Pacific Electric Southern District Lines

Pacific Electric Lines Of The Southern District

Summary:
The Pacific Electric Southern District was the last of the three major districts to open and it outlasted the others; which perhaps is a tribute to its builders. For the Southern District was the one part of Pacific Electric which was entirely the work of Henry E. Huntington and Epes Randolph. There is in existence Randolph's own map whereon he sketched (back in 1901) his ideas of where Southern District lines should go. So well did Randolph understand the topography and growth factors of the countryside between Los Angeles and its southern beaches that the Pacific Electric's lines followed his sketch exactly—and none can argue that Randolph erred in a single instance on any of the lines he laid out.
The Southern District was not the biggest district, nor did it tap glamourous cities known the world over. The South perhaps can be likened to a laborer if the North is an office worker or citrus grower and the West a motion picture extra or small business man. In freight, the South was head-and-shoulders above the others; its tonnage trains to and from the harbor were in a class by themselves. In passengers, the South was not nearly as impressive; it had the Watts Local (high in numbers carried, low in revenue) and the Long Beach Line (on good beach days, spectacular).
The South was the only district of the Big Three to have been a standard-gauge operation from the beginning. It was the Long Beach Line which was the guinea pig, and its success with high speed interurban cars made the change over of previously constructed 3'-6" gauge lines to 4'-8½" inevitable.
In this work we have taken these lines geograpically from 6^th & Main Station. The Long Beach Line, the backbone of the South, is divided into three parts: Los Angeles Terminal District, Four Tracks, and the remainder. The coastal lines are handled next, then the interior lines south of the Four Tracks and finally those west of the Four Tracks. General services are considered incompatible groupings and the reader is not commanded to jump his attention from one area to another some distance removed.
Lines of the Southern District ranged from the spectacular Four Tracks to the remote and lonesome Santa Ana-Huntington Beach streak of rust—from the humming San Pedro via Dominguez major artery to the wandering La Habra-Fullerton capillary. On the South there was variety galore: heavy thundering six-car Catalina Specials, and the peripathetic "jugger" that ran when it pleased between Torrance Shops and downtown Torrance. There was the Watts Local—on a par with the glittering Hollywood Boulevard Line of the Western District insofar as equipment was concerned, but quite a contrast otherwise. There was the busy Long Beach-San Pedro Line, industriously playing out its skein of days far removed from 6^th & Main. The South had the seaside Newport-Balboa Line whose average speed of 30.1 miles per hour was second on the entire system to the San Bernardino Line's 30.6; the South also had the Santa Ana-Orange Line with speeds considerably less.
All lines had certain common historical developments: In 1953, PE sold its passenger business to Metropolitan Coach Lines, and in 1958 MCL sold out to the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority. LAMTA was chartered to create a rapid transit network based upon bus routes.
It is an historical fact that the Pacific Electric Long Beach Line (now largely in service again as the MTA's Blue Line) outlived every other interurban west of Chicago. The line, along with its companion Watts Local Line, was the the only oasis in the rubber tire-asphalt desert through 1961 when so-called progress consigned the once great Pacific Electric system into oblivion.

OFFICAL P.E. SOUTHERN DIVISION MILEAGE FIGURES (as of June 30, 1914)
Line	From	To	Miles	(2-track)
E. 9^th Street, LA	7^th & Main	9^th & Sante Fe	2.128	1.762
Gardena-San Pedro	Hermosillo	San Pedro	7.736	—
Gardena-San Pedro	City Limits	City Limits	2.733	—
Hawthorne Branch	Belvidere	Hawthorne	3.862	—
Hunt. Bch-Santa Ana	Huntington Beach	Santa Ana	13.143	.093
La Habra	Los Nietos	County Line	5.892	.262
La Habra	County Line	Stern	11.652	—
Long Beach Line	7^th & Main, LA	City Limits	4.215	4.215
Long Beach Line	City Limits	LB City Limits	13.815	13.815
Long Beach Line	LB City Limits	Seaside Park	2.679	2.679
Newport Line	LB Line	County Line	3.723	3.723
Newport Line	County Line	Newport	16.246	9.228
Newport Line	LB City Limits	LB City Limits	2.351	2.351
San Pedro Line	Dominquez Jct.	City Limits	4.487	4.487
San Pedro Line	City Limits	San Pedro	5.632	5.227
Santa Ana Line	Watts	County Line	12.519	12.519
Santa Ana Line	County Line	Santa Ana	13.890	9.275
Santa Ana-Orange	4^th & Main St, Santa Ana	Orange	3.382	1.300
Torrance	Dolanco	City Limits	1.486	—
Torrance	City Limits	Ocean Ave.	1.456	—
Vermont Hts. Branch			2.085	—
Watts-Redondo	City Limits	City Limits	.596	.596
Watts-Redondo	Watts	Clifton	14.708	13.907
Whittier	Slauson Jct.	Whittier	13.343	12.406
West Basin	San Pedro Line	Torrance Line	2.450	2.450
7^th & Central Yards	Central Ave.	14^th St.	10.179	—
6^th & Main Terminal	Main St.	7^th St.	0.862	0.862
Latin Yards—Long Beach at Graham: 1.565 miles yards & sidings

Car Assignments, system wide, 1921
	020	450	500	700	800	1000	1200	Total
Southern	1		12		62	38		113
Northern	3	19	8	44	10	9	22	115
Western	2		3		57			62
Los Angeles City		2	20					22
Southern District assignments: an 020 on Triangle Trolley Trip; 500s: Watts, Long Beach-San Pedro and as extras; 800s on San Pedro via Dominguez, Newport-Balboa, Santa Ana, Whittier, Redondo-Gardena, Torrance; 1000s on Long Beach and Santa Ana.

The following is a listing of multiple-unit passenger equipment available for service on the Southern District on July 21, 1921:
	020	450	500	700	800	1000	1200	Total	Service
Catalina	5		12					17	As needed
San Pedro				15				15	3-car trains
Long Beach			7		6	32		45	4-car trains, 10"
Newport		19			24			43	3 & 4 car trains, 20"
Redondo			21					21	3-car trains, 20"
Santa Ana						8		8	2 car-trains
LB-SP		6						6	2 car-trains
Note the strange things that were happening that day: 450s to Newport, 020s (950s) to San Pedro, no 1200s at all, 500s to Catalina, Long Beach and Redondo (of all places) and 450s betwewen Long Beach and San Pedro.

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