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.)
1970s-present livery
For the first time in more than a half-century, a cable car lettered for the O’Farrell, Jones & Hyde line has gripped the cable under San Francisco’s streets. Cable car No. 42, retired and sold off after the 1954 cable car system ‘consolidation’, officially returned to service on June 3, 2005 with Mayor Gavin Newsom on the running board and dozens of other mayors from major world cities onboard.
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.
On September 9, Muni streetcar No. 162 made history, moving under its own power on its home system for the first time in 47 years.
Steve Ferrario photo.
Market Street Railway celebrates the life of Jack Smith, streetcar motorman extraordinaire, Market Street Railway Director Emeritus, and dedicated restoration volunteer, who died suddenly at his San Francisco home September 18, 2004. He was 72.
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.
