[1] On June 30, 1888, it began operations as a subsidiary of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway.

California Central Railway also built and ran a 13-mile line from Port Ballona (present day Playa del Rey, Los Angeles) on Santa Monica Bay, to Redondo Junction (just southwest of present-day Boyle Heights) at the Los Angeles River near Washington Boulevard, which opened in September 1887.

From Inglewood the line continued to downtown Los Angeles on California Central Railway tracks through the Redondo Junction.

California Central Railway expanded and completed the rail line started by the Riverside, Santa Ana and Los Angeles Railway Company, from Santa Ana to Los Angeles on August 12, 1888, 34 miles.

A Victorian-style depot was erected in 1887 at the site of current San Diego Union Station.

Later this line connected with the San Bernardino & Los Angeles Railway, which later would run the Southwest Chief.

California Central Railway expanded and completed the 21 mile rail line in San Diego County started by the San Diego Central Railroad Co., from Escondido junction, (just south of Oceanside) to Escondido.

However, San Diego Central Railroad only constructed a rail line between Escondido to Oceanside.

In March 1886, the Los Angeles Herald reported that the "surveyors of the Santa Monica Railroad have just crossed the S.P.

The terminus is finally fixed at South Santa Monica, near where the old Juan Bernard wharf is.

"[23] California Central Railway purchased the Los Angeles and Santa Monica Railroad, but the Los Angeles and Santa Monica Railroad company had not started any work on any rail lines, California Central Railway did get needed right of way land.

The 18.03 mi (29.02 km) line was opened for business on September 7, 1887, with stops (from northeast to southwest) at Ballona Junction, Nadeau Park, Baldwin, Slauson, Wildeson, Hyde Park, Inglewood, Danville, Mesmer, and Port Ballona.

A train left Los Angeles at 9:15 a.m. on the one-hour journey and returned from Port Ballona at 4 p.m.[24] San Jacinto Railway was incorporated on March 7, 1887, in Riverside County.

[25][26] Jay Gould and Collis Potter Huntington worked hard to keep the Santa Fe Railway out of the LA and the San Gabriel Valley.

Santa Fe had an expensive agreement to use Southern Pacific Railroad tracks to run trains on from Colton to Los Angeles.

[27] With the May 20, 1887, sale of the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley Railroad to the California Central Railway, a subsidiary railroad of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, the two lines were connected together at Mud Springs, completing the rail line from Chicago to Los Angeles through the San Gabriel Valley.

The Santa Fe line served the San Gabriel Valley until 1994, when the 1994 Northridge earthquake weakened the bridge in Arcadia.