FINALLY some much needed rain today, and to greet it, the latest 1070-class streetcar to go into service following rewiring, with a little bonus.

PCC No. 1078 at the F-line Wharf terminal on its first day back carrying passengers, January 19, 2012. Click to enlarge.

PCC No. 1078 honors San Diego, whose original PCCs carried a special slogan above the windows: “Ride & Relax.” Their original PCCs did not have those little oval windows, called “standee windows” above the main windows, so on Muni’s tribute livery, the slogan was put on the lower panel of the door side instead, while other minor changes in the lettering were made to avoid confusion between historic San Diego transit routes and current Muni ones.

But when San DIego restored a PCC (ex-Muni, by the way) to run on their downtown San Diego Trolley loop with their modern LRVs last year, they found a way to fit the motto between the main windows and the standee windows. So, we did too, on the non-door side at least. Thanks to a contribution from one of our members and graphic work by our Dave Dugan, we created a decal design that closely resembles the original lettering. It was installed by the crew of Muni’s Carole Gilbert, just in time for No. 1078’s return to revenue service. Thanks to everyone involved, including Liz WIlmes, whose company has done a great job of making decals for cable cars and streetcars alike.

This is the fourth of the 11 cars in the 1070-class to return to service after rewiring. The fifth, Toronto No. 1074, should be joining them within a few days.

PCC No. 1070, in 1953 Newark livery, testing on The Embarcadero, January 15, 2012. Copyright Jeremy Whiteman.

MLK Day Weekend saw a surfeit of unfamiliar PCCs on the F-line, as the 1070-class of streamlined streetcars showed up in force. Some were in passenger service, having been accepted by Muni from the contractor, Brookville Equipment of Pennsylvania, following complete rewiring, installation of some new propulsion components, and other work. At this writing, three of the 11 PCCs in that class have been accepted: Nos. 1071 (honoring Minneapolis-St. Paul, the first city this group of cars served, from 1946-1952), 1079 (Detroit) and 1080 (Los Angeles Transit Lines). On the verge of acceptance, having just passed its 1000-mile test period, No. 1078 (San Diego) was out on the F-line for final testing.

Also on the line being tested, Nos. 1070 (honoring Newark, where this group of cars ran from 1953-2003), 1072 (Mexico City), 1074 (Toronto).

At Muni Metro East on January 16, 2012, PCC No. 1076 tows its sibling No. 1075 off the trailer arriving from Brookville Equipment Company before taking its place for the trip back to Pennsylvania. No. 1076 is the last of the 11 cars in the 1070-class to leave San Francisco for rewiring at Brookville.

Meanwhile, the last of the 11 cars in this group left San Francisco for Brookville today. To get on the trailer for the trip, No. 1076 (Washington, DC) had to tow returning No. 1075 (Cleveland) off the trailer first. No. 1075 will go into testing soon, along with No. 1073 (El Paso-Juarez) and No. 1040 (Muni’s own), which both returned recently from Brookville. No. 1077 (Birmingham) is at Brookville now being rewired, completing this set of cars.

You can see when each car goes into passenger service by checking our exclusive streetcar fleet status page here.

One more note: Muni’s flagship Car No. 1 took a brief fling on Taraval Street last week, just for a little exercise. Contrary to one report, it was not testing. The car is waiting for its inaugural event in February on a date soon to be determined. We’ll let you know as soon as we do.

Muni PCC streetcar No. 1080, representing Los Angeles Transit Lines, has been accepted by Muni from contractor Brookville Equipment Company and is carrying passengers on the F-line today. For details on the rewiring program and other streetcars involved, click here.

You can always see exactly which streetcar is where on the F-line here. And you can see the status of every streetcar in the fleet here.