PCC No. 1074, the "Red Rocket", near the end of its testing period on The Embarcadero near Mission Street, signed for the future E-line. Jeremy Whiteman photo.

For decades, people in Toronto have called their streetcars “Red Rockets.” They ran all over town (their successors still do!) Now, a PCC streetcar painted in tribute to the Red Rockets is carrying passengers on the F-line, having just gone into revenue service for the first time.

PCC No. 1074 has actually been hanging around Muni for years, acquired eight years ago from Newark as one of 11 identical cars to help reduce crowding on the overloaded F-line. Several of these 11 have been in service for extended periods since then, but several, including No. 1074, never got into regular passenger service until now.

In the 1970s, Muni ran several ex-Toronto PCCs when they needed extra equipment to handle detours while the Market Street Subway was being built. But the livery of those cars was partly altered, so No. 1074 is the first to run in full Toronto Transit Commission regalia in San Francisco. (By the way, to those who grouse that these and other Muni tribute PCCs don’t have every exact decal the original did, take a deep breath. They’re running here, not there; they have to have some standard Muni signage. We encourage that to be kept to a minimum, though, and Muni has been great about getting as many details correct as feasible.)

This is the of the 1070-class to be put into service following complete rewiring. Nos. 1071, 1078, 1079. and 1080 preceded it. The rest are either being tested now or still being worked on at the contractor, Brookville Equipment Company in Pennsylvania. The full streetcar fleet status list is here. And you can see which of these streetcars are on the F-line right now by looking at the cool map here.

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.