1895: The Los Angeles Railway is created.
Los Angeles Railway streetcar at Agricultural Park (now Exposition Park), 1895. Click for more information
More information can be found in the May, 1942 issue of Two Bells, the Los Angeles Railway employee news magazine.
1912: The Los Angeles & San Fernando Valley Electric Railway Company is sold to Pacific Electric Railway.
Pacific Electric bus caravan over Cahuenga Pass, May 29, 1953. Note abandoned San Fernando Valley rail line in median (Click for more information)
The railway had been incorporated on May 15, 1911 with some of Los Angeles’ outstanding business leaders serving as the incorporators: L.C. Bran, E.T. Earl, W.G. Kerchoff, J.F. Sartori, and Harry Chandler.
It was the announced intention of the company “to build an electric railway from Los Angeles via a northerly direction to and through Griffith Park and into the city of San Fernando, a distance of 25 miles.”
The company acquired rights of way for an electric railway extending from Van Nuys to San Fernando, and purchased a considerable quantity of construction materials, but never constructed the line.
Pacific Electric agreed to complete the construction of the line as planned by this company within 90 days and thereafter to maintain and operate this line between Van Nuys and San Fernando and to render adequate passenger service to Los Angeles.
Passenger rail ran from Los Angeles to the San Fernando Valley until December 28, 1952 when streetcar service was completely replaced by buses running over the Cahuenga Pass.
More information can be found in the Electric Railway Historical Association of Southern California’s San Fernando Valley Line documentation.
1921: Santa Monica holds its first Exposition and Carnival, through April 3. The Pacific Electric Venice Short Line or Pacific Electric Venice via Hollywood Line will pass through the fairgrounds.
More information can be found in the March, 1921 issue of Pacific Electric Magazine.
