First Rewired PCC Back Home; Another Leaves

November 20, 2010August 9, 2014 Rick Laubscher Fleet Updates, Muni News, Posts with Photos

Muni had PCCs coming and going today at Metro East. Muni crews unloaded the first of 11 vintage streamliners from Muni’s 1070 class following its complete rewiring at Brookville Equipment Company in Pennsylvania.The rain led them to welcome the streetcar back home inside the spacious light rail facility at Cesar Chavez and Illinois Streets, just off the T-line. The 1070 class streetcars originally ran in Minneapolis-St. Paul when new in the late 1940s, and this one, No. 1071, is painted in the bright yellow and dark green of its original owner, Twin City Rapid Transit. (This group of cars was sold to Newark, New Jersey in the early 1950s, and purchased by Muni from New Jersey Transit in 2004.) The 1070-class streetcars were given a cosmetic restoration by Muni, but this did not include the wiring, which was original and caused major reliability problems, such that only five of the 11 streetcars have actually carried passengers on the F-line (Nos. 1075, 1076, and 1077, which are currently operational, and 1078 and 1079, which are sidelined with significant problems). No. 1078 is already at Brookville, and No. 1079, honoring Detroit Street Railways and pictured at right, was loaded on the same trailer that delivered No. 1071 and sent back to Brookville today. No. 1071, the prototype for the rewired 1070-class, It features an entirely new accelerator assembly under the floor, designed in the Czech Republic as an updated version of the reliable Westinghouse type propulsion components used on many of the 5,000 PCCs that once ran in North America. This new accelerator has been tested for the past nine months in PCC No. 1055, and has provided very reliable service. The 1070 class of PCC streetcars had General Electric components until the renovation, but Muni is gradually standardizing on a single type of PCC propulsion system, to reduce maintenance training and parts requirements.No. 1071 will be tested by Muni maintenance staff for up to 30 days to ensure it meets all specifications and will then be put into service. This will come none too soon, because the shops are struggling on a daily basis to meet the demand for service on the F-line. Having 11 reliable 1070-class streetcars available will make a big difference, but it may take another year before all of these are complete.

O’Shaughnessy’s Map Now Available at the Museum

November 13, 2010October 11, 2014 Rick Laubscher History Spotlight, Posts with Photos

M. M. O’Shaughnessy is the engineer who built the backbone of the San Francisco we know today. Think Robert Moses in New York without the colossal ego and disregard for people. Among his enduring legacy of public works in our city, count 68 miles of Muni streetcar lines (including the J, K, L, M, and N lines), the Twin Peaks Tunnel from Castro to West Portal, the Sunset Tunnel under Buena Vista Park, the Stockton Tunnel, the Great Highway, and his crowning achievement, the Hetch Hetchy project, which still supplies the city and the Peninsula with its water.As part of the current exhibition All the Way Down Market at our San Francisco

Waiting Since 1958: Giants’ Bus Finally Comes

November 1, 2010August 9, 2014 Rick Laubscher History Spotlight, Posts with Photos

I first saw the Giants play the year this photo was taken. It’s April 1958 and a packed Marmon-Herrington trolley coach, already about 10 years old, is filled with Giants’ fans at Seals Stadium, 16th and Bryant Streets. If you think your wait for a Muni bus or streetcar today is long, think about my wait from that first day at Seals Stadium. I was hooked immediately and have stayed hooked ever since, more than 52 years now.When I was a teenager, I regularly rode the 30X Ballpark Express (usally an old Mack bus, once in awhile an even older White) from Fourth and Market to Candlestick, even at night, to see the Giants. Mays. McCovey. Cepeda. Marichal. Alou (Felipe and Matty). Bonds (Bobby). From those days all the way through the N-line and shuttles to Third and King, I’ve ridden many generations of Muni vehicles and watched many generations of Giants. Clark (Jack). Clark (Will). Dravecky. Williams. Bonds (Barry). Kent. Alou (Moises). And so many more. All the while hoping “this will be the year.”Now it is. For every San Francisco Giant, every Giants fan, everyone who rode Muni home in elation or despair after those thousands of games since 1958 — this is for all of us.Congratulations, Champs!

Market Street Railway x Dress-Lace Inc Mini Lace Dress

October 30, 2010November 30, 2015 David Dugan Posts with Photos

Market Street Railway x Dress-Lace Inc Mini Lace Dress – Gray / Elbow-Length Sleeves

Come Out of the Rain!

October 29, 2010August 9, 2014 Rick Laubscher Muni News, Posts with Photos

The long-awaited shed at Geneva Division is covering its first streetcars tonight. Vulnerable canvas-roofed streetcars including 1914 Muni No. 130 and 1926 Johnstown, PA No. 351 (left) were joined by venerable 1916 work car No. C-1 in taking shelter under the new canopy structure, after the 600 volt overhead wires were activated today. Regular F-line revenue streetcars, including PCCs, Milan trams, and older vintage cars, are pulling into the shed tonight.Market Street Railway is working with Muni to schedule a formal dedication of the facility, which our organization has advocated for more than a dozen years, helping Muni arrange funding from the San Francisco Municipal Railway Improvement Corporation (SFMRIC), among other sources.What a warm sight on a rainy night! Congratulations to all at Muni who have supported this effort.

The Best Version of the Market Street Film Profiled on 60 Minutes

October 16, 2010October 11, 2014 Rick Laubscher History Spotlight, Video

Did you see the story that was just on 60 Minutes about the now-famous “Trip Down Market Street” film? Although the film is more than a century old, a version of it with just an instrumental sound track suddenly starting spreading like wildfire

It’s Here! MSR’s 2011 Museums In Motion Calendar

October 16, 2010October 11, 2014 Todd Jappin SFMSR

Just in time for, well, next year, Market Street Railway is proud to unveil the 2011 edition of our Museums In Motion calendar. Printed in a large, 16 x 11 inch format, the 2011 Museums In Motion Calendar features thirteen

60 Minutes and 104 years

October 14, 2010October 11, 2014 Rick Laubscher Features, History Spotlight

Autumn in San Francisco: Sunshine and Streetcars

October 11, 2010August 9, 2014 Todd Jappin Photo of the Moment

As Mark Twain once said “San Franciscans prefer to TiVo their summers.”Actually, that’s completely untrue. Twain never said that. In fact, the thought never even crossed his mind. Then again, he didn’t say that bit about “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco,” either. Nevertheless, both misattributions describe a set of circumstances are quite genuine: Autumn in San Francisco really does function as the city’s summer, as the cold fog of summer melts away amid gallons of warm fall sunshine. That also makes it a great time of year for streetcar photography. Here are a few recent contributions to the Market Street Railway’s Flickr group:Images, from top: Telstar Logistics, hoteldennis, hoteldennis, hoteldennis, and Peter Ehrich

Visualize This: Modern Streetcar Service in Downtown Los Angeles

October 5, 2010August 9, 2014 Todd Jappin News, Policy & Planning, Video

As part of an effort to bring a streetcar line to Downtown Los Angeles, two LA filmmakers produced this tidy little video. It extols the economic and social benefits of streetcar service, and provides nifty computer-generated visualizations of what modern streetcars might look like operating in downtown LA. As an added bonus, the introduction to the video includes some nice historic footage of LA’s streetcar fleet before it was abandoned in 1963:Here’s the complete video: