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.

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.

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)!

In the gloaming on West Portal Avenue, PCCs honoring Toronto (1074) and Los Angeles (1080) are about to turn onto the L-Taraval line for testing and training, December 8, 2011. Photo copyright Jeremy Whiteman.

One of our ace volunteer photographers, Jeremy Whiteman, is out and about these days west of Twin Peaks, tracking the moves of the PCCs in the 1070 class — the cars numbered between 1070 and 1080 recently returned from being rewired and having the door controls and some propulsion components replaced.

Several of these streetcars are now a familiar sight on the K, L, and M lines, as they make round trips from Cameron Beach Yard, where the historic fleet is stored and maintained, out to the Zoo. They’re not supposed to carry passengers; they’re being operated for two other reasons, both critical to meet the crush load of ridership on the F-line. First, the new components on these streetcars are being tested to ensure they meet Muni’s operating standards, while the cars are still under warranty from the vendor, Brookville Equipment Company of Pennsylvania. Second, as this testing is going on, new operators are being trained for the F-line.

Both streetcar and operator shortages have plagued the line, which is why you currently see so many buses on the F. Muni operations had added new “runs” (scheduled streetcars) to the line a couple of months ago, after having been told by Muni project management that seven renovated PCCs from the 11-car 1070-class would be ready for service by that time. It didn’t work out that way, as continuing problems with the modern door system, approved by Muni Engineering to replace the original, electromechanical door systems, have not yet been resolved.

No question, though, that the Muni team is trying hard to get these problems worked out, so that these streetcars can begin serving passengers on the F-line. In the meantime, riders on the outer ends of the K, L, and M lines are getting a reminder of their PCC past watching the training and testing cars go by. Currently, Toronto 1074, San Diego 1078, Detroit 1079, and LA Transit Lines 1080 are out and about, usually in the afternoon and early evening.

You can see more of Jeremy’s great photos, and comment on them, by joining our Facebook Group, open to all, or our Flickr group. Photographers: we welcome your submissions to either of these groups.

Once in awhile, people contact us (mistakenly believing our non-profit actually operates the historic streetcars) complaining about strange characters wandering up and down the aisles of the F-line streetcars. We tell them it’s part of our city’s history, and here’s a proof point from 1928. The leather boots suggest a possible refugee from the Folsom Street Fair; the beard suggests a prolonged spell in the wilds of Mendocino, uh, farming. Then there’s that jacket with the puffy cotton belt thingy from who knows where?

The ever diligent conductor from our namesake, Muni’s old competitor Market Street Railway Company, clearly seems to be attempting to block the platform so this disreputable character can’t stroll the streetcar’s aisle harassing respectable passengers. Or, maybe the old guy is just a fare evader. No sense parting with a nickel if you can save it for a cuppa joe at Compton’s Cafeteria (or perhaps a lip warming shot of Muscatel elsewhere in town).

While we haven’t figured out exactly what’s going on here, we thought the image was different enough to make into a greeting card, now offered at our San Francisco Railway Museum in limited quantities. Drop by this season and share some cheer with John, Nigel, or Tammy (depending who’s there). Tuesday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., at the F-line Steuart Street stop.

And don’t forget to keep your eyes peeled for our holiday tram, Milan No. 1818, out and about the F-line with lights, garlands, and interior decorations courtesy of our volunteers.

Click photo to enlarge

The overcast seems like it’s been with us forever, but here’s a sight to brighten the scene: two of the brightest streetcars in the F-line fleet passing on The Embarcadero the other day. Milan tram No. 1811 wears the yellow and white livery this “Ventotto” class originally wore (“Ventotto”=28,for the year, 1928, when the first ones went into service). PCC No. 1076 evokes the tropics in its aqua and flamingo orange paint job, jarring for Washington DC until you read the story behind it.

No. 1076 is now the only one of the 1070 class that hasn’t yet been sent to Brookville Equipment Company for rewiring. This class all had unreliable door motors after previous work had been done by Brookville on them, but Muni’s shops substituted never-used but vintage door motors from a stash they acquired from Pittsburgh when that city abandoned its last PCCs. The doors on 1076 have operated very well ever since, while Muni continues to have problems getting the new, “modern” door systems its engineer and Brookville selected for the remaining cars in this class to work reliably. (Market Street Railway has urged Muni to NOT change 1076’s door motors when it goes, as it must, to Brookville for badly needing rewiring, and to strongly consider going back to the traditional door motor system for PCCs.)