The Pneumatic Rolling-Sphere Carrier Delusion: Lisbon

Saturday, September 6, 2025

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:

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.
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.
Added News items about cable car operating issues and the crash in Lisbon

Ten years ago this month (September 2015):

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.
On the Other Cities page: A new article about the street-running funiculars in Lisbon, Portugal , with several photos of the Elevador do Lavra
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):

Picture of the Month: A Peter Ehrlich photo of Dunedin, NZ cable tram 95.
On the Australia/New Zealand page: Peter Ehrlich's photos of a Dunedin cable tram
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"
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
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
On the Decorated Cable Cars page: Cable cars in the 2005 San Francisco Carnaval Parade.
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/

Friday, August 1, 2025

August 2025 Version of the Cable Car Home Page -- August 1, 2025

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

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

It includes some new items:

Picture of the Month: Grip car and trailer 6 of Lisbon's Graça line was built by the German Maschinenfabrik Esslingen. I wonder if it was photographed on elevated tracks as a builder's photo. Photo courtesy of Maschinenfabrik Esslingen. All rights reserved.
On the Other Cities page: A ten-year update about the Nova Companhia dos Ascensores Mecânicos de Lisboa, which operated two Hallidie-type cable car lines in Lisbon
On the Cable Tramways in Australia and New Zealand page: The extended 2025 Annual Maintenance Shutdown of the Wellington Cable Car
On the Kansas City page: Added the logo of the modern KC Streetcar
Added News items about cable car operating issues and Muni's psychedlic-wrapped vehicles

Ten years ago this month (August 2015):

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.
On the Other Cities page: A new article on the Nova Companhia dos Ascensores Mecânicos de Lisboa, which operated two Hallidie-type cable car lines in Lisbon
On the Cable Car Bell Ringing Contest page, added photos and videos of the 52nd Annual Cable Car Bell Ringing Contest
Added News and information about Muni fare changes

Twenty years ago this month (August 2005):

Picture of the Month: A Walter Rice photo of Powell Street car 25 with the round dash signs it sported until 1982.
On the Cable Car Transfers, Tickets, Tokens and Signage page: Thanks to Walter Rice and Val Lupiz, a collection of Powell Street dash signs. Also an 1898 Cal Cable dividend check.
On the San Francisco page: Walter Rice has two more stories about Samuel Kahn, Market Street Railway's principal owner: "Samuel Kahn Paints a Streetcar White," about private party car San Francisco, and "Samuel Kahn, Inventor," about the creation of the White Front Car, with a copy of the patent
Also on the San Francisco page: Thanks to Phil Hoffman, an item about the movie I Love a Soldier, which featured Barry Fitzgerald as a gripman. Also thanks to Phil Hoffman, an update to the item about the movie In Harm's Way.
On the New York/New Jersey page: More 1887 newspaper articles about the first cable car line in Brooklyn, New York. A CABLE CAR ACCIDENT, about a pedestrian getting injured, and . EXTENDING THE CABLE ROAD, about extending the cable and possibly running cars across the Brooklyn Bridge using the Johnson system
Thanks to Phil Hoffman, added Chronology item about Adlai Stevenson campaigning from the back platform of Powell car 504 in 1956. Added a Time Magazine photo of the event to the article on Photos of Car 44 (retired Powell Street car 504/4) at Pac Bell Park
Added more Chronology items

75 years ago - 1950
Aug 14 - Cal Cable's O'Farrell, Jones and Hyde cable car service north of California Street is replaced by shuttle buses (San Mateo-Burlingame Transit, Ford buses) to Chestnut Street only because of Broadway Tunnel construction.
Aug 21 - The San Francisco Grand Jury reported that during the calendar year 1949 Muni’s Powell Street cable cars lost $145,089. The railway "is powerless to eliminate the loss, as the voters mandated continuance of the Municipal cable cars." Heavy capital expenditures for track and "other essentials" will be required to keep cable cars in operation. The operating costs, per vehicle service hour, were trolley buses $4.72, motor buses $5.15 streetcars (two-man) $ 8.76 and cable cars $9.52.

Coming in September 2025:

On the Other Cities page: A ten-year update about the the street-running funiculars in Lisbon, Portugal, with several photos of the Elevador do Lavra

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-August-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/