The Redondo Beach via Playa del Rey was an

interurban railway The Interurban (or radial railway in Europe and Canada) is a type of electric railway, with streetcar-like electric self-propelled rail cars which run within and between cities or towns. They were very prevalent in North America between 1900 a ...

route of the

Pacific Electric The Pacific Electric Railway Company, nicknamed the Red Cars, was a privately owned mass transit system in Southern California consisting of electrically powered streetcars, interurban cars, and buses and was the largest electric railway system ...

. It operated between the Hill Street Terminal and Cliffton, south of Redondo Beach, through the company's Western Division.

History

The route began as the Los Angeles-Hermosa Beach & Redondo Railway Company, which was succeeded quickly by the

Los Angeles Pacific Railroad The Los Angeles Pacific Railroad (1896−1911) (LAP) was an electric public transit and freight railway system in Los Angeles County, California. At its peak it had of track extending from Downtown Los Angeles to the Westside, Santa Monica, an ...

. The first train ran from

Culver City Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. Founded in 1917 as a "whites only" sundown town, it is now an ethnically diverse city with what was called the "third-most ...

Playa del Rey Playa del Rey (Spanish for "Beach of the King") is a seaside community in the Santa Monica Bay and the Westside region of Los Angeles, California. It has a ZIP code of 90293 and area codes of 310 and 424. As of 2018, the community had a populat ...

on Sunday, November 9, 1902. The Manhattan Beach to Redondo Beach segment was constructed in 1903, and the gap between the two also completed later that year. Culver Boulevard, originally called Speedway, was laid out in parallel to the rail line beginning in 1904. Circa 1903, "First car leaves 6:40 a.m., last car 11:40 p.m." The Los Angeles Pacific depot was located at 316 W. 4th Street. The tracks were converted from their original

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...

in 1908. Los Angeles Pacific built a rail spur for the

Los Angeles Motordrome The Los Angeles Motordrome was a circular wood board race track. It was located in Playa del Rey, California, and opened in 1910. In addition to automobile racing, it was used for motorcycle competition and aviation activities. The Motordr ...

around 1910. Pacific Electric acquired the line in 1911. Local Manhattan–Redondo service was established for the summer and fall of 1916, and made year round runs from February 1922 to June 1924, extending to Clifton in 1923. A spur existed from approximately 1920 to 1927 that allowed Barnes Circus trains access to their winter quarters at Barnes City. The Palos Verdes Transportation Company began a bus service between

Malaga Cove Palos Verdes Estates (''Palos Verdes'', Spanish for "Green Sticks") is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, situated on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. The city was master-planned by the noted American landscape architect and ...

and the Redondo Beach station in 1925. On May 5, 1930 service was reduced to a single

reverse commute A reverse commute is a round trip, regularly taken, from an urban area to a suburban one in the morning, and returning in the evening. It is almost universally applied to trips to work in the suburbs from homes in the city. This is in opposition to ...

round trip car run to maintain the franchise. The route was discontinued after November 18. Pacific Electric Ballona

By 1981, no rails remained on the entire route. Much of the route in

and

West Los Angeles West Los Angeles is an area within the city of Los Angeles, California. The residential and commercial neighborhood is divided by the Interstate 405 freeway, and each side is sometimes treated as a distinct neighborhood, mapped differently by di ...

on Culver Boulevard was converted into the

Culver Boulevard Median Bike Path The Culver Boulevard Median Bike Path is Class I rail trail bicycle path, walk route and linear park on Culver Boulevard in western Los Angeles County, California. Route The path is currently in length. The northeastern terminus is Elenda St ...

Route

Redondo Beach via Playa Del Rey circa 1906

From the Hill Street Station to

Culver Junction Culver City station is an elevated light rail station on the E Line of the Los Angeles Metro Rail system. The station is located on a dedicated right-of-way alongside Exposition Boulevard — between the intersection of Venice Boulevard and Ro ...

, the Redondo Beach via Playa del Rey Line followed the route of the

Venice Short Line The Venice Short Line was a Pacific Electric interurban railway line in Los Angeles which traveled from downtown Los Angeles to Venice, Ocean Park, and Santa Monica via Venice Boulevard. History The part of the line from the Hill Street sta ...

. From Culver Junction, dual tracks branched southwesterly from the

in the center of the pavement of Culver Boulevard, past Washington Boulevard to Madison Avenue. Here, the dual tracks entered an unimproved private way on the northerly side of Culver Boulevard, and ran past the

MGM Studios Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...

, Overland Avenue,

Sepulveda Boulevard Sepulveda Boulevard is a major street and transportation corridor in the City of Los Angeles and several other cities in western Los Angeles County, California. The street parallels Interstate 405 for much of its route. Portions of Sepulveda Bou ...

and Centinela Boulevard, to the Culver City boundary. The dual tracks in private way continued southeasterly alongside of Culver Boulevard approximately before ramping up on fill to cross over Lincoln Boulevard on a bridge immediately north of the bridge for Culver Boulevard roadway. West of Lincoln Boulevard, the dual tracks converged to a single track before crossing over

Ballona Creek Ballona Creek (pronunciation: “Bah-yo-nuh” or “Buy-yo-nah” ) is an channelized stream in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, United States, that was once a “year-round river lined with sycamores and willows.” Ballona Creek ...

on a long steel bridge. The single track then expanded again to two tracks in private way, and continued the run, across open country roughly paralleling Culver Boulevard, into Playa Del Rey. The rails had a short stretch of

street running A street running train is a train which runs on a track built on public streets. The rails are embedded in the roadway, and the train shares the street with other users, such as pedestrians, cars and cyclists, thus often being referred to as r ...

in Playa Del Rey. This was in crossing Culver Boulevard and a small section on Vista Del Mar Lane. From Playa del Rey, the dual rails ran southerly on unimproved private way along the edge of the bluffs bordering the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

, past the

Hyperion Sewage Treatment Plant The Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant is a sewage treatment plant in southwest Los Angeles, California, next to Dockweiler State Beach on Santa Monica Bay. The plant is the largest sewage treatment facility in the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area and ...

and

Imperial Highway The Imperial Highway is a west-east thoroughfare in the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Diego, and Imperial in California. The main portion of the existing route begins at Vista Del Mar in Los Angeles near the Los Angeles Inter ...

into the City of El Segundo. Still on unimproved private way bordering the ocean, the dual tracks continued southerly running by the

Standard Oil Company Standard Oil Company, Inc., was an American oil production, transportation, refining, and marketing company that operated from 1870 to 1911. At its height, Standard Oil was the largest petroleum company in the world, and its success made its co-f ...

Refinery, the City of Manhattan Beach, and into the city of

Hermosa Beach Hermosa Beach (''Hermosa'', Spanish for "Beautiful") is a beachfront city in Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California, United States. Its population was 19,728 at the 2020 U.S. Census. The city is located in the South Bay region of th ...

. In Hermosa Beach the dual rails entered another section of unimproved private way in the center of Hermosa Avenue. The rails followed this private way southerly through the business district of Hermosa Beach into the City of Redondo Beach to the center of the city at Diamond and Pacific Avenues. Here, the

Redondo Beach via Gardena Line Redondo via Gardena was a line of the Pacific Electric Railway. One of two routes to Redondo Beach, this one was faster than the Redondo Beach via Playa del Rey Line as a result of its routing along the quadruple-tracked Watts main line. Hist ...

terminated its run from the east. From Downtown Redondo Beach, the dual tracks ran southerly, in the pavement of Pacific Avenue as far as Torrance Boulevard, then they ran in another unimproved private way in the center of Catalina Street south to Avenue I in the Clifton Beach Area. The dual tracks then converged to a single track for the short cross country run on private way to the terminus of the Line at Clifton-by-the-Sea, located on the bluff overlooking the Ocean just north of

References

External links

The Militant's Pacific Electric Archaeology Map - old PE Streetcar lines shown on contemporary map

Playa Del Rey Line: Culver & Centinela, 1929

PE Rumbling Through Playa Del Rey 1939

{{Pacific Electric Railway Pacific Electric routes Light rail in California Railway lines opened in 1902 1902 establishments in California Railway lines closed in 1930 1930 disestablishments in California Closed railway lines in the United States Westside (Los Angeles County) Ballona Creek Culver City, California Mar Vista, Los Angeles Playa del Rey, Los Angeles Del Rey, Los Angeles