Owensmouth
Cahuenga Pass in 1922 prior to freeway construction
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)
History
Opened	January 20, 1908 (Cahuenga Pass local) 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

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 along with the San Fernando Line which continued further north. Cars ran from Los Angeles and Hollywood through the Cahuenga Pass to the Valley in a private reservation, even after the Hollywood Freeway was built through the area. The line also utilized a portion of the Southern Pacific Burbank Branch. Service was truncated to Sherman Way in 1938, and cars were then referred to as the Van Nuys Line. All rail service ended December 29, 1952.

The Ocean View Tract Company laid out Highland Avenue with a central reservation for future trolley use. Residents along the street had wanted improvements made to the road, but this strip had been an impediment on their plans. On November 21, 1906, the Los Angeles-Pacific Railway (LA-P) sent out a construction to build north of Prospect in the trolley reservation. About two blocks had been plowed up when Hollywood's Street Superintendent, acting under instructions from the City Attorney, arrived with a police officer and ordered the work stopped. The foreman ordered his men to go ahead and the entire outfit was placed under arrest, and later released in bonds of $100^[a] each. The land in the center of Highland had never been deeded to the city, and the route had been used as a normal thoroughfare since being platted which, as the city claimed, precluded the railway from having title to build a line.^[1] Residents appealed to the city to offer a franchise on the road for a street railway, and LA-P purchased the rights the following September for $1000,^[b] a surprising sum.^[2] Regular car service began on January 20, 1908 between Santa Monica Boulevard and the city limits.^[3][4] The company quickly filed deeds to extend the line over the pass further north.^[5]

The Pacific Electric streetcar service to Owensmouth (present-day Canoga Park) was part of a real-estate development in Southern California.^[6] Nearly the entire southern San Fernando Valley was bought in 1910 by the Los Angeles Suburban Homes Company, 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.^[7] 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. 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).^[7] 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"^[c] 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.^[7] The route originally navigated the Cahuenga Pass in its own right-of-way on the west side of the state highway. 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.^[8][9]

Nearly all trips were routed into the new Hollywood Subway in 1926.^[10][11] When the Hollywood Freeway was built in the 1930s, the line was relocated to the freeway's median strip.^[12]

Even as the terminal community changed its name from Owensmouth to Canoga Park in 1931, after the Southern Pacific "Canoga" station there,^[7] the name of the Pacific Electric line was unchanged as Owensmouth until the demise of through service. Cars were truncated to North Sherman Way on June 1, 1938,^[13][14][10] and service was then generally referred to as the Van Nuys Line. The dedicated local cars along Highland Avenue were discontinued and service was then provided by the interurban runs.^[11] Unlike other PE lines which saw a decrease in service after World War II, ridership greatly increased in the service's final years.^[10] and one-man operation was implemented in 1950.^[15] Services were finally replaced by buses on December 28, 1952.^[15] An excursion trip ran the following day before the power was shut off.^[16]

Most tracks were promptly removed except a few segments used for freight movements. The Hollywood Freeway expanded into the former rail reservation in 1957 which added a lane in each direction.^[16] A survey conducted by Caltrans in 1981 reported that almost all of the line had either been removed or paved over for street use.^[12]

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.

Leaving Downtown on the same tracks as the Hollywood Line, the line continued along the Sherman Line at Sunset Junction before turning north at Highland Avenue. 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 along the Southern Pacific Burbank Branch 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.^[17] On Shoup Avenue, named after Pacific Electric president Paul Shoup,^[7] the center was used as its end of the line sidings.

Initial interurban service was provided by 800 class cars. Fifteen 700 class units were rebuilt in the late 1930s for improved speeds. The last few years of service saw the line operated by 5050 class cars.^[16]

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

• Map of the Pacific Electric Railway Routes in the San Fernando Valley (1919) — via Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps Inc.