This car is painted to honor Boston, which has run PCC streetcars since 1937, longer than any city in history. Boston’s PCC fleet maxed out at 344 cars of several different types.

Because of conditions in its vintage subway, Boston used the only single-end US PCCs built with left-hand doors. This car’s livery is that of Boston Elevated Railway Co., the private company that brought PCCs to Beantown. Later, under public ownership, they were painted in the colors used for the routes on maps (green for most streetcar lines, red for the isolated Mattapan-Ashmont line, still operated by PCCs today.

Sidebar: in 1973, prodded by the US government, Boston and San Francisco jointly ordered new Boeing ‘light rail vehicles’ to replace PCCs. The Boeings proved unreliable in both cities, while the reliable PCCs continue to hold the hearts of San Franciscans and Bostonians alike.