Cable Car Sesquicentennial Celebration -- August 2, 2023

Today my wonderful and patient wife accompanied me to the Cable Car Sesquicentennial Celebration at Powell and Market. There was a good crowd, and many were in costumes from various eras. I had a nice chat with Emperor Norton. Our host was Rick Laubscher of today's Market Street Railway. The PA system was weak and it was hard to hear some of the speakers. Representative Nancy Pelosi, Mayor London Breed, Supervisor Aaron Peskin, and many others spoke. Andrew S Hallidie had a few remarks. 

Powell Street Car One, which was built to celebrate the Centennial in 1973, was beautifully decorated by Val Lupiz, who also pulled the grip today. The VIPs rode away on the car.

Senator Dianne Feinstein was scheduled to be there, but she wasn't feeling well. 

Cable Car Sesquicentennial Carpentry Shop Tour -- July 7, 2023

Yesterday my wife was kind enough to accompany me to the Cable Car Cable Car Carpentry Shop Tour. I am very lucky.  The tours are in honor of the Cable Car Sesquicentennial. This is the first time the public has been allowed into the shop. Rick Laubscher of the Market Street Railway said that all the free tours for the rest of the year are booked solid. 

The tour was led by the chief carpenter, whose name I did not get (Andrew McCarron -- Thank you to Matthew Lee, Jeremy Whiteman and Norbert Feyling). We started with car 18, a Carter Brothers car that was rebuilt in 1961. Muni crews started to rebuild it at the barn, but found it needed more work than the crew at the barn could handle. Here he stands in front of Cal Cable car 60, one of the three small cars from the Jones Street shuttle. The Market Street Railway repatriated it from Healdsburg where it had been saved in good condition. The paint and the gold leaf trim are original. The front dash leans next to him. 

It was a great tour. 

#CableCarAnniversary

August, 2020 Version of the Cable Car Home Page -- August 1, 2020

Charles Smallwood Collection

I just put the August, 2020 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: Not a cable car this month. Charles Smallwood hand-colored this image of Market Street Railway car 979 sitting at the outer terminal of the 31-Balboa line, at 30th Avenue and Balboa Street. I grew up down the street, but the streetcars were long gone.
2. On the San Francisco Miscellany page: Thanks to Emiliano Echeverria for letting me present a series of photos that were hand-colored by Charles Smallwood
3. Added News update about the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the planned return of Muni Metro service. Updated Cliff Lift article with information about reopenings


Ten years ago this month (August, 2010):
1. Picture of the Month: The intersection of Twelfth and Market Streets in Philadelphia, where the Market Street cable line crossed a horse car line.
2. On the new Pennsylvania page: More about the Philadelphia Traction Company, including a lithograph of Twelfth and Market Streets and an 1892 newspaper article about how Philadelphia gripmen were developing asymmetrically
3. On the Cable Cars in the Pacific Northwest page, photos from our July, 2010 visit to Seattle
4. On the Los Angeles Area funiculars page: Roll out a new article about the funicular at the Victoria Station Restaurant at Universal City. Thank you to John Heller for telling me about the funicular. Also thanks to John for permission to use the only known photo of the Playa Del Rey Incline Railway


Twenty years ago this month (August, 2000):
1. Picture of the Month: Philadelphia Traction train
2. Roll out Philadelphia Traction Company on the Other Cities page.
3. Add news item about bell ringing contest
4. Bibliography: update information about J Bucknall Smith book.

Coming in September:
On the Cable Trams in the UK page: A ten year update on London's Brixton Cable Tramway

150 years ago, on 02-August-1870, London's cable-hauled Tower Subway began service.

125 years ago, on 10-August-1895, the Market Street Railway opened the Fillmore Hill Counterbalance

75 years ago, on 15-August-1945, VJ Day: Huge riots in San Francisco greeted the Japanese surrender

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

Joe Thompson
The Cable Car Home Page (updated 01-August-2020)
http://www.cable-car-guy.com/
San Francisco Bay Ferryboats (updated 31-January-2020)
http://www.cable-car-guy.com/ferry/
Park Trains and Tourist Trains (updated 31-July-2019)
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/

Cry Havoc -- June 2, 2020

www.kalw.org

May came to a wild climax.  We saw a video of a Minneapolis policeman kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, an African-American who was supposed to resemble the description of a man who passed a counterfeit twenty dollar bill.  Floyd died lying face-down in the street, after trying to tell the policeman that he couldn't breathe. Other people tried to get the policeman to lift his knee. Protests were peaceful, but after dark, anarchists, right-wing agents provocateur and thieves rioted and looted in several cities. San Francisco declared a curfew from 8pm to 5am. The policeman who knelt on Floyd's neck was arrested after a few days.  The three policemen who were with him have not yet been arrested.

New York Times, 24-May-2020

People continued to die in large numbers from the TrumpVirus.  The numbers were rising rapidly in states that opened up businesses too soon.

The Market Street Railway's San Francisco Railway Museum has been closed because of the TrumpVirus. Early on the morning of 31-May-2020, during the after-dark looting, people broke into Market Street Railway's San Francisco Railway Museum. They stole tee shirts but left historic items untouched.

SpaceX

In better news, on 30-May-2020, SpaceX made the first launch of  humans into space from the United States since the last Space Shuttle launch in 2011.  The first stage landed on the recovery vessel and the Crew Dragon docked with the  International Space Station on 31-May-2020.  The astronauts, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, enjoyed the trip. I wish them a safe trip  home.

E-Embarcadero Debut -- July 31, 2015

Muni, with the cooperation of the Market Street Railway, inaugurated its new E-Embarcadero line.  It will run from Jones and Beach to the Caltrain Station at Fourth and King.  It can only run with double-ended cars because there is no loop at the Caltrain terminal.  The two Blackpool boat trams, shown at the 2013 Heritage Festival, were there for the inauguration today, but won't run on the line because Muni operates them as single-enders.  At present, the line will only run on weekends. 

Congratulations to the Market Street Railway for the years of hard work to get this line going. 

Muni operated the original E-Union line.

San Francisco History Expo #5 - 01-March-2015

Yesterday we attended the fourth annual San Francisco History Expo at the Old Mint. There was a good crowd. 

At the Market Street Railway exhibit, I had a nice chat with rail historian Mike Sheridan, proprietor of www. johnsonfarebox.com.

The Friends of the Cable Car Museum had an extensive exhibit. I had a nice chat with Mike Phipps, who was going to speak about the Fillmore Hill Counterbalance. Jose Godoy gave us his custom-made buttons.

A beautiful model of Powell Street car 16 at the Friends exhibit.

A model of a Geary Street Park and Ocean Railway grip and trailer train at the Friends exhibit.

A model of a post-1906 Sacramento-Clay car at the Friends exhibit.

Many of the exhibits had an emphasis on the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition. 

I'm grateful to my wife for coming along and patiently putting up with my hobbies.

Muni Heritage Festival 2014 #1 -- November 2, 2014

Yesterday we went downtown for Muni's Heritage Festival. We found rare original-condition O'Farrell-Jones-Hyde cable car 42 at California and Drumm. We had a nice talk with my friend gripman Val Lupiz while he waited his turn. He is proud of the car, which did not come out after last year's festival except for a test run earlier this week. We rode out to Van Ness and back. The car operates smoothly. We had lunch at Osha Thai Restaurant, then went over to the Market Street Railway museum. Car 130 pulled out, but was not picking up passengers. We got on Blackpool Boat 228, where I took the photo of the "Nowhere in Particular" destination sing. We had a nice ride out to Pier 39 and back. The crew had to watch the pole carefully at every switch. Back at the museum, we bought a book and two calendars. We stopped to look at Cal Cable 62, the motorized Jones Street shuttle car. We missed the two bell ringing demonstrations. Then we took BART back.

 

Zip Stripe -- June 19, 2014

The old Market Street Railway, which was taken over by Muni in 1944, tried to make its antique streetcars look more modern by adding the zip stripe in the 1930s.  Muni recently rolled out refurbished Torpedo 1011 in a tribute to a proposed MSR PCC.  I think it looks great.  As Charles Smallwood pointed out in The White Front Cars of San Francisco, the zip stripe does not look so elegant when the car is going the other direction. 

In other news, I was sad to learn of the passing of pianist Horace Silver. 

Tennessee Williams 100 -- March 26, 2011

On the 100th birthday of Tennessee Williams, it seems appropriate to post a photo of a real streetcar named Desire. New Orleans RTC 952, built by Perley Thomas in 1923, ran on the Desire route in New Orleans. It sometimes displays the route sign.

Tennessee Williams was a playwright who was virtually a poet.

I took the photo on 11-August-2009. It shows 952 turning from Mission Street into the Embarcadero, making a short turn on the F line. The Audiffred Building behind it, which survived the Fire and Earthquake in 1906, would fit in well in New Orleans.

Hark the Herald #12 -- October 8, 2010

The Byllesby shield adorned the Market Street Railway's vehicles from 1921 till the Muni took over in 1944, although the outer border with the Byllesby name was removed when the Market Street Railway's management purchased controll of the company from HM Byllesby, a public utilities holding company. Photo by Walter Rice. All rights reserved.

I went to Good Shepherd School on a long lunch break and talked to the Fifth and Sixth graders about Paul Revere. It was fun.

The Giants were ahead 4-0 in the 8th. They let the Braves tie it, then lost in the 11th. Sad. They'll do better on Sunday in Atlanta.

162 on Market Street -- February 22, 2010

Streetcar 162 was built in 1914 to carry people to the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition. It served San Francisco for 44 years, then went to the Orange Empire Museum in Perris, CA for the next 44 years. Now, after a thorough renovation, it is running again in San Francisco. Here is a video clip I caught today. It was a nice, sunny day.