2025 Summary -- December 31, 2025

listal.com

2025 was another interesting year. President T***p and his minions tried to destroy our country, ignoring the rule of law.

Occupy Democrats

January got off to a wild start. On the morning of the First, a terrorist plowed into people celebrating on Bourbon Street, killing 15 people and wounding many more. Later in the same day, a Tesla Cybertruck exploded in the driveway of the T***p Hotel in Las Vegas. At first, no one knew if it was just a Tesla blowing up like usual, but we later learned that it was a suicide.

President Tr***mp went on a rampage after he was inaugurated. He tried to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. He offered early retirement to many thousands of federal employees. He illegally dismissed a number of Inspectors General. He gutted the CIA and the FBI. 

Time, February 23, 2025

Wildfires in the Los Angeles area burned for weeks, killing at least 29 people.

December 2025 Version of the Cable Car Home Page -- December 12, 2025

I just put the December 2025 version of my Cable Car Home Page on the server:

http://www.cable-car-guy.com/

It includes some new items:

1. Picture of the Month: Santa and friends will ride a cable car down Powell Street to the Emporium. "His cable car reaches Powell and Market at 11 a.m." (Source: San Francisco Examiner, 1949-10-28).
2. With Christmas coming, it's a good time to visit the late Joe Lacey's article Christmas on the Cables, and the Decorated Cable Cars page. Added a photo of Santa riding atop a cable car and a 1952 Emporium ad about the 1950 Santacade to Christmas on the Cables. Also Santa's Cable Car coming to Hyde and Beach. Cable car Christmas decorations celebrated their 20th anniversary.
3. Added News and Chronology items about Santa's Cable Car, service issues, the Merry Days of Muni Holiday Collection and the last day of San Francisco's Breda cars
4. On the Kansas City page: A promotion for the opening of the KC Streetcar's Holiday Jam

Ten years ago this month (December 2015):

1. Picture of the Month: Cable car 504 decorated as Santa's sleigh. (source: Trolley Topics, December, 1950)
2. With Christmas coming, it's a good time to visit Joe Lacey's article Christmas on the Cables, and the Decorated Cable Cars page. On the Christmas on the Cable page, Iddded a new image to Christmas on the Cables, showing car 504 decorated as Santa's sleigh. On the Decorated Cable Cars page, added Val Lupiz photos of Powell Street Car One decorated for Christmas, 2015. We should all thank Val Lupiz and his family and Friends who decorate cars every year.
3. On the More MSR Photos page: The Fate of the Old Sacramento and Clay St. Cable Car #16 by Stephen Brown
4. Added News item about Muni closing almost two blocks of lower Powell Street to automobile traffic

Twenty years ago this month (December 2005):

1. Picture of the Month: An invitation which Val Lupiz designed for the Cable Car Division's 2005 luncheon for Senior Citizens.
2. On the Decorated Cable Cars page: The luncheon invitation
3. On the San Francisco page: A new page about Motorized Cable Cars. Notes from Walter Rice and Val Lupiz on Cal Cable 61/62
4. Also on the San Francisco page: Thanks to Jack Tillmany, item about the movies Fools, part of which was shot in the cable car barn, and Fog Over Frisco, a 1934 movie with glimpses of cable cars.
5. On the Muni page: Thanks to Ray Long, a photo of 524 running on Broadway in Los Angeles for a 1949 Shriners parade
6. On the More MSR Photos page: Val Lupiz found a postcard of an MSR cable RPO car
7. On the Cable Car Transfers, Tickets, Tokens and Signage page: Thanks to Walter Rice, a TWA poster
8. On the New York/New Jersey page: Two 1886 newspaper articles about the first cable car line in Brooklyn, New York. WANTS TO USE THE CABLE, about a request for permission to use cable traction and CABLE ROAD/The Aldermen Inspect the New York Variety, about a junket to inspect a Manhattan line. Also an 1893 article, The Passing of Richardson, about the death of Brooklyn Cable Company promoter William Richardson
9. Added News items about new Powell Street cable car book signing and a meltdown on the Hyde Street line. Also added Nick Kibre photo to the item about Cal Cable car 59 in New Orleans
10. Added Bibliography items: Obituaries for Grimes Poznikov, Chester Smith, and Guillermo P Mendoza, Sr. Also a report of a 1980 publicity stunt

In January 2024 I started on a long overdue process of cleaning things up on my site. I started with the development pages. Actually, I guess I started the year before with making most thumbnails 200 pixels instead of 100.

Coming in January 2026: On the Cable Tramways in Australia and New Zealand page: More about Dunedin, New Zealand's Roslyn Tramway, the first Hallidie-type cable tram line outside of San Francisco.

The Cable Car Home Page now has a Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/CableCarHomePage/

The Cable Car Home Page also has an Instagram page:
https://www.instagram.com/cable_car_guy/

Joe Thompson
The Cable Car Home Page (updated 01-December-2025)
http://www.cable-car-guy.com/
San Francisco Bay Ferryboats (updated 31-October-2024)
http://www.cable-car-guy.com/ferry/
Park Trains and Tourist Trains (updated 31-October-2025)
http://www.cable-car-guy.com/ptrain/
The Pneumatic Rolling-Sphere Carrier Delusion (updated spasmodically)
http://cablecarguy.blogspot.com
The Big V Riot Squad (updated obsessively)
http://bigvriotsquad.blogspot.com/

November 2025 Version of the Cable Car Home Page -- November 3, 2025

I just put the November 2025 version of my Cable Car Home Page on the server:

http://www.cable-car-guy.com/

It includes some new items:

1. Picture of the Month: The Las Casitas Railway is a private funicular on San Francisco's Russian Hill. It still serves a group of townhouses. (Source: San Francisco Examiner, 1960-10-02).
2. On the new Northern California Funiculars page: Added new items about the Shasta Springs Incline, the Shadowbrook Restaurant, Capitola and Private Funiculars. Moved Telegraph Hill Railroad, the Fillmore Hill Counterbalance and the The Fairfax Incline Railway from the San Francisco Miscellany page.
3. On the Kansas City page: A postcard showing the Kansas City Cable Railway's destination, the Union Depot and a banner from the opening of the KC Streetcar's Main Street Extension

Ten years ago this month (November 2015):

1. Picture of the Month: A Churchman's Cigarettes card shows a cable-hauled train leaving a tunnel on Brazil's São Paulo Railway.
2. On the Other Cities page: A new article about Brazil's São Paulo Railway, a British-built line that used cable traction to haul freight and passengers up and down the Serra do Mar

Twenty years ago this month (November 2005):

1. Picture of the Month: Valencia Street cable car, 1904.
2. On the San Francisco page: San Francisco Cable Car Service, 1903 -- based on the San Francisco Official Street Railway Directory, 1903. Thanks to Walter Rice.
3. On the San Francisco page: A Photo Album of 1970s Cable Car Supporters by Walter Rice
4. On the More MSR Photos page: Valencia Street cable car, 1903
5. On the New York/New Jersey page: 1886 newspaper articles about the first cable car line in Brooklyn, New York. MR. RICHARDSON'S CABLE ROAD, about an early petition for permission to build the line and TO ADOPT JOHNSON'S SYSTEM, about the choice of the Johnson ladder cable system to operate it
6. Added News item about new Powell Street cable car book

In January 2024 I started on a long overdue process of cleaning things up on my site. I started with the development pages. Actually, I guess I started the year before with making most thumbnails 200 pixels instead of 100.

Coming in December 2025: On the San Francisco page: With Christmas coming, it's a good time to visit the late Joe Lacey's article Christmas on the Cables, and the Decorated Cable Cars page.

The Cable Car Home Page now has a Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/CableCarHomePage/

The Cable Car Home Page also has an Instagram page:
https://www.instagram.com/cable_car_guy/

Joe Thompson
The Cable Car Home Page (updated 01-November-2025)
http://www.cable-car-guy.com/
San Francisco Bay Ferryboats (updated 31-October-2024)
http://www.cable-car-guy.com/ferry/
Park Trains and Tourist Trains (updated 31-October-2025)
http://www.cable-car-guy.com/ptrain/
The Pneumatic Rolling-Sphere Carrier Delusion (updated spasmodically)
http://cablecarguy.blogspot.com
The Big V Riot Squad (updated obsessively)
http://bigvriotsquad.blogspot.com/

September 2025 Version of the Cable Car Home Page -- September 6, 2025

I just put the September 2025 version of my Cable Car Home Page on the server:

http://www.cable-car-guy.com/

It includes some new items:

1. Picture of the Month: Lisbon has three street-running funiculars. On 04-September-2025, the Elevador da Glória (Route 51e) suffered a fatal crash when the upper car ran away and hit a building. At least 17 are dead. Image courtesy of Google News.
2. On the Cable Car Lines in Other Cities page: A ten-year update about street-running funiculars in Lisbon, Portugal , with several Carrus website items about the Elevador da Bica, the Elevador da Glória and the Elevador do Lavra. The Elevador da Glória suffered a fatal crash.
3. Added News items about cable car operating issues and the crash in Lisbon

Ten years ago this month (September 2015):

1. Picture of the Month: Car 4 of Lisbon's Camões-Estrela line was built by the German Maschinenfabrik Esslingen. I wonder if it on a transfer table. Photo courtesy of Maschinenfabrik Esslingen.
2. On the Other Cities page: A new article about the street-running funiculars in Lisbon, Portugal , with several photos of the Elevador do Lavra
3. On the Municipal Railway page: The San Francisco Municipal Transit Agency announces measures to improve the safety of cable car crews

Twenty years ago this month (September 2005):

1. Picture of the Month: A Peter Ehrlich photo of Dunedin, NZ cable tram 95.
2. On the Australia/New Zealand page: Peter Ehrlich's photos of a Dunedin cable tram
3. On the San Francisco page: Part Four of Walter Rice and Emiliano Echevarria's "When Steam Ran on the Streets of San Francisco: The Ocean Shore Railroad"
4. Added News and Bibliography items about accidents at Powell and California and California and Drumm. Also news items about the abusive $5 fare and the presentation of a cable car bell to the outgoing Archbishop
5. On the New York/New Jersey page: More 1887 newspaper articles about the first cable car line in Brooklyn, New York. The Rope Broke, about a rope break, and DISSATISFACTION ON THE CABLE ROAD, about labor unrest and a possible shutdown
6. On the Decorated Cable Cars page: Cable cars in the 2005 San Francisco Carnaval Parade.
7. Added more Chronology items

175 years ago - 1850
Sep 9 - California was admitted to the Union as the 31st state
Sep 17 - The Fourth Great Fire destroyed the area bounded by Dupont, Montgomery, Washington and Pacific

125 years ago - 1900
Sep 04 - Front Street Cable Railway (Seattle, Washington) converted to electricity. The section on Queen Anne Hill was converted to a counterbalance.

75 years ago - 1950
Sep 17 - "Service on Line No. 59 (Powell-Mason cable car) will be discontinued on account of construction work on the Broadway Tunnel. A partial substitution of service will be instituted by motor coaches to connect with Line No. 60 (Washington-Jackson cable car) at Powell and Washington Streets." Muni "NOTICE TO PUBLIC" dated September 13, 1950.

In January 2024 I started on a long overdue process of cleaning things up on my site. I started with the development pages. Actually, I guess I started the year before with making most thumbnails 200 pixels instead of 100.

Coming in October 2025: On the San Francisco page: A new article about private funiculars in San Francisco

The Cable Car Home Page now has a Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/CableCarHomePage/

The Cable Car Home Page also has an Instagram page:
https://www.instagram.com/cable_car_guy/

Joe Thompson
The Cable Car Home Page (updated 06-September-2025)
http://www.cable-car-guy.com/
San Francisco Bay Ferryboats (updated 31-October-2024)
http://www.cable-car-guy.com/ferry/
Park Trains and Tourist Trains (updated 31-May-2025)
http://www.cable-car-guy.com/ptrain/
The Pneumatic Rolling-Sphere Carrier Delusion (updated spasmodically)
http://cablecarguy.blogspot.com
The Big V Riot Squad (updated obsessively)
http://bigvriotsquad.blogspot.com/

Finished Pictures in a Minute -- August 11, 2025

Chicago Tribune, 25-August-1925

In 1948, Edwin Land started selling his great invention, the Polaroid instant camera. In 1950, the Bolotin Camera Exhange in offered the Polaroid Land Camera for $89.75. 

One of my uncle's had a Polaroid camera in the 1960s, the first one I had seen, and loved to tell people how wonderful it was. At that time, even though I was very young, I wondered how long the photos would last and retain their colors.

Going Holidaying? Take a Camera With You -- 11-August-1925

Toronto Star, 07-August-1925

T Eaton and Company in Toronto offered a staggering variety of cameras, mostly Kodaks.

Excursion Fares from Pasadena to the Beaches -- August 10, 2025

Pasadena Post, 24-August-1925

The Pacific Electric Railway operated its famous Red Cars on interurban and streetcar routes throughout the Los Angeles area. The PE offered "Week-End Round Trip Excursion Fares from Pasadena to the Beaches."