November 1, 2010August 9, 2014 Rick Laubscher

Waiting Since 1958: Giants’ Bus Finally Comes

November 1, 2010August 9, 2014 Rick Laubscher History Spotlight, Posts with Photos

I first saw the Giants play the year this photo was taken. It’s April 1958 and a packed Marmon-Herrington trolley coach, already about 10 years old, is filled with Giants’ fans at Seals Stadium, 16th and Bryant Streets. If you think your wait for a Muni bus or streetcar today is long, think about my wait from that first day at Seals Stadium. I was hooked immediately and have stayed hooked ever since, more than 52 years now.When I was a teenager, I regularly rode the 30X Ballpark Express (usally an old Mack bus, once in awhile an even older White) from Fourth and Market to Candlestick, even at night, to see the Giants. Mays. McCovey. Cepeda. Marichal. Alou (Felipe and Matty). Bonds (Bobby). From those days all the way through the N-line and shuttles to Third and King, I’ve ridden many generations of Muni vehicles and watched many generations of Giants. Clark (Jack). Clark (Will). Dravecky. Williams. Bonds (Barry). Kent. Alou (Moises). And so many more. All the while hoping “this will be the year.”Now it is. For every San Francisco Giant, every Giants fan, everyone who rode Muni home in elation or despair after those thousands of games since 1958 — this is for all of us.Congratulations, Champs!

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October 29, 2010August 9, 2014 Rick Laubscher

Come Out of the Rain!

October 29, 2010August 9, 2014 Rick Laubscher Muni News, Posts with Photos

The long-awaited shed at Geneva Division is covering its first streetcars tonight. Vulnerable canvas-roofed streetcars including 1914 Muni No. 130 and 1926 Johnstown, PA No. 351 (left) were joined by venerable 1916 work car No. C-1 in taking shelter under the new canopy structure, after the 600 volt overhead wires were activated today. Regular F-line revenue streetcars, including PCCs, Milan trams, and older vintage cars, are pulling into the shed tonight.Market Street Railway is working with Muni to schedule a formal dedication of the facility, which our organization has advocated for more than a dozen years, helping Muni arrange funding from the San Francisco Municipal Railway Improvement Corporation (SFMRIC), among other sources.What a warm sight on a rainy night! Congratulations to all at Muni who have supported this effort.

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October 28, 2010August 9, 2014 Rick Laubscher

The Giants-Cleveland-F line Connection

October 28, 2010August 9, 2014 Rick Laubscher News, Posts with Photos

Our friends at Curbed SF posted this photo as part of their Giants’ coverage. No doubt because of the orange and cream livery. Doubt they know that F-line PCC No. 1075 actually pays tribute to Cleveland Transit System! Wait, there’s actually a connection, though. Cleveland Transit System’s streetcars were painted in this livery in 1948, the last time the Indians won the World Series (one of only two teams with a longer championship drought than the Giants (the Chicago Cubs are even more hapless) . And it was in 1954 that Cleveland Transit System’s last streetcars stopped running, the same year that the Giants last won the World Series, beating — the Cleveland Indians! (But streetcars in Cleveland continued rolling on the suburban Shaker Heights line, with PCCs giving way to LRVs in 1983.)(The baseball futility scoreboard – most years since last World Series win: Giants 56; Indians 62; Cubs, 102 and counting!)And yes, Muni has a PCC honoring Chicago too. We’ll share a surprise about that one next week.GO GIANTS!

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October 23, 2010October 11, 2014 Rick Laubscher

Muni Promotes F-line at SFO

October 23, 2010October 11, 2014 Rick Laubscher Features, Muni News, Posts with Photos

When you’re asked to promote part of your transit service to visitors

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October 16, 2010October 11, 2014 Rick Laubscher

The Best Version of the Market Street Film Profiled on 60 Minutes

October 16, 2010October 11, 2014 Rick Laubscher History Spotlight, Video

Did you see the story that was just on 60 Minutes about the now-famous “Trip Down Market Street” film? Although the film is more than a century old, a version of it with just an instrumental sound track suddenly starting spreading like wildfire

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October 14, 2010October 11, 2014 Rick Laubscher

60 Minutes and 104 years

October 14, 2010October 11, 2014 Rick Laubscher Features, History Spotlight

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October 7, 2010August 9, 2014 Rick Laubscher

7 Come 11

October 7, 2010August 9, 2014 Rick Laubscher SFMSR

Lucky in craps, lucky in streetcars. The two yellow Milan trams (1807 and 1811) luckily showed up back to back on the service pits at Geneva Division the other night as a camera wandered past. It’s a tribute to Carole Gilbert and her Muni paint crew that 1811, painted some time ago, looks as fresh as the freshly painted 1807, which just reentered service following two years of accident repairs.

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October 2, 2010August 9, 2014 Rick Laubscher

Another Milan “Mellow Yellow” on the Street

October 2, 2010August 9, 2014 Rick Laubscher Fleet Updates, News

Following a two-year absence to repair accident damage, Milan tram No. 1807 is back on the F-line today, resplendent in its fresh paint scheme. It is the second of Muni’s ten vintage 1928 Milan trams to be repainted in the yellow and white livery the original trams of this class wore in that Italian city. (No. 1811 was the first, several years ago)The yellow and white livery lasted only a few years in Milan, replaced by a two tone green modeled on Muni’s No. 1818 (recently applied to No. 1888 as well, also under repair). The remaining six F-line Milan trams wear an all-over orange introduced in their home city in the 1970s and still used there. Over an extended period, the plan is to balance out Muni’s Milan fleet among the three liveries, as the trams come up for complete repainting.

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September 29, 2010August 9, 2014 Rick Laubscher

Inside the Mint!

September 29, 2010August 9, 2014 Rick Laubscher SFMSR

For a quarter-century, Market Street Railway has shared the space at Duboce Avenue and Buchanan and Market Streets with Muni, using it to restore streetcars for the F-line. Looming above all the while, the formidable U.S. Mint. In fact, its original entrance, at 350 Duboce Avenue, sits inside our facility, though it was sealed off before the street was closed and turned into a Muni right-of-way in the 1970s.We’ve seen the outside a thousand times, but never the inside — until now, thanks to this great essay by Andrew Dudley at Haighteration. Check it out.

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September 26, 2010August 9, 2014 Rick Laubscher

175 Years of Rail on St. Charles Avenue

September 26, 2010August 9, 2014 Rick Laubscher History Spotlight, News, Posts with Photos

It is the oldest street railway line in America, and it’s not in San Francisco. Market Street has had rail transit for 150 years now — the longest duration on a city’s main street — but today, St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans celebrates 175 years of rail transit.

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