Rails of the Golden City: 150 Years of Cable Cars, Streetcars, & Steam Trains in San Francisco. Extraordinary film footage by a variety of rail historians from 1873 to present day showing rail operations in the Bay Area. Documentary includes 8 Cable Car lines, 6 Market Street Railway lines, 3 abandoned Muni Streetcar lines, Southern Pacific Steam in 1955, Shops, Carbarns, Maps, and the 1906 Earthquake & Fire. Contains rare motion picture footage from the Western Railway Museum Archive and the Prelinger Archive.
DVD is 65 minutes long, in color and black & white, fully narrated. Produced by Warren Haack with Catenary Video Productions.
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Cable cars celebrated their 150th birthday on August 2 with a lively celebration at Market and Powell Streets. The event commemorated inventor Andrew Hallidie’s first cable car trip, down Nob Hill on Clay Street, on August 2, 1873.
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After a long illness, Tony Bennett has moved on to perform the Great American Songbook in the sky. It’s now time for San Francisco to immediately give him our highest honor: a cable car dedicated to him. Here’s why.
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UPDATE, July 9 — Today and tomorrow (July 9 & 10), a Milan tram will be the vintage vehicle on the waterfront. Pull out from Cameron Beach Yard at 9:20 a.m. It will shuttle between the Ferry Building and Pier 39. It’s not supposed to linger at Pier 39 or go all the way to the Wharf, so it can cover the heaviest part of the line more efficiently. Please send us an email (feedback@streetcar.org) if you see something different.
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This lovely poster titled “Powell & Hyde Line” (pulled from our archives, printed in 1983) was created by San Francisco artist John Russell Wullbrandt to celebrate San Francisco’s iconic national landmark – the Cable Car – during the major rebuild of the entire system in 1982-1984.
It is part of our series of fine art posters honoring the City’s historic transit vehicles, including our delightful Blackpool Boat Tram, wonderful San Francisco Streetcar #1, and perfect PCC Streetcar #1040. Look for these other posters in separate listings.
This limited edition poster is printed on lithographic paper, measures 30″ x 15″ and ships rolled in a mailing tube. Read More……
On June 23, 1983, Mayor Dianne Feinstein joined a mix of dignitaries, neighborhood folks and railfans at Castro and 17th Streets to inaugurate the first San Francisco Historic Trolley Festival.
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150 years to the day from the first cable car trip in history, the nonprofit Market Street Railway honors cable car heroes at a fundraising luncheon. All proceeds go to cover costs of managing the six-month long civic celebration that’s focused on drawing more people from near and far to rediscover the cable cars along with the neighborhoods they serve, helping our city’s businesses.
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The Mayor was there. Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, too. News media were there. And, thanks to “Stanford scientists”, cable car inventor Andrew Hallidie was there. Plus other civic luminaries, coming together on June 13 at California and Market Streets to kick off the celebration of 150 Years of Cable Cars, organized by our nonprofit and the little cars’ owner-operator, SFMTA/Muni, supported by partners from the historic preservation, business, and education communities.
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As we’ve mentioned, the civic celebration of 150 Years of Cable Cars kicks off at 11 a.m., Tuesday, June 13 at California and Market Streets as Mayor London Breed is joined by Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, Cable Car Inventor “Andrew Hallidie” (or a reasonable facsimile) and the oldest and largest cable car in the fleet, Sacramento-Clay Car “Big 19”, which will carry the dignitaries up through Chinatown and over Nob Hill to Polk Gulch and Van Ness Avenue, parallel to Hallidie’s original Clay Street line two blocks north. Here’s “Big 19” taking a spin on the cable car barn turntable, getting ready for its closeup.
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