The Santa Ana–Orange Line is a former

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

interurban railway The interurban (or radial railway in Canada) is a type of electric railway, with tram-like electric self-propelled railcars which run within and between cities or towns. The term "interurban" is usually used in North America, with other terms u ...

line in

Orange County, California Orange County (officially the County of Orange; often initialized O.C.) is a county (United States), county located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in Southern California, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population ...

. Unlike most of the company's services, trains did not travel to

Downtown Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) is the central business district of the city of Los Angeles. It is part of the Central Los Angeles region and covers a area. As of 2020, it contains over 500,000 jobs and has a population of roughly 85,000 residents ...

and instead provided a suburban service between Santa Ana and

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower ** Orange juice *Orange (colour), the color of an orange fruit, occurs between red and yellow in the vi ...

History

The beginnings of the route are traced back to a

horsecar A horsecar, horse-drawn tram, horse-drawn streetcar (U.S.), or horse-drawn railway (historical), is a tram or streetcar pulled by a horse. Summary The horse-drawn tram (horsecar) was an early form of public transport, public rail transport, ...

line built between The Plaza in Orange and Fourth Street and French Street in Santa Ana by the Santa Ana, Orange & Tustin Street Railway Company around 1887. The Santa Ana & Orange Motor Company acquired the railroad and commenced steam operation in January 1897, which was in turn sold the line to The International Railway Company, which proceeded to sell the railroad to

in 1901. In 1904, Pacific Electric deeded the line to Los Angeles Inter-Urban Electric Railway, who proceeded to rebuild and electrify the route south of Santiago Creek. The new line commenced service on February 10, 1906 — passengers transferred to a

steam dummy A steam dummy or dummy engine, in the United States and Canada, was a steam locomotive enclosed in a wooden box structure made to resemble a passenger railroad car. Steam dummies had some popularity in the first decades of railroading in the U.S ...

to complete to trip to Orange. Pacific Electric began operating the line on July 1, 1908, folding it into the system entirely in 1911 as part of the Great Merger. The segment of the route between Santiago Creek and The Plaza was electrified by July 11, 1914, allowing for through running and retiring the steam dummy. Frequencies generally increased as the line was more heavily trafficked. However, Pacific Electric's purchase of the Motor Transit Company made the line redundant as the latter was running frequent highway bus service between the two cities. The final car departed Santa Ana on September 14, 1930.

Operations

Tracks north of Orange to Marlboro were used by freight trains and saw no passenger service. Between 1906 and 1914, passengers transferred from normal interurban cars to a

at Santiago Creek, as the line lacked electrical infrastructure north of this location. Through service was eventually extended as far as The Plaza in Orange.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Santa Ana-Orange Line Pacific Electric routes Light rail in California Railway lines opened in 1887 1887 establishments in California Railway lines closed in 1930 1930 disestablishments in California Closed railway lines in the United States