Vintage videos of old San Francisco and other cities where streetcars like the F-line’s used to run, plus rare vintage cable car footage
We’ll be adding to this, with videos we produce ourselves that you can’t see anywhere else. So check back every so often. We offer a number of hard-to-find DVDs of old-time San Francisco in our online store.
We also have a YouTube channel, with some of these videos and others.
Take Me Out: When the Family Car was a Streetcar in San Francisco
Created by us and narrated by San Franciscans who rode the streetcars in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s.
The only narrated version of this legendary 1906 film, telling you what you’re seeing.. You can buy a DVD of this version at our online store.
Rare 1929 Sound film: Pacific Ave. Cable Car
We’ve captioned this Fox Movietone raw newsreel footage to explain the history of the last surviving dummy and trailer cable train operation in the United States.
Rare film footage, some in color, showing a trip back in time on the 5-McAllister streetcar line, from the Ferry to Playland-at-the-Beach.
A great 30-minute KTVU documentary, produced by Don McCuaig and reported by George Watson, focused mostly on interurban trains around the Bay Area. Rare color footage from pioneering railfan movie buffs.
Municipal Railway Vintage Scrapbook
Eight-minute preview of a 90-minute Charles Smiley color film with lots of streetcar action from the late 1940s through the 1970s. The full-length DVD is available on our online store.
26 minutes of color Bay Area rail footage, most taken in the 1940s, produced by Stephen Fisher.
1937 film advocating ‘yes’ vote on bond issue to build a Market Street subway (it failed). 4 minutes of good black & white footage.
Incredible color movie footage of a 1966 drive along Market Street at night, highlighting wonderful neon signage (and the occasional PCC). From SFNeon.org
Links to other interesting videos:
Dozens of videos of F-line streetcars turn up in this YouTube search.