Owensmouth Line

The Owensmouth Line was a Pacific Electric interurban service that connected the San Fernando Valley to Downtown Los Angeles. The route was largely developed as the result of real estate speculation.

Owensmouth
Sherman Way in Owensmouth, 1920, with Los Angeles Pacific Railroad lines
Overview
Owner	Southern Pacific Railroad
Locale	Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley, California
Termini	Downtown Los Angeles Owensmouth-Canoga Park (1912–1938) North Sherman Way (1911–1912, 1938–1952)
Stations	34
Service
Type	Interurban
System	Pacific Electric
Operator(s)	Pacific Electric
Rolling stock	PE 5050 Class (last used)
Ridership	1,038,622 (1926)[1]
History
Opened	December 16, 1911 (to Van Nuys) December 7, 1912 (Owensmouth)
Closed	June 1, 1938 (Canoga Park–Sherman Way) December 29, 1952 (all service)
Technical
Line length	29.1 mi (46.8 km)
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Electrification	Overhead line, 600 V DC
Route map Legend 29.10 Canoga Park De Soto Browns Canyon Winnetka Mapleton Aliso Canyon 24.91 Reseda Pattenton Fremont Picover Bull Creek Solano Cabrillo Hanna San Fernando 19.89 North Sherman Way terminus after 1938 Southern Pacific RR 19.11 Van Nuys 17.72 Circle Drive Castro Cortez 16.17 Kester Junction Tujunga Wash Garnsey Sadler Eucalyptus 14.17 North Hollywood Southern Pacific RR Hoffman Los Angeles River 11.59 Rio Vista (Los Nogales) 11.10 Universal City Oak Crest 9.99 Barham Boulevard Hollywood Park Dusky Glen 8.65 Cahuenga Pass US 101 7.84 Highland & Hollywood Hollywood Sherman 7.09 Highland & Santa Monica Colegrove Western and Franklin Virgil Avenue  L  Hollywood Sunset Junction Glendale–Burbank Echo Park Avenue Toluca Substation and Yard Hollywood Subway 0 Subway Terminal This diagram: view talk edit

History

See also: San Fernando Line

The Pacific Electric streetcar service to Owensmouth (present-day Canoga Park) was part of a real-estate development in Southern California.^[2] Nearly the entire southern San Fernando Valley was bought in 1910 by the Los Angeles Suburban Homes Co., owned by a syndicate of wealthy Los Angeles investors, developers, and speculators: including Harrison Gray Otis, Harry Chandler, Moses Sherman, Hobart Johnstone Whitley, and others.^[3] It anticipated possible connections to, but was planned independent of, the soon to be completed (1913) Los Angeles Aqueduct from the Owens River watershed to the City of Los Angeles through the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County.

Cahuenga Pass in 1922 prior to freeway construction

To help promote sales of the land, General Moses Sherman's Los Angeles Pacific Railroad set off to build a streetcar line across the San Fernando Valley, to serve the three plotted new towns: Van Nuys (1911); Marion (now Reseda); and Owensmouth (now Canoga Park) (1912).^[3] At the time, streetcar lines were seen as a necessity to promote development. Alongside it across the Valley westward from Van Nuys was Sherman Way: the "$500,000 paved boulevard" with lush landscaping and no speed limit where one might get up to 35 miles per hour (56 km/h), a separate dirt road for farm wagons/equipment, and telegraph lines.^[3] Los Angeles Pacific Railroad later sold the line to the Pacific Electric.^[when?] The line opened to Van Nuys on December 16, 1911, extending to Owensmouth on December 7 the following year.^[4][5]

Owensmouth was named in classic real estate "boosterism", as 'nearest' the outlet-'mouth' of the Owens River Aqueduct and echoing English and New England town names such as Falmouth, Yarmouth, and Plymouth.^[3] It was actually 20 miles (32 km) away when founded in 1912 and used well water instead until being annexed to the city of Los Angeles in 1917.^[3] The controversy of Valley land speculation and the aqueduct brought the community to change its name from Owensmouth to Canoga Park in 1931, after the Southern Pacific "Canoga" station there.^[3] The name of the Pacific Electric line was unchanged as Owensmouth until the demise of through service.

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.^[6]

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

Services were truncated to North Sherman Way on June 1, 1938,^[7][8][9] and service was generally referred to as the Van Nuys Line. Unlike other PE lines which saw a decrease in service after World War II, ridership greatly increased in the service's final years.^[9] and one-man operation was implemented in 1950.^[10] Services were finally replaced by buses on December 28, 1952.^[1][10]

A survey conducted by Caltrans in 1981 reported that almost all of the line had either been removed or paved over for street use.^[6]

Modern light rail

Main article: G Line (Los Angeles Metro)

In the 2000s a new cross-Valley rapid transit line was built: the Metro Orange Line, a dedicated bus transit-way which uses part of the old Pacific Electric right-of-way (Chandler Boulevard east of Ethel Avenue) and the former Southern Pacific south and west Valley route (from White Oak Avenue to the Chatsworth station). Service commenced in 2005; it was renamed to the G Line in 2020.

Van Nuys Boulevard is planned to be rebuilt for light rail service in 2031 under the East San Fernando Valley Light Rail Transit Project.

Route

Leaving Downtown on the same tracks as the Hollywood Line, the line continues along the Sherman Line at Sunset Junction before turning north at Highland. The line continued on its own private right of way though the Cahuenga Pass, turning up Vineland Avenue through North Hollywood, and onto Chandler Boulevard. Proceeding west to the curve onto Van Nuys Boulevard, it ran through Van Nuys to a curve (Sherman Circle) off of Van Nuys Boulevard turning west onto Sherman Way to Owensmouth.^[11] On Shoup Avenue, named after Pacific Electric president Paul Shoup,^[3] the center was used as its end of the line sidings.

List of major stations

Station	Mile[12]	Major connections	Date opened	Date closed	City
Canoga Park	29.10		1912	1938
Reseda	24.91		1912
North Sherman Way	19.89	San Fernando		1952	Van Nuys
Van Nuys	19.11	San Fernando	1911	1952
Circle Drive	17.72	San Fernando
Kester (Ethel Avenue)	16.17	San Fernando
Lankershim (later North Hollywood)	14.17	San Fernando	1911	1952	North Hollywood
Rio Vista	11.59	San Fernando
Universal City	11.10	San Fernando
Barnham Boulevard	9.99	San Fernando
Cahuenga Pass	8.65	San Fernando	1911	1952
Highland & Hollywood	7.84	Hollywood, San Fernando, Venice via Hollywood	1902	1955	Los Angeles
Highland & Santa Monica	7.09	San Fernando, South Hollywood–Sherman
Colegrove		San Fernando, South Hollywood–Sherman	1902	1955
Virgil Avenue		San Fernando, South Hollywood–Sherman, Western and Franklin Avenue	1902	1955
Sunset Junction		Hollywood, San Fernando, South Hollywood–Sherman, Venice via Hollywood, Western and Franklin Avenue	1902	1955
Subway Terminal Building	0	Echo Park Avenue, Glendale–Burbank, Hollywood, San Fernando, Redondo Beach via Playa del Rey, Sawtelle, South Hollywood–Sherman, Venice Short Line, Venice via Hollywood, Western and Franklin Avenue, Westgate	1925	1955

Ridership

Passengers (Fare and Transfer)^[1]

Year	Passengers	Car Miles	Revenue
1913	368,688	276,895	$81,917
1914	487,907	378,151	$115,228
1916	454,942	315,820	$88,879
1918	499,282	381,858	$101,452
1920	815,483	394,132	$191,198
1922	795,906	494,037	$202,058
1924	912,075	585,773	$219,281
1926	1,038,622	624,206	$225,957

See also

• Picover station
• East San Fernando Valley Light Rail Transit Project