Does anyone have a detailed transit map showing the trolley lines through this area? Your wish is my command ER.
To get from Hollywood and La Brea to Santa Monica and Fairfax the PE ran on a private way diagonal to the street grid. You can see the route of this right of way in the following topographic map from 1953:
The one-lane street in the next photo is Marshfield Way. The photo is looking northeast towards Hollywood and La Brea. The PE had a private right of way along the left edge of this one-lane street. The five-story apartment building in the middle of the photo has been built partly on the PE right of way. If you had lived in the little house at the right, you would have had to get used to the clickety-clack of streetcars rolling by, day and night.
Marshfield Way Today
At Poinsettia Place the private right of way curves into Hawthorn Avenue and the trains run in Hawthorn Avenue for two short blocks to Martel Avenue. In the shot below we see an eastbound train about to turn off Hawthorn Avenue into the private right of way.
Train at Poinsettia
Hawthorn Avenue is a narrow street. In the shot below a westbound streetcar is about to turn off Hawthorn Ave onto the private right of way at Martel Ave.
Hawthorn at Martel
At Martel and Hawthorn the tracks diverge in a southwest-ward direction, entering a private right of way that runs diagonally to the street grid to Santa Monica Boulevard and Fairfax Ave. In the photo below (by Ray Ballash) an inbound car has just crossed Vista St. (with Hawthorn Avenue in the distance) on the private right of way.
Train Crosses Vista Street
In the photo below an inbound train is approaching the grade crossing at Sunset Boulevard and Gardner Street. Even today the PE right of way is quite visible at this intersection. About half the Hollywood Boulevard steetcar service turned back using the crossover in the foreground.
Approaching Sunset Boulevard
An outbound car, about to cross DeLongpre Dr., has just departed Gardner Street in the photo below (by Donald Duke).
Crossing DeLongpre Drive
In the next shot, taken in the early '50s, an outbound Hollwyood Boulevard car has reached Fairfax Avenue. This shot looks northeast. At this point the Hollywood Boulevard line curves into Santa Monica Boulevard, joining the tracks of the Santa Monica Boulevard streetcar line, which come in from the right in this photo.
Arriving at Fairfax Avenue
The trains run a bit less than a mile on street trackage in Santa Monica Boulevard to Holloway Drive, where a private right of way in the median of Santa Monica Boulevard begins. The boulevard also curves a bit southwest-ward at this point. After the stop at La Cienega Boulevard, the next stop is the West Hollywood Carhouse stop, at Westbourne Drive. Tracks diverge to the left here, entering West Hollywood Yard. West Hollywood yard is the main operations center for the PE lines operating out of the subway, including a car house, a car shop, overhead wire maintenance sheds, as well as freight facilities.
At Palm Avenue the train reaches the West Hollywood stop (shown below). The station agency is across the street in the PE electrical substation building (out of view to the right).
Trains at West Hollywood Station
Next we see a very early image of the same location in West Hollywood — Santa Monica Boulevard near Palm Drive. At the time this photo was taken the eastbound lanes of Santa Monica Boulevard on the south side of the right of way hadn't been built — that didn't happen til 1928. This is a car operating on the Santa Monica Boulevard line which terminated here at the West Hollywood station (which is out of the photo to the right).
West Hollywood near Palm Drive
After crossing Clark Street and Robertson Blvd., the line reaches the Beverly Hills city limits at Doheny Dr. From Doheny Dr. to the Beverly Hills civic center the right of way is between Big and Little Santa Monica Boulevards -- an attractive right of way lined with eucalyptus trees. In the photo below a westbound train is running on the private right of way between Big and Little Santa Monica Boulevards in Beverly Hills, west of Doheny Dr.
In Beverly Hills
After passing the shelter at Beverly Boulevard, where there are various freight spurs for the Beverly Hills industrial park, the line continues another half mile to Canon Drive, the location of the Beverly Hills station (shown below).
Beverly Hills Station
ALL PHOTOS COMPILED BY TOM WETZEL
http://www.uncanny.net/~wetzel/hbline.htm