STELLLLLAHHH! Marlon Brando made his name in “A Streetcar Named Desire” and cemented it in “On the Waterfront.” The two come together on Sunday, April 26 (not Brando, he’s still dead) when the Streetcar Named Desire (New Orleans No. 952) operates on the waterfront as part of this year’s first “Sunday Streets,” the wildly successful program inaugurated last year by Mayor Newsom.
Our friends at Muni called the other day and asked if we would post the following announcement on our blog, as part of their effort to get the word out to the public on their budget problems and give people a chance to comment in various public forums. We’re happy to help; it’s printed unedited below. One note: it looks like Muni has pulled from consideration any possible separate fare increase for the vintage streetcars. (They had put a possible $1 surcharge for the F-line on a laundry list of potential revenue raising measures, but it appears to be gone now).
…is not just the name of our nostalgic exhibit at the San Francisco Railway Museum, celebrating the days when the family car was a streetcar in San Francisco. It’s also a reminder that baseball season is about to start. No, not major league, but something more important: the “F-liners.” They’re a softball team in the SF Gay Softball League, founded in 2001 and named, yes, for the F-line. They play their first game (games, actually, a doubleheader) Sunday, March 22 at Moscone Field.
Knowing that fans of San Francisco’s vintage streetcars have lots of related interests, we’ve been venturing a bit afield on this blog … last post was vintage amphibious vehicles. This time it’s toy trains in an airplane palace. That would be the International Terminal at SFO, where through early April there’s a great exhibit of toy trains spanning the 20th century, mostly Lionel, but with plenty of variety thrown in.
At Market Street Railway, we focus on historic rail vehicles, but there are plenty of other historic vehicles in San Francisco as well, and we celebrate all of them. One group of interest are the DUKW vehicles run by Bay Quackers. Universally referred to as Ducks instead of their military acronym, these are the World War II-era amphibious vehicles you see carrying tourists along The Embarcadero from Fisherman’s Wharf to Mission Bay, where they plunge into the water for a cruise.
The Chronicle’s story the other day about a study to restrict automobiles on Market Street downtown contains an important nugget of information that got buried in the story.
MSR Members are welcomed to our annual meeting on Tuesday, March 10. We’ll meet as usual at the IBEW Local 6 Hall, 55 Fillmore Street, one block north of Duboce (N-line Duboce and Church stop, F-line Church Street stop, 22-line bus).
Did you see it during the Super Bowl? No, not the great plays on the field, the commercial for the upcoming animated film “Monsters Vs. Aliens”? We know the premise — scientists unleash monsters to battle an alien invasion — but what’s fascinating is a, uh, plot vehicle. Specifically, Milan tram No. 1811. Its another example of the growing visibility of the Milan trams as a San Francisco institution. We’ll have a story on that in the next issue of our member newsletter, Inside Track, which will go out to Market Street Railway members in early April. For now, enjoy the movie trailer, and feel free to speculate about what part No. 1811 might play in saving the world.
In What Have We Learned? we discussed what we have learned since the first Trolley Festival 25 years ago about the pluses and minuses of various vintage streetcar types in F-line service. Now, we discuss what we’ve learned about operations over that period.
