Car 24 is very special, for both historic and sentimental reasons.

Built in 1887, it is one of three cable cars remaining from the original Ferries & Cliff House Railway fleet with substantial historic fabric still intact.  (Powell Cars 17 and 27 are the others). Originally numbered 534, it became 524 in 1929, and 24 in 1973, when Muni dropped the first number from the Powell fleet.

Originally assigned to the Sacramento-Clay line, it moved over to the Washington-Jackson line (which ran from Powell and Market through Pacific Heights to Alta Plaza Park) after the 1906 earthquake and fire destroyed the Powell fleet.

Just before the November 1947 election, it was chartered by activist Friedel Klussmann and other advocates to draw last-minute attention to their (successful) efforts aimed at saving the Powell cable cars from being replaced by buses, as the mayor of the day wanted to do.

As Car 524, it was the only active cable car to leave its hometown twice, once to Chicago and once to Los Angeles.

In 1949, Western Pacific Railroad sponsored its participation in the Chicago Railroad Fair, where Car 524 ran on a short cable operation along the shores of Lake Michigan. To make sure everyone knew positively where it came from, the signage on the side was changed from just “Municipal Railway” to “Municipal Railway of San Francisco”. Many Powell cable cars later received this lettering, modeled on today’s Car 8.

When the cable car system was consolidated and routes changed in the 1950s, Car 524 was the last car to operate on the Washington-Jackson line to Pacific Heights in 1956, and has operated on both the replacement Powell-Hyde line and the Powell-Mason line ever since.

In 2016, the City and County of San Francisco dedicated Car 24 to the most famous #24 of all, the greatest San Francisco Giant, Willie Mays. The car now carries a plaque celebrating Mays.