Purgatory Station: Inside San Francisco's Vintage Streetcar Boneyard

[Bruce Wayne]

Amazing.

 

[Guttersnipe]

The F line and the J line both run historic streetcars of various types, painted in liveries from different eras and cities.

I like the streamlined PCC streetcars the best. Being that No. 1040 was specifically built for the San Francisco Municipal Railway ("MUNI") and is painted in vintage MUNI livery, it's my favorite!

Here's some others:

No. 1009

No. 1080 (Los Angeles livery)

No. 1062 (Louisville, KY livery}

The also run these 1920s Italian street cars on the F line:

 

[TomS]

Thanks for sharing... cool.

 

[p51]

My wife and I went to SF a few years back and we rode the PCC cars along the waterfront up to the mint downtown just for the heck of it. I wanted to ride the one painted for the Pacific Electric RR but never managed to hop a ride when that one was around.

 

[David Conwill]

I'd love to ride on any PCC, but especially a DSR liveried one. Too bad all of Detroit's originals were destroyed in an earthquake, otherwise I'll bet at least one would be plying the lines of Frisco.

 

[Swing Motorman]

Since David brought up other cities' streetcars and preservation/lack thereof, I'd like to share a fascinating (for street railway preservationists, at least) link. This is a database of ALL* preserved, lingering-under-a-barn, restored, or rusting-in-a-field electric railway cars in North America. Just select Detroit's transit companies from the second list to find...

there ARE* two preserved Detroit PCCs, including this one in Michigan!

http://www.bera.org/pnaerc.html

* Of course, we're limited by not looking everywhere, and by preserved or lingering cars going to scrap more often than diehard fans are comfortable with.


But back on topic, words don't suffice for how much San Fransisco MUNI's efforts mean to my friends around the trolley museums. If those run-down pieces in the "boneyard" could be in any city in the world hoping to get restored, they ended up in arguably the best one!


-Steven

 

[David Conwill]

Wow, that's great news, SM! Thanks for pointing that out to me.

 

[Swing Motorman]

Was news to me, too, I'd never looked into Detroit PCCs. You've got a healthy selection of Detroit's pre-PCC types to go visit, too. History is everywhere!


-Steven

 

[Enough]

That's neat. I'll have to put that on my list to see along with the vintage neon bone yard in Las Vegas.

 

[Fifty150]

I live in San Francisco, and just took it for granted. But there they are, rolling down our streets. History. And I don't appreciate it. I could go to the yard where the trains are parked and serviced. I never go. I could ride them all day, and I never do.

 

[Zombie_61]

My first wife and I enjoyed visiting San Francisco whenever we had the chance, which, unfortunately, wasn't as often as we would have liked; airfare too expensive, 8-9 hours driving one way from the Los Angeles area too long. But when we did, we usually made time for at least one trip on a streetcar even if it wasn't particularly necessary. On our last trip we unknowingly chose the right streetcar with just the right driver to make our trip more memorable. Not only was the driver very practiced at moving the car, but he had an entire script memorized even for minor comments. For example, when we got to one of the places where the tracks split and ran parallel so that both streetcars (one going north, one going south, for example) could continue uninterrupted, he'd shout out, "Hang on Folks, I'm deviatin'!" to warn us that the car would rock from side to side as it navigated the aforementioned split. He also wasn't shy about yelling at people who were crossing the street in the streetcar's path, causing slight delays in his schedule. But when he wasn't otherwise occupied, he chatted with us and was very knowledgeable about the various places we might visit while we were in town. Great fun!

 

[Fifty150]

I have friends who are operators at Municipal Railways. I could literally get on the train for free if I wanted to. Yet, I don't make time for that excursion. Just not a rail buff. Like most hobbies which I don't partake, I do not find myself drawn. A real shame. I live where people would go on vacation to visit, and I'm not drawn to all the attractions.

San Francisco is one of those places where people do interact. Not just bus drivers. Most people on the street will talk to a stranger. I always tell people to go where the locals are. If you look around, and you see tourists like yourself, then you're in a tourist trap.


What I notice is that this is a city which lacks corporate dining. Tourists can't find the mall food that they are used to. Then they are overwhelmed by ethnic offerings that they've never heard of. That is followed by sticker shock. They just can't understand what they are eating and the high prices for food.