Well, sorta. For the blink of an eye.

Muni’s C-Geary-California line left California Street in 1949 after having the stretch from Sixth Avenue to 33rd Avenue on its route since 1915. (Before that, the stretch was part of its private competitor’s 1-California streetcar; after 1949 it became part of Muni’s 1-California trolley bus.)

Car No. 1, still part of the Muni fleet today, in service at the end of the C-line on California near 33rd Avenue in 1944. Will Whittaker photo, Market Street Railway Archives.

Now, at least a sliver of the old streetcar tracks are back, uncovered during road repairs. Check out the story and photo in richmondsfblog.com. A similar sighting occurred a few years ago a few blocks away, with the uncovering of tracks for the 31-Balboa streetcar line.

Interesting that in the Richmond blog’s comments, one poster called for just uncovering the tracks and bringing back the streetcars. Would that it were that simple, but a nice reminder that some people still want “their” streetcar line back, 63 years later!

By the way, the restored No. 1 is getting some finishing historical touches out at Cameron Beach Yard, in preparation for a ceremony welcoming it back to the fleet as part of this, Muni’s centennial year. No date announced yet, but we’ll let you know here as soon as we know.

Our next issue of our member newsletter, Inside Track, now at the printer, features a big story on the history of Car No. 1, with several photos never published before to our knowledge. It’s for our members only, but you can get it by clicking here to join us and helping us preserve historic transit in San Francisco.

An article on BART’s new cars stirred up a hornet’s nest of comments lamenting that we don’t build anything here any more — specifically transit vehicles. We’re not going to wade into that discussion (but feel free to clink the link and comment there). Coincidentally, though, that news story appeared the same day a reader in Idaho, Noel Anthony Cimino, submitted this photograph to us for publication. Here’s what he wrote:

“This is a photo of my dad, Joseph L. Cimino, working on constructing a Market Street Railway Streetcar in the late 1920s. He’s standing to the right in the photo. It looks like he’s attaching the buzzer button that was used to announce to the carman that you wished to get off at the next stop. This photo was taken at the Elkton shops located at Ocean and San Jose Avenues.”

As some of our readers know, Muni’s old private competitor, for whom our non-profit is named, built 250 streetcars at the old Elkton Shops, using its own workforce. (For its part, Muni bought dozens of streetcars from companies who built them in San Francisco — Holman (1912-13) and Bethlehem Steel (1923).

We can’t tell which of Market Street Railway’s streetcars Mr. Cimino and his fellow craftsmen were working on. If it was the late 1920s, it wasn’t No. 798, which was built in 1924. No. 798 is the sole survivor of this “streetcar factory,” which employed many San Franciscans in good jobs for years (just as Elkton’s successor, Muni’s Curtis E. Green Light Rail Facility, does at that same location today). Both our non-profit and Muni have spent a lot of time bringing No. 798 back from the dead after it was rescued from destruction in the 1980s.

There’s still considerable electrical and mechanical work to be done on No. 798, but when it’s finished, this large, high-capacity double-ended streetcar will be one of the workhorses of the fleet — perfect for hauling crowds to and from Giants’ games, as well as carrying passengers in daily service on the E- and F-lines for decades to come. We portray No. 798’s future in our exclusive historic travel series image (available as a poster, matted print, notecard, or magnet online or at our San Francisco Railway Museum).

At the museum, you can also see a miniature streetcar of this class hand-built by the same Elkton Shops crafts workers who built the real things. Mr. Cimino may have even had a hand in that model. Surrounding the model, you can view a photo display telling the story of the old Elkton Shops and other operations of our namesake, Muni’s erstwhile privately owned competitor.

All cars built at Elkton Shops proudly wore this decal, preserved here on sole survivor No. 798: "This Car a San Francisco Product, Built in Our Own Shops. Market St. Ry. Co."

We’re all about preserving historic transit in San Francisco. We help Muni do that, but we’re not part of Muni, nor do we receive any government funding for our efforts. We count on memberships and donations. If you join our organization now, you’ll receive the new issue of our member newsletter, Inside Track, with its exclusive series on the history of America’s first public transit system — Muni — in this, its centennial year. And we’ll send you the last issue as well, with the first installment of that series. We appreciate your help in keeping vintage streetcars and cable cars as a vibrant part of the San Francisco scene.

Here in the world’s tech center, we expect to be amazed by new things. But it’s a special treat to be amazed by something old. Or in this case, two things that are old today but were once new.

Exhibit A, brought to our attention by Todd Lappin, Market Street Railway board member and curator of one of the city’s best neighborhood blogs, Bernalwood. Todd reported on this incredible collection of super-high-resolution aerial photographs that covered the entire city…in 1938.

Click to enlarge. Market and Van Ness, August 1938, zoomed-in aerlal photo from David Rumsey Historical Map Collection.

For San Francisco history buffs, it’s a dream come true. For streetcar buffs, even more so. Here’s just one example: a screen shot, zoomed in on Van Ness and Market. You can see how Muni’s H-line cut across Market at a ridiculously oblique angle to connect from Van Ness to 11th Street. There’s a streetcar navigating the gauntlet now. You can also see the switches that connected Van Ness to the eastern side of Market. These were used to detour Muni J, K, L, M, and N streetcars up to Geary when downtown Market Street was closed for parades, and for cars assigned to Geary Carhouse to get in and out of service on the N-Judah, during the years it was based there.

Zooming in on other photos will give you a great closeup of the old Elkton Shops, where our namesake built and maintained streetcars, Fort Mason, showing how the H-line ran right through the Fort, and many other disappeared pieces of streetcar history. Or check out the freight yards at Mission Bay, the State Belt Railroad along the waterfront, and many other lost pieces of the past. It’s an incredibly engaging time-waster, for those so inclined.

More current and colorful is this film clip shared with the world by our good friend Rick Prelinger, who has done so much to preserve what would otherwise be lost footage of America’s past. This one is a real doozie: what amounts to a home movie, shot in Cinemascope! Note: we’re having intermittent problems with embedding this video. If you don’t see it immediately below, click here.

The 21-minute film was mostly shot from an automobile by Tullio Pelligrini, an amateur who, true to the literal definition of that word, apparently did it purely out of love for San Francisco. (The point of view concept is reminiscent in some ways of the famous Miles Brothers’ Trip Down Market Street film, shot from the front of a cable car on Market Street just before the 1906 Earthquake.) In fact, there’s an echo of that earlier film just after the 16 minute mark: “Iron Monsters” (the original Muni streetcars) sharing Market with the almost-new “Baby Ten” PCCs. Some great cable car footage follows.

If you like this film, you’ve GOT to sign up for Rick’s next showing of “Lost Landscapes 6,” his compilation of wonderful film scenes from San Francisco’s past. This will be included along with a wonderful WWII drive up Market and other scenes. It sold out the Castro Theater last month. The repeat show is Tuesday, January 24, at 7:30 p.m. at 300 Funston Avenue, corner of Clement. It’s a $5 suggested donation — a real bargain — and requires an email RSVP.

The San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni), America’s first publicly owned urban transit system, begins its 100th year of operation today. Created early in California’™s Progressive Era, in part as a reaction to a corrupt privately owned transit company, Muni opened its first lines on Geary Street 99 years ago on December 28, 1912. Ever since, Muni has played a big part in the lives of San Franciscans, taking them to work, study, shop, and play.

Fifty Thousand San Franciscans came out to cheer the opening of the Municipal Railway on Geary Street, December 28, 1912. Muni Archives.

As Muni’s non-profit preservation partner, Market Street Railway has already released its 2012 Centennial Calendar (which will be available at a reduced price when our museum reopens January 4). MSR members also took the lead in creating a wonderful book documenting Muni’s first century.

Official Centennial events are still being planned by Muni. Market Street Railway has made detailed suggestions and stands ready to assist with making such events a success. We’ll let you know as soon as specific events are announced, to allow maximum time for your planning. Meantime, here’s to Muni’s 99th birthday!

San Francisco Municipal Railway streetcar No. 1 on Stockton Street at Market, the terminal of the original F-Stockton line, Christmas Day 1944. Roy D. Graves photo, Market Street Railway Archives.

It’s December 25, 1944. We’re at Stockton at Market Street, the terminal of Muni’s original F-line. And welcoming riders on this Christmas Day 67 years ago is none other than Car No. 1, recently repainted from its original gray and maroon “battleship” livery into Muni’s brighter blue and gold. It is ready for another trip on the F, past Union Square, through the Stockton Tunnel and Chinatown to reach North Beach, then on Columbus Avenue, North Point, Van Ness and Chestnut to the Marina District. (If you think this sounds like today’s 30-Stockton, you’re right. The original F is its direct ancestor.)

There was a glimmer of brightness on the war horizon this day, too. More than three years after Pearl Harbor, Allied forces had turned the tide against both Germany and Japan. While there would be months of fierce fighting ahead, the end of the war was now in sight.

On the Home Front, transit systems across America were overwhelmed with riders driven from their automobiles by gasoline and tire rationing. The strain was showing on Muni. Only three months before, it had taken over operation of its private competitor, Market Street Railway Company, only to find its equipment and facilities near collapse. Yet the system soldiered on, making do however possible. In a way, the soon-to-be-popular song, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” described the need to defer needed repairs: “Until then, we’ll have to muddle through somehow.” (By the way, that song made its debut on the lips of Judy Garland in Vicente Minnelli’s movie “Meet Me in St. Louis,” which also gave us the song, “Clang, Clang, Clang Went the Trolley.”)

Our exclusive member newsletter, Inside Track, is about to publish the second in a multi-part history of Muni, “Muni At War,” with lots of rarely- or never-before seen photos, including this one, which we acquired from a collector on eBay. If you’re not a member of Market Street Railway, this is a great time to join because new members will also received the last issue of Inside Track, with photos and text describing the origins and first 30 years of Muni’s history.

As for Car No. 1 itself, it’s fully restored to its original appearance and ready to play the starring role in Muni’s centennial year. We’ll be operating a charter of the streetcar in the next few months for members only, riding the rails west of Twin Peaks in a rare treat. (Another great reason to join MSR.) Watch here for details.

And have yourself a merry little Christmas now (or celebration of your choice)!

Well, not literally, since it burned down 45 years ago, but visually, you can revisit a fabulous piece of San Francisco history on this new DVD — or give it as a gift for the holidays. Sutro’s was THE place to go for ice skating when I was a kid. Before that, for decades, it was the city’s unparalleled palace of swimming, with seven salt water pools heated to different temperatures.

But the biggest attraction for many was all the STUFF. Hundreds of photographs of old San Francisco (then meaning pre-earthquake), all sorts of oddities, like a giant attic. And the wood and glass structure was an attraction in itself.

Streetcars served Sutro’s (on the 2-Clement line!) until after World War II…using track and a terminal that Adolph Sutro himself built. It’s all captured in a documentary by the same folks who a few years ago created the memorable film about Playland (just down the hill from Sutro’s and the Cliff House).

We have both of these DVDs on sale at our San Francisco Railway Museum. We also have our exclusive narrated DVD version of the famous “Trip Down Market Street” film, shot from the front of a cable car just days before the 1906 Earthquake and Fire. So come on down to the museum (77 Steuart Street between Market and Mission; F-line Steuart Street stop; open daily except Monday, 10-6).