By Grant Ute, San Francisco Railway Archive
Most readers of Market Street Railway’s quarterly magazine are aware that its name was taken from the official newsletter of our namesake organization—the Market Street Railway Company—which began issuing a publication of, by and for the employees of the company in March of 1922. The monthly continued on seventeen years through December 1937 and included over 197 issues (some of which exceeded 50 pages). Our nonprofit Market Street Railway recently received a nearly complete set of our namesake’s newsletter as part of a generous donation from the family of one of our members, the late Jim Adler.
What is less known is that the original two monthly issues were entitled Wanted—A Name? The editor, F. J. Linforth, remarked, “In getting out this issue of our magazine under the title of Wanted? A Name, one feels as Adam must have felt when he ate the apple and began looking around for a fig leaf. So, to properly launch our next issue, we must have a name.”
He then announced a contest and a $25 prize and invited all to “have a share in naming [the publication].” Linforth suggested some other names of other street railway magazines including Transit Tidings, the name of the publication issued intermittently by predecessor United Railroads, and also Trolley Topics, which was to be used by Muni from 1945-1952 (and again from 1973-1980). He cautioned, however, that the company wanted the name to be “original, attractive and significant.”
By the March 18th deadline, 231 suggestions had been received, but one more issue of Wanted—A Name? was issued as the selection committee wanted more suggestions. The May issue was proudly released with a picture of the famous 33-line (18th and Park) ‘switchback’ on the cover. After receiving 357 name suggestions, the naming committee decided to call the new magazine The Inside Track, an obvious reference to the Market Street Railway Company’s position on Market Street’s ‘roar of the four’ (tracks). Reflecting the ‘new’ (1921) Market Street Railway Company’s increasing emphasis on positive public relations, the editor claimed that the name reflected the fact that the company was also on an ‘inside track’ in giving the finest service in the world to its patrons. Finally, the new publication was to provide its readership with ‘inside track’ information on “all that is going on in this big family of ours.”
The name was submitted by a conductor at the 28th Street Division named Robert H. McFarland, whose biography was included. ‘Bob’ McFarland was 32 years old and had started working for United Railroads in 1919. The brief bio said, “He has never married, but has devoted his entire life to the care of his invalid mother.” They went on to point out that he had a “wonderful memory”—especially for numbers, and claimed that he could remember the number of every one of the lost badges published the last month.
The story of Robert McFarland does not end there. Actually, McFarland was a first generation San Francisco railfan and amateur photographer. More than a decade before he went to work on the streetcars, he began taking 127 ‘vest–pocket–size’ snapshots of railway systems in the Bay Area. In addition to San Francisco, his interests drove him to photograph mainline Southern Pacific operations, as well as electric railways in the East Bay, San Jose, Pacific Grove, Reno, and elsewhere.
McFarlane first appears in the 1908 San Francisco City Directory as a ‘painter’ residing at what appears to be his family home at 22nd & Bryant streets. He was subsequently listed as a ‘chemist’ until 1911, when he begins to be listed as a ‘clerk’. City Directories from 1921-1925 confirm his employment as a conductor, as indicated in The Inside Track, and by 1925 he resides with a wife, Louise, at his home at 133 Foerster Street in the Sunnyside District.
Marriage seems to have coincided with the end of his railway career, as in 1926 he is listed as employed by the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company. By 1930, he began his final career, as a clerk with the Post Office. He maintained his residence on Foerster with his wife until his death on June 27, 1954.
While his equipment and processing were not professional, he had a good eye for composition and many of his images survive. He was known by Charlie Smallwood and Rudy Brandt, (second generation) as well as Walt Vielbaum and Richard Schlaich (third generation), San Francisco transit historians. His photos are some of the earliest ‘intentional’ pictures taken of San Francisco’s street railways.
Below are some of McFarlane’s photos from the San Francisco Railway Archive, Richard Schlaich Collection.
