Seats are going fast for a first-time opportunity to tour the cable car system on the biggest cable car ever built: Sacramento-Clay “Big 19”, at 34 feet a full seven feet longer than Powell cars, and at 136 years, the oldest operating cable car in the world. And you can ride it on Mason and Hyde Streets, as well as California Street, in a four-hour exclusive charter on November 9, starting at 11 a.m., with lunch included from the famous Buena Vista Cafe at the foot of Hyde Street.
The cable car just reentered service after a 77-year “vacation” and operated on California Street during Muni Heritage Weekend. But this extended charter includes a ride up and down the famed Hyde Street Hill, plus a run out Mason Street, Columbus Avenue, and Taylor Street to Fisherman’s Wharf, as well as the full length of the California line and the connecting trackage on lower Hyde Street, only rarely operated with riders on board.
Best of all, the ticket ($125) is tax deductible, because your ride benefits the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank, our nonprofit friends, who will use the proceeds to provide turkeys (delivered by cable car!) to people in need in Chinatown and other communities. This is going to be a hot ticket, with limited ridership to give everyone breathing room. So sign up before it’s too late at this Food Bank page. The great gripman Val Lupiz, who is a lead organizer of the event, will be at the controls of Big 19 for the charter. You don’t want to miss this.
