Margaret Hamilton RIP -- Otober 9, 2026

 

nasa/alamy

Computer scientist Margaret Hamilton has died. My condolences to her family. She led the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory team which created the onboard software for NASA's Apollo program and later for the Hubbell Space Telescope.

She spent many years trying to get more women into software engineering. That is a subject that I feel strongly about.

The famous photo shows her with the listings of all the Apollo 11 software. When I started at Wells Fargo, we had to make a listing of each COBOL program that we created or updated. I very rarely looked at them.

nasa/alamy

Halloween is Coming -- October 8, 2026

Halloween is coming. Halloween decorations in Pacifica. I took the photo on 07-October-2026.

Remember Their Names -- October 7, 2026

Linda Battle

The masked thugs of ICE continue to kill and injure people for no reason. This image goes back to July.

Paramount + Warner = Skydance?! -- October 6, 2026

ABC7 San Francisco

It looks as if Paramount has finally succeeded in taking over Warner Brothers. They have agreed to stay in California for some number of years and to spend some amount of money every year for a while. I worry about the Ellison family of oligarchs having control over so much of our media. They have already crippled CBS News. They seem to be working on Turner Classic Movies.

@officialdirtsheetradio

Pigeon Point Lighthouse -- October 5, 2026

On 19-September-2026, we visited the Pigeon Point Lighthouse for the first time since the scaffolding was removed. The only buildings that were accessible were the restrooms, the shop and the fog signal building. 

The original first order Fresnel lens is on display in the fog signal building. It weighs one ton.

Feast of Saint Francis, 2026 -- October 4, 2026

Today is the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi. 800 years ago yesterday, he died.  

After 11am mass at Saint Peter's, we went home and picked up Tiger Lily so she could get blessed. There were more animals than I remember seeing before, and this year she was not the only cat. At least one cat was very unhappy.

October 2026 Version of the Cable Car Home Page -- October 1, 2026

I launched The Cable Car Home Page on AOL thirty years ago in November 1996.

I just put the October 2026 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: An 1894 photo of a Saint Paul City Railway grip and trailer cable train. (Source: Minneapolis Journal / 22-September-1935 and Minnesota Historical Society, Accession number YR1956.3944)
2. On the Other Cities page: A ten year update about the St Paul City Railway. This was my last new article about a Hallidie-type cable car line until I discover one I missed or the people in Dunedin open a new one.
3. On the Who page: A new item about Thomas Lowry, who founded the St Paul City Railway.
4. On the More Muni Photos page: Muni's 2026 Heritage Weekend
5. On the Motion Pictures Which Feature Cable Cars page: I added an article about the movie Yours, Mine and Ours
6. On the Cable Cars in Pennsylvania page: An update about the reopening of the Johnstown Inclined Plane
7. On the Cable Car Lines in Ohio page: A ten year update about the Cincinnati Bell Connector, a modern streetcar line.

Ten years ago this month (October 2016):

"A Horse on Minneapolis." Saint Paul had cable cars and its twin city, Minneapolis, did not. The expression comes from dice games. (Source: Saint Paul Globe / 07-July-1889.)
1. On the Other Cities page: A new article about the St Paul City Railway. This will be my last new article about a Hallidie-type cable car line until I discover one I missed or the people in Dunedin open a new one.
2. On the Cable Car Lines in Ohio page: Thank to Peter Ehrlich, photos of the surviving power houses of Cincinnati's Mount Adams and Eden Park Railway and the Mount Auburn Cable Railway. Also a small item about the Cincinnati Bell Connector, a new streetcar line.
3. On the More Muni Photos page: Muni's 2016 Heritage Weekend On the Who page: Added a profile from the Street Railway Journal about Asa E Hovey, who designed and built the Sutter Street Railway in San Francisco and the State Street cable line, the first in the US outside of San Francisco, in Chicago
4. Added News item about a new book

Twenty years ago this month (October 2006):

1. Picture of the Month: A photo of Joe Lacey posing with Cal Cable Car 50 at California and Drumm, about 1971
2. Joe Lacey has been scanning items from his collection. Thanks to Joe for sharing them with this site:
   • On the More Muni Photos page: A new Muni People section, with a photo of Joe Lacey and one of him and a group of other Cable Car Division men in 1971, modelling new uniforms designed by Bill Blass
   • On the Market Street Cable Railway page, thanks to Emiliano Echevarria, a 1905 United Railroads floor plan of the McAllister Powerhouse
   • On the Chicago page: 21-October-2006 marks the 100th anniversary of the end of cable traction in Chicago, when the former Chicago City Railway's Wabash Avenue line and the North Chicago Clark and Lincoln lines converted to electric traction. Added a photo of a North Chicago cable train.
3. Rolled out a new Advanced Search page
4. On the New York/New Jersey page: A newspaper article about the second cable car line in Brooklyn, New York, the Brooklyn Heights Railroad. "IN THE CONDUIT/Final Preperations for the Montague Street Line", which describes the line's first cable being threaded. I would like to know the name of the poor kid who had to crawl both ways through the blind conduit
5. Thanks to Walter Rice for a review of Woman on the Run, a movie which includes some nice scenes of San Francisco cable cars, electric streetcars, and trolley buses
6. Thanks to Walter Rice and Val Lupiz. A new Chronology item and roster updates on Of Cables and Grips: The Cable Cars of San Francisco
7. Added News and Bibliography items about a complete shutdown, an accident on California Street, and a drop in ridership because of the five dollar fare

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 November 2026: On the Why do I Maintain This Site? page: "Thirty Years in the Hole." The Cable Car Home Page turns 30 years old. That is pretty darn old for a website.

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-October-2026)
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 30-June-2026)
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/