Monday, April 1, 2019

April, 2019 Version of the Cable Car Home Page

I just put the April, 2019 version of my Cable Car Home Page on the server:

It includes some new items:
1. Picture of the Month: A Starbucks card with an image of a cable car. It is difficult to find a block downtown that does not have a Starbucks or Peete's Coffee. Some have both.
2. On the Other California Cities page: A ten and twenty year update on the short-lived Oakland Cable Railway
3. On the Kitsch page: A refrigerator magnet; a 1978 schedule from the Cable Car Cinema in Providence, Rhode Island; a United Airlines ticket jacket; two toy plastic cable carst, 1973.
4. Changed toy cable car picture on the main page to blue and red toy plastic cable cars.

Ten years ago this month (April, 2009):
1. Picture of the Month: Former O'Farrel/Jones/Hyde cable car 59 at Knott's Berry Farm. Fitted with electric motors on its trucks, it served as a parking lot tram from about 1955 to about 1979.
2. More about former San Francisco cable cars at Knott's Berry Farm, including a map of the two routes
3. Also on the Other California Cities page: More about the Oakland Cable Railway, including contemporary newspaper articles
-- The Lorings to Resign (San Francisco Morning Call, Tuesday, May 29, 1894). "They have been connected with the roads (cable and electric - JT) since the cable was built and are perfectly conversant with every detail of the business. It is rumored that their resignations were requested."
-- Martin Succeeds Lorings (San Francisco Morning Call, Friday, June 1, 1894). "Mr. Martin of San Francisco, an experienced railroad man, will succeed the Lorings..."
-- Cable Car Struck by Steam Train -- a series of articles about a fatal accident in December, 1894.
-- Battle Over Assessments (San Francisco Morning Call, Thursday, July 15, 1897). Southern Pacific's attorney battled to get assessments reduced: "2.35 miles of cable on San Pablo avenue, from $83,225 to $47,000; franchise on the same, from $71,000 to $10,000; .35 of a mile of cable-road near Park avenue, from 11,750 to $3500..."
-- Only Broad Tracks Now/The Unpopular Narrow Gauge Torn Up (San Francisco Morning Call, Sunday, September 4, 1898). An article about the beginning of the process to convert the former South Pacific Coast line to standard gauge mentions that "The railroad company has also contracted for the material for changing the San Pablo cable road into an electric system, the contract being contingent on the permission of the City Council to make the change."
4. On the Kitsch page: A matchbook from Cable Car Steaks; a centennial coin issued by the Railway and Locomotive Historical Society; a Knott's Berry Farm paper plate; a Cable Car Clothiers button; a Hard Rock Cafe 2008 pin; plastic toy cable car 504; a Christmas ornament
5. On the Motion Pictures Which Feature Cable Cars page: Thanks to Jack Tillmany, I added Starlift
6. Added News and Bibliography items about problems with the Powell Street cable
7. Changed toy cable car picture on the main page to a front-end view of Number 512.

Twenty years ago this month (April, 1999):
1. Picture of the Month: Oakland Cable Railway car.
2. Roll out Oakland Cable Railway on the Other California Cities page
3. Add Knott's Berry Farm cable car article to Los Angeles miscellany on the Other California Cities page
4. Add thanks/links to cable car email list and Railway Preservation News. Add links to The American Heritage Time Machine and The Engines of Our Ingenuity.
5. Add Powell and California Street pictures to the roster page

Coming in May, 2019: On the Other California Cities page: A ten and twenty year update on Oakland's Consolidated Piedmont Cable Company

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

Joe Thompson
The Cable Car Home Page (updated 01-April-2019)
http://www.cable-car-guy.com/
San Francisco Bay Ferryboats (updated 31-January-2019)
http://www.cable-car-guy.com/ferry/
Park Trains and Tourist Trains (updated 30-September-2018)
http://www.cable-car-guy.com/ptrain/
The Pneumatic Rolling-Sphere Carrier Delusion (updated spasmodically)
http://cablecarguy.blogspot.com
The Big V Riot Squad (new blog)
http://bigvriotsquad.blogspot.com/

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