As our members and friends know, our organization is named for Muni’s old private competitor, Market Street Railway Company. That company actually went through several manifestations, starting back in the 19th century, when it was an arm of the Southern Pacific Railroad’s all-powerful “octopus,” famously novelized by Frank Norris.
All cars built at Elkton Shops proudly wore this decal, preserved here on sole survivor No. 798: "This Car a San Francisco Product, Built in Our Own Shops. Market St. Ry. Co."
PCC No. 1078 at the F-line Wharf terminal on its first day back carrying passengers, January 19, 2012. Click to enlarge.
Click to enlarge. Market and Van Ness, August 1938, zoomed-in aerlal photo from David Rumsey Historical Map Collection.
PCC No. 1079, honoring the Detroit Department of Street Railways, turns the corner from Mission onto The Embarcadero during its first stint in F-line service in 2008. Frank Zepeda photo.
Fifty Thousand San Franciscans came out to cheer the opening of the Municipal Railway on Geary Street, December 28, 1912. Muni Archives.
San Francisco Municipal Railway streetcar No. 1 on Stockton Street at Market, the terminal of the original F-Stockton line, Christmas Day 1944. Roy D. Graves photo, Market Street Railway Archives.
Our San Francisco Railway Museum will be closed for inventory and cleaning between December 24 and January 2. We’ll be open again Tuesday, January 3 at 10 a.m. You can still shop for gifts online, and of course, the F-line streetcars and cable cars are operating daily.
PCC No. 1071, painted to honor Minneapolis-St. Paul, testing recently on West Portal Avenue.
