Muni’s Cable Car Carpentry Shop has worked its magic many times in bringing sagging and spent cable cars back to life. Powell Car 8, which reentered service in 2022, may be its greatest accomplishment yet.
The story starts in early 2017. The author, MSR President Rick Laubscher, was at Muni’s “boneyard” on Marin Street next to Islais Creek, helping evaluate the condition of unrestored PCC streetcars. Off in a corner, a wooden frame caught his eye. The number ‘8’ was scrawled on it. He recognized it as all that was left of Powell Cable Car 8, originally built in 1893 by Carter Brothers as 508, and partially renovated at Muni’s decrepit Elkton Shops in 1958. (At that time, Muni had not yet begun full renovations of cable cars.)
Car 8 was taken out of service in April 2006, too worn out to continue. Later moved to the cable car carpentry shop, the crew took off rotten pieces until only the frame remained. In 2009, they decided to truck the fame off to storage and start on another car.
In doing so, they overlooked the fact that the cable car fleet is federally protected as a National Historic Landmark (like the St. Charles streetcar fleet in New Orleans). The full roster of cars must be maintained. No 8? Not great, especially when the car had already been missing from service for more than a decade.
The author contacted the then-head of cable car operations, Ed Cobean, and informed him of the dilemma. Cobean responded that he already had a list of cable cars that needed rebuilding and could only schedule Car 8 after those were done, which he expected would be in about ten years.
The author wasn’t alone in his concern. Both the head of cable car maintenance, Arne Hansen, and the newly-installed supervisor of the carpentry shop, Andrew McCarron, had also discovered the skeletal frame of Car 8 and urged Cobean to move it to the top of the rehab list. He did, and on June 11, 2018, the remnant of Powell Car 8 made the seven-block trip from the Boneyard to the Cable Car Carpentry Shop in Dogpatch to begin its resurrection.
Up from rock bottom
The frame of Car 8 turned out to be pretty solid, McCarron says. A few pieces of the frame blocking needed replacing, but the rest was retained, and reinforced on the perimeter with 5/8”-thick steel straps, carriage-bolted to the frame, with steel pieces also welded across the frame to the two bolsters, which sit atop the trucks (bogies, to our readers abroad). New trucks, fabricated in Muni’s vaunted Special Machine Shop, would be waiting at the end of the job to replace the temporary shop trucks holding up the car.
From there, it was a case of following a well-honed playbook, literally. The shop has a full set of patterns for the component pieces of both Powell and California cars. The master carpentry team set out shaping the individual pieces to specification, using top-quality white oak for the superstructure and Alaskan cedar for the roof. [See Wood you like to know? below.]
The team gave thought to functional improvements. For example, the batteries on Car 8 are housed under the seats of the closed section, hidden in a slide-out tray behind a removable kick panel for easy changeout. A tiny socket outside the car allows the nighttime charging cord to be connected quickly. This new standard installation feeds LED lighting that draws less current, important because the batteries must also power seven onboard security cameras now required by the state, most of them tiny and unnoticeable. The carpenters and painters also added little touches to make the car distinctive, demonstrating their craft.
Covid stretched out the resurrection of Car 8. Staffing shortages and safety protocols slowed the work but certainly didn’t compromise the quality. From frame to finish carpentry took three years, with truck and brake rigging installation, finish painting and detailing following at the Cable Car Barn.
Though we and Jeremy Menzies of SFMTA photo-documented Car 8’s revival, we both got scooped by Preservation Magazine from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which posted an online version of its Winter 2022 article in late February. [Go to savingplaces.org and search on “cable car”.] That article quotes McCarron extensively, but he insists that the credit belongs to what he calls “a very talented, committed team.” We agree.
More than a century ago, President William Howard Taft, surveying San Francisco’s resurrection from the 1906 earthquake and fire, called it “the city that knows how.” You’d get some pretty spirited arguments on that concerning some aspects of San Francisco today, but when it comes to restoring our priceless cable car fleet, it’s still true.
They revived Powell Car 8
Management & Supervision
Wesley Valaris, Senior Operations Manager
Arne Hansen, Superintendent Vehicle Maintenance
Andrew McCarron, Woods Cable Car Carpenter Supervisor 1
Harold (Harry) Stewart, Special Machine Shop Supervisor 1
Richard Bernal, Woods Auto Body & Fender Supervisor 1
Carpenters
Joseph Byrne
Luis Ferreia
Todd Hurley
Keith McCombs
Mark Sobichevsky
Antoni (Pete) Cunha
Michael Faulkner
Ian Geoghegan
Pattern Maker
He Du
Painters
Daniel Hicks
Henry Pegueros
Electrical Transit Mechanics (wiring, truck/brake installation)
Kevin Lee
Sammy Li
Phetsamorn Khotpanya
Lin Win
Luis Carazo
Welder
Jose Guzman
Maintenance Machinists
Guillermo Sanchez
Maximillian Luna
William Werner
Andrew McCarron asked that we give a big shout out to Arne Hansen and his team at the Cable Car Barn, which did the electrical and mechanical work and final painting and detailing on Car 8, and the paint team at Woods Motor Coach Division, which applied premium automotive paint (in “Mack Coach Green”) to all the paneling on the car before assembly, improving appearance and durability.
See a full set of Jeremy Menzies’ great shots of 8’s revival at sfmta.photoshelter.com, search on “Powell cable car 8”
Wood you like to know?
Cable cars are wooden vehicles of course (with some steel in the framing hidden from view).
So the type and quality of wood used matters, for both appearance and durability.
Over the decades, cable car companies have used various wood species to build and repair the little cars, depending on what was available and—when companies were struggling financially—affordable. At some times, softwoods like pine were used in some applications (though sturdy oak has always been the rule for the frames).
In the last half-century, Muni’s cable car rebuilding program, which always sees two cars in the carpentry shop for rebuilding and several more at a time being renovated at the cable car barn, has evaluated the durability and appearance of various species in real-world operating conditions over decades of use, and has come to embrace oak, cedar, and mahogany for specific parts of the cars.
Powell Car 8 is framed in white oak because of its strength and water resistance. White oak is also used on the seats. The wood strips that form the roof are Alaskan cedar. (White cedar, used on some past restorations, turns gray quickly in the elements. For decades, the ceilings of most Powell cars were painted (usually white or cream, with lead paint in the old days). More recently, Muni’s builders seal the natural wood with clear protection to let its natural beauty show through. Philippine mahogany was used for the interior door, window frames, the roof letterboards, and some trim.
