This car’s exterior commemorates Detroit, which operated PCC streetcars from 1947 to 1956.

While Detroit prided itself as the home of modern automotive design, the Detroit Department of Street Railways stayed away from the streamlined PCC streetcar when it first appeared, tinkering instead with its existing ‘Peter Witt’ streetcars to try to make them faster and quieter.

After World War II, Detroit changed its mind and bought 186 new PCCs, using them mainly on the heavy Woodward, Michigan and Jefferson lines. Less than a decade later, though, Detroit made a mass conversion to buses.

San Francisco outbid Mexico City for 80 used Detroit PCCs, but after San Francisco’s financial problems killed the deal, almost all Detroit’s PCCs went to Mexico City.

Electric motors were no longer welcome in ‘Motor City’ but the livery lives on here on car No. 1079.