Culver City – Palms Station
Jack Finn Collection
The Pacific Electric / Southern Pacific station at Culver City – Palms stands quiet on this early morning. In the background is the PE power generation building for that section of the line.
Jack Finn Collection
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Foregound tracks are the Redondo via Playa del Rey Line. Behind the station is the Venice Short Line.
The substation (Ivy Sub) is still standing. It’s now a live-performance theater.
Nothing is new. A block behind the photograpfer is the newly built terminus of the “Expo Line” from downtown LA, build on the old PE-Santa Monica Airline right of way. Phase II will build on west to 3rd and Colorado in Santa Monica following the “Airline”. Was it forward thinking or what, when PE-SP, and later UP did NOT sell off the old rights of way.
The former SP was the largest contributor to the “Yes on 102 campaign.” Prop 102 was the bond issue which created Metrolink, and greatly improved rapid transit in the Bay Area-Sacramento Corridor. Prop 102 funds paid for essentially 200 track miles of “Ribbon Rail” CWR, between 16th Street Tower in Oakland, and Sacramento, replacing all of the SP’s badly worn jointed rail. The whole “Cal P” was also upgraded from Double Track (Automatic Block Signals in one direction only) to Multiple Main Track CTC (Centralized Traffic Control,) either direction on either track, with lots of power double crossovers. It also upgraded the Peninsula Commute Line.
Metrolink bought the former PE from LA to Bench, the Santa Fe 2nd District from LA to San Berdoo, the SP LA Division lines to Palmdale, and the Coast line to SLO, the abandoned Airline, the Santa Fe to San Diego, and more, and a bunch of the UP. Metro has upgraded all of the sorefooted former SP, and the only reason the Airline wasn’t sold to individuals is because part of it was still in service until the idea of Metrolink came to be.
Metro has to maintain the track, and the freight railroads get to run on it.
Very nice photo to compare to Google map in 2D using the Cntl key. That station is where the parking lot is for Wendy’s to Del Taco at about 9018 Venice Blvd. In the late 70’s there was a flat rectangle of concrete about a 3 feet high with an incline to go up on top but it had no walls or railing. So the train rail on the far side right went down Venice Blvd and the train rail on the close side went west down Culver Blvd.
My father’s family worked on the PE line from at least 1920 until the 1940’s or 1950’s and lived in the PE Labor Camp in Culver City. Does anyone know where that camp was? I have a lot of pictures of it. My employer is moving to 8900 Venice Boulevard and I’m wondering if it’s the same land where my father was born, which would be interesting. The camp may have been where the Metro Station is now, but I’m not sure.