As N-Judah riders know, streetcars are off the job this week so Muni can replace switches on the line, especially at Church and Duboce, where the N meets the J and they enter the subway.
Well, almost all streetcars are off the job. This one, Muni work car No. C-1, built in 1916 and restored by Market Street Railway volunteers in the 1990s, is hard at work checking the alignment of the new track to make sure regular streetcars can run on it before the tracks are (literally) set in concrete. No. C-1 has performed this important task on the T and K lines, among others, and with its portable generator on board, it doesn’t even need the overhead wires.
Though it never carries passengers, it’s still one of Muni’s most important streetcars…just four years younger than Muni itself!
Thanks very much to Peter Straus for the great photo.
This car has the cutest little toot-toot whistle, which I learned when it was heading through the 24th intersection at Church yesterday morning toward Duboce. I didn’t recognize the whistle so had to see its source. Go C-1 go!