Pacific Electric Railway Company Substation No. 8

United States historic place


Pacific Electric Railway Company Substation No. 8
U.S. National Register of Historic Places

Pacific Electric Railway Company Substation No. 8
34°11′04″N 118°07′55″W / 34.18444°N 118.13194°W / 34.18444; -118.13194
Architect	Pacific Electric Railway
NRHP reference No.	77000295
Added to NRHP	November 9, 1977

Pacific Electric Railway Company Substation No. 8, also known as the Altadena Substation, is a former traction substation in Altadena, California. It operated under the Pacific Electric Railway and served as the substation for Pasadena area lines.

History

The Pacific Electric traction substation was built in 1905. In addition to providing power to the PE lines, it also powered the Mount Lowe Railway.^[1] In 1941, when PE sold its Pasadena area lines to Pasadena City Lines, a subsidiary of National City Lines, the substation was included in the sale.^[2]

The Substation was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977 for its significance as a part of the Pacific Electric Railway.^[3] By 1999 it was being used as an office building.^[4] In 2016, the Pacific Southwest Mennonite Conference opened a thrift store in the building.^[5]

Substation

Electric interurban and trolley cars required 600 volts direct current to operate a car's Direct Current (DC) traction motors. The function of a "substation" was to convert very high voltage alternating current (AC) from a power generating plant (often miles away) for an AC to lower voltage DC conversion. The high voltage AC entered the substation, was dropped in level by a transformer, and the resulting lower voltage AC was then fed to a device called a rotary converter for the conversion to 600 volts DC. Substations existed on every trolley and interurban line in the United States and often still do for today's subway and light rail lines, although the very large and cumbersome rotary converter, as much as 8 feet (2.4 m) in diameter and rotating, has been replaced by solid state converters.^[6]

References

^ "Pacific Electric Mount Lowe Line". Electric Railway Historical Association. Retrieved 2008-01-07.
^ "Pacific Electric Pasadena Local Lines". Electric Railway Historical Association. Retrieved 2008-01-07.
^ "California - Los Angeles County". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. Retrieved 2008-01-07.
^ Harrigan, John (August 1, 1999). "Mount Lowe Power". Echo Mtn. Echoes. Land-Sea Discovery Group. Retrieved 2008-01-07.
^ "Love is a Verb: Full Circle Thrift realizes a missional dream for Pacific Southwest Mennonite Conference". 15 November 2016.
^ Hilton, George W. (1952). The Electric Interurban Railways in the United States.

External links

Marnell, Harry. "Pacific Electric In Altadena". Retrieved 2008-01-07. - includes maps and images of the Altadena Substation

National Register of Historic Places in California

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Routes

Northern Division	Alhambra–San Gabriel Annandale Arlington–Corona Arrowhead Colton Covina East Washington El Monte–Baldwin Park Highland Lamanda Park Monrovia–Glendora Mount Lowe North Lake Pasadena Short Line Pasadena via Oak Knoll Pasadena local lines Pomona Pomona–Claremont Pomona local lines Redlands Redlands local lines Riverside–Arlington Riverside–Rialto San Bernardino–Riverside San Dimas San Dimas Local Shorb Sierra Madre Sierra Vista South Pasadena Local Upland–Ontario Upland–San Antonio Heights Upland–San Bernardino
Western Division	Brush Canyon Coldwater Canyon Echo Park Avenue Edendale Local Glendale–Burbank Hollywood Lankershim–Van Nuys Laurel Canyon Owensmouth Redondo Beach via Playa del Rey San Fernando Santa Monica Air Line Santa Monica local lines Sawtelle Soldiers' Home South Hollywood–Sherman Venice Boulevard Venice–Inglewood Venice–Playa del Rey Venice Short Line Venice via Hollywood Western & Franklin Ave. Westgate
Southern Division	American Avenue Balboa Bellflower Catalina Dock Fullerton Hawthorne–El Nido Hawthorne–El Segundo Huntington Beach–La Bolsa La Habra–Fullerton–Yorba Linda Long Beach Long Beach local lines Long Beach–San Pedro Redondo Beach via Gardena San Pedro local lines San Pedro via Dominguez San Pedro via Gardena Santa Ana Santa Ana–Huntington Beach Santa Ana–Orange Seal Beach–Huntington Beach–Newport Beach Terminal Island Torrance Watts Whittier