte Whitsert Southern Pacific RR Rosita Amherst Owensmouth North Sherman Way terminus after 1938 Southern Pacific RR Van Nuys Whitley Castro Cortez Kester Junction Tujunga Wash Garnsey Sadler Eucalyptus North Hollywood Hoffman Los Nogales Los Angeles River Universal City Oak Crest Barham Boulevard Hollywood Park Dusky Glen Cahuenga Pass US 101 Beverly Hills Sherman Highland Avenue Colegrove Virgil Avenue Beverly Hills Sunset Junction US 101 1st Street Toluca Substation and Yard Hollywood Subway US 101 (Harbor Freeway) Subway Terminal

History

Southern San Fernando Valley line

In 1911–1912, a 20-mile (32 km) interurban electric railway was built from Lankershim (present day North Hollywood), the terminus of an existing line from over the Cahuenga Pass from Hollywood, westward through the entire southern San Fernando Valley property of the Los Angeles Suburban Homes Company syndicate, to promote and support small farm and residential property sales. The syndicate was led by Harry Chandler, with partners General Moses Sherman, Isaac Van Nuys, Hobart Johnstone Whitley, and James Boon Lankershim. The project was initiated in anticipation of the Los Angeles aqueduct opening in 1913, which would bring water for residential and irrigated agricultural development in the syndicate's San Fernando Valley holdings (and citywide). The syndicate is the Los Angeles land speculation group dramatized in the movie Chinatown.

The partner General Moses Sherman directed the Los Angeles Pacific Railroad electric railway line's construction. It ran from Lankershim to the three new towns the syndicate's partner Hobart Johnstone Whitley had planned for the valley, Van Nuys, Marion (present day Reseda), and Owensmouth (present day Canoga Park and West Hills). Tracks ran in the middle of Sherman Way, a broad, landscaped, and paved avenue to the Owensmouth terminus.

Northern San Fernando Valley spur

In addition, the San Fernando Mission Land Company of Charles Maclay and George K. Porter, which owned much of the northern San Fernando Valley (north of Roscoe Boulevard), built an electric railway spur line north from Van Nuys, to connect their undeveloped land and the City of San Fernando with the Pacific Electric system. From San Fernando, the southbound route followed Brand Boulevard, Sepulveda Boulevard, Parthenia Place, and then Van Nuys Boulevard from present day Panorama City to Van Nuys. Remnants of the right of way include center medians on Brand Boulevard, and roundabouts at the Parthenia Place and Sherman Circle/Van Nuys Boulevard turns.

Later development

Postcard depicting the private right of way in the Hollywood Freeway median strip (right of center frame), c. 1940

The route originally navigated the Cahuenga Pass in its own right of way on the west side of the state highway. When the Hollywood Freeway was built, the line was relocated to the freeway's median strip.[1] Services were truncated to North Sherman Way on June 1, 1938, and finally replaced by buses on December 28, 1952.[2]

A survey conducted by Caltrans in 1981 reported that almost all of the line had either been removed or paved over for street use.[1]

Redevelopment

Part of the planned East San Fernando Valley Transit Corridor is expected to reactivate much of the Van Nuys Boulevard corridor for use as a light rail line. Trains will run between the Van Nuys G Line station at the former Southern Pacific right of way and continue north on Van Nuys past the curve where the San Fernando continued operation on Parthenia Street.

Stations

Station	Major Connections	Date Opened	Date Closed	City
San Fernando
San Fernando		1902	1938	San Fernando
North Sherman Way	Owensmouth		1952	Van Nuys
Van Nuys	Owensmouth	1902	1952
Lankershim (later North Hollywood)	Owensmouth	1902	1952	North Hollywood
Highland Avenue	San Fernando, Sherman, Venice via Hollywood	1902	1955	Los Angeles
Colegrove	San Fernando, Sherman, Venice via Hollywood	1902	1955
Virgil Avenue	San Fernando, Sherman, Venice via Hollywood, Western and Franklin Avenue	1902	1955
Sunset Junction	Beverly Hills, San Fernando, Sherman, Venice via Hollywood, Western and Franklin Avenue	1902	1955
Subway Terminal Building	Beverly Hills, Echo Park Avenue, Glendale–Burbank, Owensmouth, Redondo Beach via Playa del Rey, Sawtelle, Sherman, Venice Short Line, Venice via Hollywood, Western and Franklin Avenue, Westgate	1925	1961

See also

• Owensmouth (Pacific Electric)
• History of the San Fernando Valley to 1915
• Streetcar suburb
• Streetcars in North America
• List of California railroads
• History of rail transportation in California

References

1. "1981 Inventory of Pacific Electric Routes" (PDF). Caltrans. February 1982. Retrieved 3 June 2020.
2. "San Fernando Valley Line". Electric Railway Historical Association of Southern California. Retrieved 8 September 2020.