Thursday, August 1, 2024

August 2024 Version of the Cable Car Home Page -- August 1, 2024


02-August-2024 will be the 151st birthday of the cable car.

I just put the August 2024 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: This want ad offers to sell a store and attached dwelling which would "enhance rapidly when Columbia cable line is completed." (source: Want ad, Washington Evening Star, 02-October-1894.)
  2. On the Cable Car Lines in the District of Columbia and Baltimore page: A ten year update about Washington DC's Columbia Railway including contemporary newspaper items and images. The company built the last new cable line in the United States
  3. Added News item about Powell Street cable cars delayed by a cable issue

Ten years ago this month (August, 2014):

  1. Picture of the Month: Columbia Railway grip car (source: "Completion of the Cable System of the Columbia Railway, Washington, D. C.", Street Railway Journal, April, 1895.)
  2. On the Cable Car Lines in the District of Columbia and Baltimore page: Washington DC's Columbia Railway, the last new cable car system built in the United States
  3. On the Who page: Added a profile from the Street Railway Journal about Fred W Wood, who was president of the Temple Street Cable Railway of Los Angeles

Twenty years ago this month (August, 2004):

  1. Picture of the Month: A stamp showing former cable car 72/73 in Douglas, Isle of Man, in honor of the 75th anniversary of the abandonment of the Upper Douglas Cable Tramway.
  2. In honor of the 75th anniversary of the abandonment of the Upper Douglas Cable Tramway, added some new items on the UK page: Articles by Walter Rice about the Isle of Man Railway and the Manx Electric Railway.
  3. Added photos from the 2004 Bell Ringing contest, including photos of all the finalists. Also added more information about the contests from 1985 through 1994, and an article by Muni historian Bob Callwell about the history of the contest: "The Annual Cable Car Bell-Ringing Contest - A San Francisco Tradition". I added photos of Cal Cable's Alexander Nielsen, who won the first contest in 1949, and Francesca Cresci, Miss Cable Car 1972
  4. Added two 1892 magazine articles about the end of the original Clay Street Hill Railroad, with and introduction by Walter Rice
  5. Migrated one item from the Cable Car Museum site:
    • Added "Proper Techniques and Body Positions for Cable Car Gripmen", a 1972 ergonomic memo preserved by RT Murphy to the page with the 1976 "Instructions for Cable Car Operations", also preserved by Bob.

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 last year with making the thumbnails 200 pixels instead of 100.

Coming in September, 2024: On the Who Was Important in the History of the Cable Car? page: A ten year update about the passing of Professor George W Hilton, author of The Cable Car in America.

100 Years Ago This Month (August, 1924):
Aug 01 - The City of Glasgow takes ownership of the cable-operated Glasgow District Subway

25 Years Ago This Month (August, 1999):
Aug 01 - Muni rolled out new California Street Car 59 to honor the 125th birthday of the cable car

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-2024)
http://www.cable-car-guy.com/
San Francisco Bay Ferryboats (updated 31-July-2024)
http://www.cable-car-guy.com/ferry/
Park Trains and Tourist Trains (updated 29-February-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/

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