Market Street Railway is a volunteer-based organization dedicated to preserving historic rail transit in San Francisco. San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni) owns the vintage cable cars and the streetcars you see on San Francisco’s F Line, but Market Street Railway volunteers are the passionate force behind restoration and preservation. Market Street Railway takes no government money at all, relying on volunteer labor, membership dues and private donations to care for the vintage cars that carry 40,000 riders a day.
Muni operates several dozen vintage streetcars. Most are PCCs (Presidents’ Conference Committee) and Peter Witt cars from Milan, Italy, but there are a few true rarities like the open-air boat tram and the unique San Francisco No. 1, both shown below.
No. 228 from Blackpool, England, “the boat tram,” runs on warm days summer through December.
Peter Witt car, built in Cleveland Ohio, operated in Milan Italy. Painted in the style used there during the 1920s.
From New Orleans, a streetcar named Desire.
SF Muni car painted in the style of a Philadelphia Red Arrow that ran 1949-1982.
San Francisco No. 1, built in 1912, was the first publicly owned big city streetcar in the United States. It was built by W. L. Holman in San Francisco for $7,700 and originally ran on the A-Geary Line.
Four second exposure (plus a #3 flashbulb in a Graflex reflector) of two Muni cars at Fisherman’s Wharf.
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If I commiuancted I could thank you enough for this, I’d be lying.