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

I just put the April 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: A first day of issue cachet for the cable car stamp from 1988. Note that the Powell-Hyde car is numbered 146. Does anyone recognize the artist's name?
2. On the Cable Car Kitsch page: 
3. More collectible items about cable cars, including: three first day of issue cachets for the 1988 cable car transportation stamp; a Matchbox auto decorated with a cable car; moved Santa Clara University's Cable Car Classic to its own section and added a program from 1969; added a Christmas ornament with Santa on a cable car; a wooden locomotive decorated for the San Francisco Giants (not a cable car); 1949 Examiner ads for cable car pins and wheel spinners and gearshift knobs with pictures of cable cars
4. Changed the toy cable car picture on the main page to Department 56 cable car.
5. Added News items about cable car service interruptions

Ten years ago this month (April 2015):

1. Picture of the Month: Fillmore Hill Counterbalance cars coupled together to run in Multiple Unit for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. (Source: "Two-Car Trains on 25 Per Cent Grade," Electric Railway Journal, 22-May-1915.)
2. On the San Francisco page: The Fillmore Hill Counterbalance and the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition
3. On the Kitsch page: A Melbourne stamp; a new toy cable car 504; a bottle of fingernail polish; a refrigerator magnet; a Starbucks mug; a Cal Tjader album cover; a Vince Guaraldi/Bola Sete album cover with a photo of California Street Cable Railroad car 10 at the San Francisco Zoo;
4. On the Market Street Cable Railway page: Thanks to Val Lupiz, a circa-1885 Market Street Cable Railway advertisement
5. Changed toy cable car picture on the main page to rear three-quarter view of toy cable car 504, with free-standing figures.

Twenty years ago this month (April 2005):

1. Picture of the Month: The cover of the second edition of Of Cables and Grips: The Cable Cars of San Francisco.
2. On the Kitsch page: A Downbeat magazine cover and more Hard Rock Cafe pins.
3. On the New York/New Jersey page: A contemporary newspaper article about the experimental non-grip line on the grounds of a lunatic asylum in Binghamton, New York
4. Added News and Bibliography items about the wildcat strike by Cable Car Division crews and the proposal to drastically increase cable car fares
5. On the Roster page: Powell Street Paint Schemes, with early examples of Blue and Gold and Green and Cream cars. Photos courtesy of Walter Rice.
6. Walter Rice provided another Sutro Railroad ticket and two current $3 collectors’ series tickets for the Cable Car Transfers, Tickets and Tokens page. Val Lupiz provided a rare Clay Street Hill Railroad ticket.
7. Changed toy cable car picture on the main page to red Number 28.

125 years ago - 1900
Apr 01 - Denver City Cable Company (Denver, Colorado) Larimer line converted to electricity
Apr 24 - Andrew Smith Hallidie died

50 years ago - 1975
Apr 08 - Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run, taking the lifetime home run record from Babe Ruth

25 years ago - 2000 Apr 24 - The California street line back in service after conduit reconstruction

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 May 2025: On the Cable Car Lines in Saint Louis page: A ten-year update about the Peoples' Railway, including contemporary newspaper items.

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-April-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-December-2024)
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/

OH BOY! Baseball Season is Here! -- March 24, 2025

Seattle Star, 20-March-1925

I sure am looking forward to the new season. The Seattle Star offered to help kids acquire the tools of the trade, a bat, a glove and a ball, in return for taking subscription orders.

Pacifica Pier -- March 23, 2025

On 14-March-2025, I went for a walk by the Pacifica Pier. The waves were moderate. Wednesday, we had thunderstorms and violent rain. I was surprised that the power stayed on.

SMART at Rohnert Park -- March 22, 2025

On 08-March-2025 we drove to Rohnert Park to visit my mother-in-law. I ran over to the train station to see the 12:39 northbound SMART train go by. The DMUs look nice and don't smell bad. Note the gauntlet tracks. The outer pair allows freight trains to pass the platform. SMART runs on the tracks of my favorite railroad, the Northwestern Pacific.

Swastikar -- March 21, 2025

I took this photo of a Swastikar in the parking lot at Pedro Point on 02-March-2025. When Tesla first started, I thought it would be wonderful to see a new American auto manufacturer be born and thrive. But then it turned out that the primary owner of the company had fascist sympathies and actively participated in destroying our government. I find the concept revolting, but I like the color.

Zeiss Ikon Ikonta 35 -- March 20, 2025

Detroit Free Press, 30-March-1950

After World War Two, 35mm cameras became popular in America. Zeiss-Ikon, a subsidiary of Carl Zeiss AG, a German company, made the Ikonta series of cameras.

Sweeping Reductions on All Kodaks -- March 19, 2025

Brownsville Herald, 22-March-1925

Holm's Camera Art Shop offered "Sweeping Reductions on All Kodaks." I see Vest Pocket Box Cameras were reduced from $1.00 to $0.68.