Market Street Railway depends on the generosity of volunteers to make things happen. The more help we have, the more we can do to preserve historic transit in San Francisco.
We played the leading role in saving vintage streetcar service on Market Street, and later extending it to Fisherman’s Wharf along the waterfront. The F-Market & Wharves line is now rightly world-famous and stands as a testament to what volunteers acting in concert can accomplish. Now, with Muni’s budget crunch, we need volunteer help again to strengthen our organization and defend our streetcars, and the cable cars too!
E-mail volunteer@streetcar.org or call us at (415) 956-0472 to become a volunteer.
Market Street Railway offers a variety of volunteer opportunities, some requiring little or no skill (just energy and time!), some requiring basic knowledge, and some requiring advanced skills. We will provide training in some areas.
Below are some of the volunteer opportunities we offer.
Museum Docents
Market Street Railway volunteers serve as docents in our San Francisco Railway Museum, answering visitor questions about San Francisco transit history, guiding visitors to our rare videos and transit ephemera, demonstrating how to operate our full-size cab of a replica 1911 streetcar, and more. It’s an enjoyable social activity, where you’ll meet and greet rail fans and history buffs from around the City, the Bay Area, and the world (we have lots of international visitors, so volunteers with skills in such languages as German, Spanish, and Japanese are especially helpful.
Website Upgrades
This website is our virtual window to the world. If you explore our We Built This City section, you’ll find scores of well-researched articles on aspects of San Francisco’s transit history, including many rare photographs. We need savvy help from content curators and web designers to make this content more accessible to the public. We would also welcome volunteers able and willing to help us keep our website secure.
Social Media
We’re looking for active social media users to contribute content to our TikTok account, our YouTube channel, our Instagram account, and our Facebook Pages (for our Museum, and for transit history, as well as our popular Facebook discussion group. When you see great historic transit action on the streets (cable cars and F-line streetcars), use your creativity to offer fresh perspectives on these iconic vehicles and POST.
Newsletter Contributors
Our website blog and our quarterly newsletter, Inside Track, are the primary ways we communicate with members and prospective members. We welcome original contributions, such as photographs (old and new), articles on contemporary issues, articles of an historical nature, interviews, reminiscences, oral histories, et cetera.
Photo Archives
We have collected thousands of historic photographs of San Francisco historic transit from many sources, and use them in a variety of ways. You can help our lead archivist scan and catalogue additional photos and help us make them more accessible.
Fundraising
We need to grow our membership and win grants from foundations to support and extend the efforts of our organization and our volunteers. Those who are willing to approach merchants along the F-line route, or initiate outreach to community and other groups, or who have experience in writing grant proposals are especially welcome.
Office and field support
Volunteers are always welcome to help with office and clerical duties, including processing memberships and donations, keeping our database current and accurate, and more.
School Outreach
Volunteers are needed to help put together a program that reaches out to children who will be the recipients of the legacy we are working so hard to preserve.
Vehicle enhancement and interpretation
In our early years, we helped Muni physically restore some historic streetcars. They handle that work now, while we offer advice on historical accuracy and other matters. Our focus now is on enhancement and interpretation of Muni’s historic streetcar and cable car fleet. We prepare interpretive material to display on historic streetcars and cable cars: the history of that particular vehicle, what its livery represents, stories of historic transit in San Francisco, maps, and more. We can always use volunteers to help us prepare these displays and to keep them looking great in the cars. Besides volunteering, we’d appreciate your consideration of a donation to our vehicle enhancement fund.
Board of Directors
The Market Street Railway Board of Directors are volunteers as well. It’s a prestigious opportunity for service, reserved for those who are able and willing to devote time, talent, financial resources, or a combination of these to governing our organization and helping set our strategy and priorities to keep the F-line streetcars and cable cars operating at adequate service levels, and to help business and government leaders recognize the significant value they contribute to the City’s economy.
If you’re interested in volunteering for any of these opportunities, please email volunteer@streetcar.org and share a brief description of your skills and the time you can devote to us. You can also call us at (415) 956-0472. Thanks very much.