The second of 16 PCCs streetcars that made up the original F-line fleet is back in San Francisco and is beginning testing, with the hope of having it back on the F-line carrying passengers by the end of November.
Car 1051, painted in the “simplified green and cream” paint scheme used by Muni on its streetcars in the late 1960s and 1970s, is dedicated to the late Harvey Milk, who rode streetcars painted like this between his Castro Camera store and City Hall when he was the city’s first gay elected supervisor in 1978, up until his assassination on November 27 of that year. The 1051 appeared in the movie “Milk”.
Car 1056 returned to San Francisco last month.
Streetcars currently at the Brookville Equipment Company in Pennsylvania under the contract include 1055, 1059, 1060, 1062, and 1063. Based on the order in which they were shipped, the 1060 should be the next to return to San Francisco, perhaps by the end of this month. These cars have had 21 years of very intense service since they were first renovated in the early 1990s.
There is additional, very interesting news regarding the Brookville contract, but we’ll give it to our members (including those who join us now) first in the next issue of Inside Track, our exclusive member newsletter, which should be out before month-end. Members, watch for it, and remember, you can get it at least a week faster if you opt for the electronic version rather than the printed one. (Just send an email with your name and email address to info@streetcar.org and say you want to switch.)
I’m amazed on reading the info on Brookville’s website, and on other ones that Google-up, how little SF actually gets mentioned. One has to read halfway down Brookville’s page, which is full of—in fact dominated by—“F” line cars, to see any mention of San Francisco (Car 1 is pictured at the top corner, referred to as “America’s Oldest” yet you have to find the second pix, near the bottom, to realize it’s an SF car). Philadelphia gets prominent placement (and reference) a late comer to the scene if ever I saw one! On another website, which I found with a pix of 1011 at its worst, on a side track in front of two equally miserable Philly cars owned by Brookville (at Brookville), there was all sorts of talk about new (and new vintage) streetcar lines, including the Portland Streetcar, and the New Orleans Canal St line, but almost no mention of San Francisco and the “F” line at all;
If NYC took a dump in a leaf and called it organic fertilizer, we’d be hearing about it for a century, but let San Francisco create a revenue streetcar line comprised of sparkling like-new vintage cars, and it seems that all we generate is feelings of inadequacy amongst those abroad. It was quite sadly amazing how little credit rail, transit, and urban planning sites on the subject were willing to give good ol ‘Frisco for the effort and expense, and our success at it!
Are they all ranting “Pelosi San Francisco Liberal” haters, even when it comes to streetcars? Wow!