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| In this great shot from Market Street Railway member John Bromley’s collection, Muni ‘Torpedo’ No. 1006 rolls along the original F-line (the F-Stockton) on Columbus Avenue, passing Washington Square at Union Street on a 1950 charter, when the car was just two years old. That’s 1941-model ACF bus No. 066 on the 39-Coit line. Note the trolley coach overhead for the 30-Stockton line, which would soon turn the original F-Stockton line into history, and the E-line tracks in the foreground, already abandoned in favor of the 41-Union/Howard trolley coach. PCCs never ran in regular passenger service on the original F-line, where the narrow Stockton and Chestnut Streets favored Muni’s oldest, skinniest cars, the A-types (like preserved car No. 1). |
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| 'Torpedo' Rehab a Go! |
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| On September 19, the Board of Directors of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (MTA) unanimously approved the advertising of a request for proposals to completely remanufacture four more of Muni’s largest PCC cars, Nos. 1006, 1008, 1009, and 1011. This will be a more thorough restoration than the Newark cars received, with new wiring, complete motor and truck overhauls, and even the option (from bidders) to propose using new trucks with modern AC propulsion for these cars, like the PCCs recently rebuilt for Philadelphia’s Girard line.
These cars, ten of which were bought new by Muni in 1948, were the highest capacity PCCs to ever run in San Francisco, with about 20% more ‘crush load’ capacity than the single-end ex-Philadelphia PCCs (Nos. 1050-1063) that provide primary F-line service. Three of these cars—Nos. 1007, 1010, and 1015—were restored in the early 1990s as part of the initial batch of F-line PCCs. Two others were scrapped decades ago and another, No. 1014, is operating at a transport museum in Sydney, Australia.
The four remaining torpedoes have long been slated for restoration, but the project was put off when the opportunity arose to buy the retired PCCs from Newark. One of these cars, No. 1006, ran in the original Trolley Festivals of the 1980s. No. 1008 has been a Muni ‘work car’ since it was retired from regular service a quarter-century ago. Both are complete, but very tired. The other two cars are essentially body shells, requiring near-total rebuilding.
These additional double-end PCCs are essential for start-up of the E-line, which at least in its initial phase will have to use double-end equipment, lacking a reversing mechanism for single-end cars at its southern (Caltrain) terminal. Depending on the number of bidders and their capacity, the first car could be completed within two years.
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| This story originaly ran in Market Street Railway's quarterly newsletter, Inside Track. We hold web publication of such stories under a three-month embargo. To receive these stories in their printed form at their time of publication, join Market Street Railway today. |
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