The Pacific Electric Railway was at one time one of the largest, if not the largest, interurban in the world. Opera- tionally, it intertwined Southern Cali- fornia’s Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino,
and Riverside counties
with a web of steel rails that made trav- eling across much of its width and breadth a comfortable pleasure, espe- cially since the alternative in its earliest days were dirt roads and buckboards. So large and complex of an operation, the company divided daily running schedules into multiple districts, many worked by car designs specifically tai- lored for various lines. One of the many extensive areas Pacific Electric plied was the San Fernando Valley. The early- to mid- 20th century were halcyon days for the San Fernando Val- ley. Just to the north of Los Angeles prop- er and surrounded by low-lying moun- tains, this area of Southern California was a natural playground for farmers, ranchers, celebrity getaway homes, and movie studio location shoots.
For railroading, the San Fernando
Valley was Southern Pacific’s Coast Line route to and from Los Angeles and the riches the area held. As Southern California’s population continued to mushroom, it was natural for the miles of housing tracts to spill over into “The Valley.” To facilitate that sprawl, as well as serve the residents already there, was the Pacific Electric. For 41 years, culminating in 1952, the PE Red Cars were the best transporta- tion to and from the rest of Southern Cal- ifornia. Long before freeways and urban sprawl, cars were regularly dispatched to the then faraway destinations of North Hollywood, Van Nuys, Reseda, Canoga Park, and San Fernando.
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