The family-friendly Muni Heritage Weekend lets you ride vintage streetcars and buses and special cable cars that rarely operate. The world’s oldest cable car (1883), one of the oldest electric streetcars (1896), the very first streetcar Muni owned (1912), and the wildly popular English open-top “Boat Tram” (1934) will all be carrying passengers between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, September 23-24.
The 1934 English “Boat Tram” is Muni’s most popular streetcar. But due to a variety of circumstances, including what Muni leader Julie Kirschbaum says is an ongoing shortage of trained operators, it didn’t carry any passengers this year until September 12-13 (Sunday-Monday). Instead, vintage Milan and Melbourne trams have been alternating on Sundays and Mondays carrying people along the northern Embarcadero between Pier 39 and the Ferry Building (with an additional stop at our San Francisco Railway Museum).
On August 2, the 150th anniversary of the first cable car, Market Street Railway honored five folks who made a big difference for San Francisco’s symbols. For the celebration luncheon, we made a video of these heroes — Andrew Hallidie, Friedel Klussmann, Mayor Dianne Feinstein, Fannie Barnes, and Tony Bennett. Take a look. We think you’ll find it worth seven minutes of your time.
On streetcars and cable cars, ringing the gong twice means the car is starting to move ahead. In that close-knit community, wishing a friend “two bells” means Godspeed.
“San Francisco Street Railways: A Cartographic History” is probably the most detailed map documenting all the rail transit lines in San Francisco beginning in the 19th century up to present day. Meticulously researched and exquisitely drawn by historian Stephen Watson, this is the ultimate piece of San Francisco railway transit history, sure to settle an argument or two. Color print is 23.5″ x 34.5″ and ships rolled in a tube ready for framing. Read More……
Our 2024 calendar contains 12 vibrant color photos of San Francisco Municipal Railway’s unmatched fleet of cable cars and historic streetcars, shot by members of Market Street Railway, Muni’s nonprofit preservation partner.
The design continues our traditional attractive layout. The size, 14×10 inches, is designed to keep shipping costs low, but is still plenty large enough to let the photos shine!
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.
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.
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.
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.
