This car is painted in tribute to the ‘Magic Carpets’, as Muni’s first five modern-design streetcars were known.

When the PCC streetcar debuted in 1936, some cities lined up quickly to buy them, but in San Francisco, the privately-owned Market Street Railway Co. couldn’t afford further capital investments, while the Municipal Railway was prohibited by the City Charter from paying patent royalties covering several PCC features.

Muni’s solution was to have these five streetcars custom built without the patented items. The double-end ‘Magic Carpets’ arrived in 1939, wearing this blue & gold livery. They made every other San Francisco streetcar look old-fashioned, but World War II precluded any thought of buying more.

The five ‘Magic Carpets’ were retired by 1959. Only one survives, in a museum. Car No. 1010, one of Muni’s first ten true PCCs (purchased in 1948), is painted to honor the ‘Magic Carpets’.