Market Street Railway photo.
What Have We Learned?
Features
1980s Trolley Festivals paved way for F-Market streetcar line
If you’re of a certain age, it was like a Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland movie. Or, if you’re of a certain younger age, it was like Disney’s High School Musical. You know, “Let’s get the kids together and put on a show”—the innocence of youth not understanding the challenges that could get in the way, but cheerfully conquering those that did.
Vintage Streetcar Artist
Carole Gilbert with 1940s-era PCCs at Muni’s Geneva Division. Telstar Logistics photo.
Tales from the Grip: Rain, rain, go away…
Ah, rain…you can’t help but smile at the children laughing and happily splashing in puddles…the wonderful, clean scent after the storm passes…a glorious rainbow extending across the horizon…
The Octopus Moves the Mail
Tales from the Grip: A cable car Christmas tale
For the past several years, I’ve been fortunate to be involved in what has become a holiday tradition at the Cable Car Division–decorating a cable car for the holidays. In previous years, this was a real grass-roots affair, with the costs being borne by the gripmen and conductors, for the simple joy of it.
Tales from the Grip: California, here I come
Last summer, I switched from the Powell Street cable car lines to the California Street line, or the Cal line, as it’s colloquially known. Now, this may not seem to be such a noteworthy event, but it’s not quite as simple as changing the color of your bathroom towels. (If you’re like my ex-girlfriend, that’s not simple, either.)
Tales from the Grip: When push comes to shove
I’m coming down California into Grant when, all of a sudden, the entire car is engulfed in unnatural silence. All of the sensations that normally accompany a cable car–the rattling, the humming, the vibrations–disappear in a heartbeat. It’s as if the car just passed out in a narcoleptic fit. This can mean only one thing.
“Fair, Please”: Streetcars to the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition
During the first weeks of 1915, Pancho Villa proclaimed himself in charge of Mexico. Germany began open submarine warfare in the Atlantic as the Lusitania prepared to sail to England. California’s only active volcano, Mount Lassen, was erupting–spewing ash for hours at a time. And as bad weather pelted San Francisco, workmen toiled ’round-the-clock on the city’s northern shoreline to complete preparations for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE). Initially conceived in 1904 to occur upon the completion of the Panama Canal, this event had become a celebration of the rebirth of San Francisco following the devastating Earthquake and Fire of 1906. Millions of dollars went to develop the site and to promote San Francisco as the host city. When San Francisco was selected for the Fair over New Orleans, President William Howard Taft stated, “San Francisco knows how.”
Tales from the Grip: “Central, we have a problem”
Just like any other line of work, we have our good days and our bad days (you could say we have our “ups and downs” [ouch!]. But, due to the unique and unusual nature of this particular profession, the kinds of problems that crop up are of a very interesting nature indeed…We call them ‘Line Delays’. They’re the bane of every transit operation. Some delays are obviously unavoidable–heavy traffic, roadwork repairs, the occasional three-alarm fire, that sort of thing.
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