Pacific Electric

Company History: The PE was established in 1901 and built an electric interurban line between Los Angeles and Long Beach, California. With this first line completed in 1902, the PE began building outward in every direction. This caught the attention of Southern Pacific who at first attempted to obstruct the PE’s expansion and then bought a 45% stake in the company. Henry Huntington, PE’s founder, then established a new company, the Los Angeles Inter-Urban Railway and resumed his expansion under that flag – outside of the influence of the SP. By 1908, LAI-U had grown larger than PE but Huntington had come to a truce with Southern Pacific. He leased the LAI-U to Pacific Electric and over the next few years sold control of his various traction lines in the state to SP. In 1911, the PE, LAI-U, Los Angeles Pacific and a handful of smaller lines were combined into a greater Pacific Electric.

The new PE blanketed Southern California from San Fernando and Pasadena to the north, Santa Monica, Redondo Beach, San Pedro, Long Beach, Huntington Beach and Balboa along the coast to as far east as Redlands. With 575 miles of line, they were the largest electric railway in the world at the time of the consolidation.

Near the end of the Second World War, PE rostered 483 electric passenger cars ranging from small street cars to large interurban cars, 41 box motors for package freight, a trio of RPO-Express cars, and for heavy freight service 44 electric freight motors, 19 steam locomotives, and 6 diesels (some of which were equipped with trolley poles to trigger PE’s signal system.)

As the popularity of the automobile increased, PE began abandoning lines. In a few cases, lines that were making money were forced into abandonment to make room for new highways. In 1953, the remaining passenger service was sold to Metropolitan Coach Lines. PE continued on as a freight railroad. The freight operations were gradually dieselized with power leased from SP with the last electric freight motor switching customers along Santa Monica Boulevard in January of 1958. In 1965, Pacific Electric Railway was finally merged into parent Southern Pacific.

Successor/Parent History: The Southern Pacific Transportation Company (reporting mark SP), earlier Southern Pacific Railroad and Southern Pacific Company, and usually called the Southern Pacific or (from the railroad's initials) Espee, was an American Class I railroad. It was absorbed in 1988 by the company that controlled the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad and eight years later became part of the Union Pacific Railroad.

The railroad was founded as a land holding company in 1865, later acquiring the Central Pacific Railroad by lease. By 1900 the Southern Pacific Company was a major railroad system incorporating many smaller companies, such as the Texas and New Orleans Railroad and Morgan's Louisiana and Texas Railroad. It extended from New Orleans through Texas to El Paso, across New Mexico and through Tucson, to Los Angeles, through most of California, including San Francisco and Sacramento. Central Pacific lines extended east across Nevada to Ogden, Utah, and reached north through Oregon to Portland. Other subsidiaries eventually included the St. Louis Southwestern Railway (Cotton Belt), the Northwestern Pacific Railroad at 328 miles (528 km), the 1,331 miles (2,142 km) Southern Pacific Railroad of Mexico, and a variety of 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge routes.

In 1929 SP/T&NO operated 13848 route-miles not including Cotton Belt, whose purchase of the Golden State Route circa 1980 nearly doubled its size to 3,085 miles (4,965 km), bringing total SP/SSW mileage to around 13,508 miles (21,739 km).

By the 1980s route mileage had dropped to 10,423 miles (16,774 km), mainly due to the pruning of branch lines. In 1988 the Southern Pacific was taken over by D&RGW parent Rio Grande Industries. The combined railroad kept the Southern Pacific name due to its brand recognition in the railroad industry and with customers of both constituent railroads. Along with the addition of the SPCSL Corporation route from Chicago to St. Louis, the total length of the D&RGW/SP/SSW system was 15,959 miles (25,684 km).

By 1996 years of financial problems had dropped SP's mileage to 13,715 miles (22,072 km), and it was taken over by the Union Pacific Railroad.

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