5 (Los Angeles Railway)

5
Overview
Type	Light rail
System	Los Angeles Railway (1920-45) Los Angeles Transit Lines (1945-58) Los Angeles MTA (1958-63)
Locale	Los Angeles, Inglewood, Lennox, and Hawthorne
Termini	Colorado Boulevard and Townsend Street (1920-48) Colorado Boulevard and Eagle Rock Boulevard (1948-55) Hawthorne Boulevard and Broadway (Hawthorne)
Stations	112
Operation
Opened	1920
Closed	1955
Owner	Los Angeles MTA
Technical
Line length	21.9 miles (1920-48) 21.4 miles (1948-55)
Track gauge	narrow gauge
Electrification	Overhead lines
Route map edit Colorado and Townsend Colorado and Mount Royal Colorado and Argus Colorado and Highland View Colorado and Maywood Colorado and Eagle Rock Eagle Rock and Yosemite Eagle Rock and Chickasaw Eagle Rock and Norwalk Eagle Rock and WestdaleOccidental College Eagle Rock and Avenue 45Occidental College Eagle Rock and YorkOccidental College Eagle Rock and El Paso Eagle Rock and Avenue 41 Eagle Rock and Verdugo Eagle Rock and Avenue 38 Eagle Rock and Avenue 36 Eagle Rock and Avenue 35 Eagle Rock and Avenue 34 Eagle Rock and Avenue 33 Eagle Rock and Avenue 31 Eagle Rock and Cypress Cypress and Division Cypress and Macon Cypress and Elm Cypress and Arvia Cypress and Alice Cypress and Maseo Cypress and Pepper Avenue 28 and Idell Avenue 28 and Figueroa Figueroa and Avenue 22 Figueroa and San Fernando Pasadena Freeway Arroyo Seco ATSF San Fernando and Humboldt San Fernando and Pasadena Pasadena and Broadway SP RR Los Angeles River ATSF Solano Canyon Little Italy New Chinatown Broadway and College Broadway and Alpine Broadway and Sunset Broadway and Arcadia Hollywood Freeway Broadway and Temple Broadway and 1stP Broadway and 3rdAngels Flight Broadway and 4th Broadway and 5th Broadway and 6th Broadway and 7thJ R S Broadway and 8th Broadway and 9th Broadway PlaceP Main and 11th Main and 12th Main and Pico Main and Venice Main and Washington Main and 23rd Main and Adams Main and 30th Main and Jefferson Jefferson and Broadway Jefferson and GrandJ Grand and 37th Grand and 39th Interstate 110 Santa Barbara and FigueroaExposition Park Santa Barbara and HooverExposition Park Santa Barbara and VermontV Santa Barbara and Budlong Santa Barbara and Normandie Santa Barbara and Halldale Santa Barbara and Denker Santa Barbara and Western Santa Barbara and Grammercy Santa Barbara and Arlington Santa Barbara and 4th Avenue Leimert and Sutro Leimert and Stocker Leimert and 43rd Leimert and Vernon Crenshaw and 48th Crenshaw and 50th Crenshaw and 52nd Crenshaw and 54th Crenshaw and 57th Crenshaw and Slauson Crenshaw and 59th Crenshaw and 60th Crenshaw and 63rd Hyde Park Crenshaw and 67th Redondo and WestInglewood City Boundary Florence and Redondo Florence and Prairie Florence and Centinela Florence and Hillcrest Florence and Market Market and Manchester Market and La Brea La Brea and Tamarack La Brea and Arbor Vitae La Brea and Hardy Hawthorne and Century Hawthorne and 104thLennox Town Boundary Hawthorne and Lennox Hawthorne and 111thHawthorne City Boundary Hawthorne and Imperial Highway Hawthorne and 118th Hawthorne and 120th Hawthorne and Broadway

5 or the 5 Car was a line operated by the Los Angeles Railway from 1920 to 1958 and by the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority from 1958 to 1963. From 1920 to 1932, this route was known as the E Car. This was changed as part of a method to distinguish routes that lacked loops at their termini. Consequently, the 5 Car was unique during the LAMTA era in that it did not use PCC streetcars. It used buses from 1955 to 1964, transferring from LATL in 1958, then splitting the line in two in 1961, until all lines were turned over to SCRTD in August 1964.

History

Inglewood Division (1887-1911)

The southern portion of the route began as the Inglewood Division, one of the main lines of the Los Angeles and Redondo Railway. From a terminus at 2nd and Spring Streets, the steam and later electric railroad ran to Redondo Beach via 2nd Street, Broadway, 7th Street, Grand Avenue, Santa Barbara Avenue, Leimert Avenue, Crenshaw Boulevard, Redondo Boulevard, Florence Avenue, Market Street, La Brea Avenue, Hawthorne Boulevard, Ripley Avenue, Anita Street, and Herondo Street.

In the Great Merger of 1911, the southern portion of the Redondo Railway were given over to the Pacific Electric Railway, while the northern portion became part of the Los Angeles Railway. The Hawthorne Line, as it was then called, terminated at the intersection of Hawthorne Boulevard and Broadway in the heart of Hawthorne, where one could transfer to two Pacific Electric routes. At some point in the 1910s, this route was merged with the Eagle Rock Line to become one of the longest streetcar routes in the United States.

Eagle Rock Line (1895-1920)

The Eagle Rock Line was one of LARy's original routes, connecting Downtown Los Angeles to the small agrarian suburb of Eagle Rock by way of Main Street, Avenue 20, Dayton Avenue, a private right-of-way (on which was soon built Avenue 28), Eagle Rock Boulevard, and Colorado Boulevard to Townsend Street. At Eagle Rock and Colorado, one could transfer to a branch of the Glendale and Montrose Railway.

In 1916, the renovation of the Broadway Tunnel allowed streetcars to run through it. Before this, all routes northeast had to run along Main Street at the Plaza de los Angeles, but now all of Broadway enjoyed direct, continuous service. It was along Broadway that the Eagle Rock Line was re-routed, bypassing most of Lincoln Heights, while increasing service to Solano Canyon and Little Italy.

E, 5, and 6 (1920-1963)

The E Line was the result of combining the Eagle Rock and Hawthorne Lines. At nearly 22 miles, it was the longest route of the Los Angeles Railway by far, and the route that extended further north, south, east or west than any other route. Said route traversed Colorado and Eagle Rock Boulevards, Cypress Avenue, Avenue 28, Figueroa Street, San Fernando Road, Pasadena Avenue, Broadway, Broadway Place, Main Street, Jefferson Boulevard, Grand and Santa Barbara Avenues, Leimert, Crenshaw, and Redondo Boulevards, Market Street, La Brea, and Hawthorne Boulevards.

In 1932, the route name was changed to 5. An additional route known as 6 followed the same route, but terminated at Avenue 45 in Eagle Rock and Arbor Vitae in Inglewood.

In 1948, the northern terminus of the route was cut back to the intersection of Colorado Boulevard and Eagle Rock Boulevards in the heart of Eagle Rock. From this period onward, a bus following the same route supplemented the streetcar, phasing it out by May 1955, due to 11 Harbor Freeway construction. Today, the route is closely followed by Metro bus routes 40, 84, & a short segment of 81. The planned Crenshaw/LAX Transit Corridor will follow the same route between Leimert Park and Market Street in Inglewood.

Geographic map; 5 is in magenta

The 5 bus route was split by LAMTA in 1961, the north portion to Eagle Rock Bl. & Colorado Bl. was served by route 7 from S. Broadway. A bar will open on Colorado Boulevard in November 2013 with a theme '5' Bar for the line which served local Eagle Rock residents for many years. The old style 'box' line sign is used, with the reflective dots denoting the number. Boulevard Newspaper, October 2013

Sources

Electric Rail Heritage Association