Well, sorta. For the blink of an eye.
Muni’s C-Geary-California line left California Street in 1949 after having the stretch from Sixth Avenue to 33rd Avenue on its route since 1915. (Before that, the stretch was part of its private competitor’s 1-California streetcar; after 1949 it became part of Muni’s 1-California trolley bus.)
Car No. 1, still part of the Muni fleet today, in service at the end of the C-line on California near 33rd Avenue in 1944. Will Whittaker photo, Market Street Railway Archives.
Now, at least a sliver of the old streetcar tracks are back, uncovered during road repairs. Check out the story and photo in richmondsfblog.com. A similar sighting occurred a few years ago a few blocks away, with the uncovering of tracks for the 31-Balboa streetcar line.
Interesting that in the Richmond blog’s comments, one poster called for just uncovering the tracks and bringing back the streetcars. Would that it were that simple, but a nice reminder that some people still want “their” streetcar line back, 63 years later!
By the way, the restored No. 1 is getting some finishing historical touches out at Cameron Beach Yard, in preparation for a ceremony welcoming it back to the fleet as part of this, Muni’s centennial year. No date announced yet, but we’ll let you know here as soon as we know.
Our next issue of our member newsletter, Inside Track, now at the printer, features a big story on the history of Car No. 1, with several photos never published before to our knowledge. It’s for our members only, but you can get it by clicking here to join us and helping us preserve historic transit in San Francisco.
