Pacific Bus Museum’s vintage GM "Old Look" coach stands sentinel at Grace Cathedral earlier this year during the memorial service for SFMTA Director (and former MSR vice president) Cam Beach. The bus is painted in our namesake’s "zip stripe" livery, but lettered for "Niles Canyon Lines," the route it runs carrying people to the rail museum there.
The first of the four double-ended Muni PCC streetcars has left San Francisco for a complete rehabilitation in Pennsylvania, at Brookville Equipment Company. No. 1008, which operated in passenger service until 1982 and was then converted into a “repair car” to tow broken-down streetcars back to the barn and perform other services, left Metro East February 9. When it returns, it will be painted in the green and cream “Wings” livery in which it was originally delivered to San Francisco in 1948.
The last of almost 5,000 PCC-type streetcars to be built in North America is on its way to rebirth. Streetcar No. 1040, delivered to Muni new in 1952 as the final production streetcar of its kind built in the U.S., left Muni’s Metro East facility December 4 en route by truck to Pennsylvania, where it will be completely rehabilitated by Brookville Equipment Company.
On May 29, 2008, the San Francisco Chronicle published a wonderful video of cable car No. 25’s return to service in its striking new 1906 United Railroads livery, proposed and designed by Market Street Railway. Let us know what you think of No. 25’s new livery in the comments below.
Steve Ferrario photo.
