Pasadena Short Line

File:Fair Oaks Avenue ca1890.jpg approaching at center frame, {{circa|1889}}.]]

The route began as a horsecar line. In 1894, the Pasadena & Los Angeles Electric Railway purchased, re-gauged, electrified, and double-tracked a section of the line for streetcar use. Service began on May 6, 1895.{{cite news |title=The New Line. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times/114437604/ |access-date=7 July 2023 |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |via=Newspapers.com |date=May 7, 1895 |page=10}} {{free access}} Pacific Electric acquired the route in 1898. The line was again rebuilt to standard gauge with service between Pasadena and Los Angeles beginning in December 1902.{{harvnb|Hilton|Due|2000|p=409}}{{cite news |title=Broad-gauge cars to traverse city |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/114541931/ |access-date=13 December 2022 |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |via=Newspapers.com |date=December 4, 1902 |page=7}} {{free access}} Negotiations to cross the existing roads — the Santa Fe Railway, Terminal Railway, and California Cycleway — led Pacific Electric to build a bridge over the right of ways shortly after their service commenced. In 1908, double tracking was completed throughout.

Peak service frequency was likely reached around 1917 or 1918, with 90 trains operating daily in each direction.{{Harvnb|Veysey|1958|p=48}} Two years later, Pacific Electric had cut that number to 59. Starting November 1926, some morning rush hour trains originated at Mariposa and Lake in Altadena. Service reductions continued throughout the late 1920s and 1930s. A complimenting outbound trip to Altadena began in 1938. Minor reroutes near the line's terminals occurred in 1940 and a reroute to accommodate the rebuild of the Aliso Street bridge also began that year, lasting until 1943.

The Altadena runs ended in January 1941. The line was rerouted to no longer serve the Pacific Electric Building in 1942 as buses had begun operating from the street-level concourse there. Cars thereafter loop around via San Pedro, Sixth, Main, First, and Los Angeles except on New Years Day to serve the Tournament of Roses until 1947 when they began serving the elevated concourse. One-man operation of cars began on October 22, 1950. The last trains ran over the line in the early morning of September 30, 1951, at the end of service from the previous day.{{cite web |title=Pasadena Short Line |url=http://www.erha.org/pensl.htm |publisher=Electric Railway Historical Association of Southern California |accessdate=20 September 2020}} A railfan excursion run after normal service that day became the last trip via electric railway between Los Angeles and Pasadena until the construction of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority Gold Line in the early 2000s.{{Harvnb|Veysey|1958|p=49}} Service was promptly replaced by buses.{{cite news |title=PE Trolley Lines Yielded to Buses |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/96222316/ |access-date=23 February 2022 |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |via=Newspapers.com |date=September 30, 1951 |page=26}} {{free access}}

Caltrans noted that all tracks had been removed along the route by 1981.

The Pasadena Short Line followed the Monrovia–Glendora Line (Huntington Drive) to Fair Oaks Avenue in South Pasadena (Oneonta Junction). Here, the line branched north along double tracks in the pavement of Fair Oaks Avenue to California Boulevard. It then ran east one block on California Boulevard to Raymond Avenue and then north in the pavement of Raymond Avenue, past Colorado Street several blocks to the North Fair Oaks Carhouse (Located between Raymond and Fair Oaks Avenues). It then exited out the west side of the Carhouse on to Fair Oaks Avenue for its return trip. The Raymond Avenue track was abandoned in 1940 and Fair Oaks Avenue was used in both directions thereafter.

{{PE N LASP to PasadenaSP|collapse=y}}

Starting on May 1, 1912, some trips along the line began originating at the Los Angeles Southern Pacific station or the Pasadena Southern Pacific station. This allowed Southern Pacific to discontinue passenger service along their Pasadena Branch.{{cite news |title=S.P. Pasadena Trains Give Way to Trolley |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/los-angeles-evening-express-sp-pasaden/151261352/ |access-date=13 July 2024 |newspaper=Los Angeles Express |via=Newspapers.com |date=May 1, 1912 |location=Los Angeles, California |page=23}} {{free access}} The Pasadena SP station was closed in 1927, thus the terminus was moved to the Pacific Electric Depot on Raymond Avenue. By August 11, 1932, frequency had been reduced to a single daily franchise car and the service was entirely eliminated on July 30 the following year.{{Harvnb|Veysey|1958|pp=85–86}}

{{Free-content attribution|

| title = 1981 Inventory of Pacific Electric Routes

| author = California Department of Transportation

| publisher =

| source= Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority

| documentURL = http://libraryarchives.metro.net/DPGTL/pacificelectric/1981-caltrans-inventory-of-routes.pdf

| License statement URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:PD-CAGov

| license = the public domain as a work of the State of California.

}}

{{Reflist}}

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• {{Cite book |last1=Hilton |first1=George W. |title=The Electric Interurban Railways in America |last2=Due |first2=John F. |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=2000 |isbn=0-8047-4014-3 |location=Stanford, California |orig-year=1960 }}
• {{Veysey-PE-1958}}

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{{Attached KML |display=title,inline}}

{{Pacific Electric Railway|state=collapsed}}

{{Los Angeles County, California}}

Category:Pacific Electric routes

Category:History of Pasadena, California

Category:History of Los Angeles County, California

Category:Light rail in California

Category:Alhambra, California

Category:Eastside Los Angeles

Category:El Sereno, Los Angeles

Category:Lincoln Heights, Los Angeles

Category:South Pasadena, California

Category:Transportation in Pasadena, California

Category:Railway services introduced in 1902

Category:Railway services discontinued in 1951

Category:1902 establishments in California

Category:1951 disestablishments in California

Category:20th century in Los Angeles

Category:Closed railway lines in the United States