It has become as predictable as summer fog on Great Highway. If you’re planning a project in the red-hot mid-Market neighborhood, or reporting on it in the media, you’ve simply got to have one of those colorful F-line historic streetcars in the frame.
Maya Angelou has passed away, at the age of 86. As an adult, she gained global fame as a writer. Well before that, as as a teen-ager, she broke barriers right here in San Francisco, when she was hired by our namesake, Market Street Railway, as the first female African-American streetcar conductor in the city.
Muni streetcar No. 130, still in service, at Geary and Grant, c. 1920. Click to enlarge.
A Milan tram passes a T-line light rail vehicle on Third Street at 23rd Street in Dogpatch.Since October 2012, Muni’s Milan trams have been housed at Muni Metro East a few blocks away, with no incidences of them interfering with T-line operations when they enter and leave service via Third Street through Mission Bay and Dogpatch. This part of Third Street is slated for major residential and commercial development. Photo Copyright Peter Ehrlich.
On or about April 14, 1906, 108 years ago this week, pioneering professional filmmakers the Miles Brothers bolted a hand-cranked camera onto the front of a cable car and rode down Market Street from Eighth Street to the Ferry Building. The film they shot has gained new interest in the past few years, since film historian David Kiehn demonstrated that it was made just a few days before the great earthquake and fire destroyed almost everything you see. (Previously, the film was thought to have been made in the summer of 1905.)
Today (Saturday, April 12) is a special day at our San Francisco Railway Museum. From 11 a.m. through mid-afternoon, we’ll be holding a sidewalk sale of transit and railroad books, photos, memorabilia, and ephemera right outside the museum just across from the Ferry Building (F-line Steuart Street stop).
The cable cars are world famous historic artifacts, of course, but they couldn’t climb even a quarter-way to the stars without good rail underneath their wheels. Since the first cable car ran on Clay Street in 1873, different rail profiles have been used on different lines around the city. Now, we’re offering a pair of unique gifts at our San Francisco Railway Museum that show off the variety of historic cable car rail in the city.
The F-line will be operated solely with buses on Saturday, February 22, so that a number of projects can be carried out on Market Street. This includes completion of the removal of the old switches that led to and from the now-vanished Transbay Terminal (specifically, the switch at Fremont and Market), plus utility work at Spear and Market and crosswalk repair at Third and Market. F-line buses will operate on Market, except between First and Fremont inbound, where they will detour via Mission. Trolley coaches will be replaced by motor coaches along Market, as the overhead wires will be deenergized between Tenth and Steuart.
