They raised the first steel posts and roof beams yesterday for the new Geneva Canopy. This is the culmination of more than a dozen years of advocacy by Market Street Railway to give the irreplaceable historic streetcar fleet protection from the elements when the vintage streetcars are not on the streets. (We have a major article on this in the new issue of our newsletter, Inside Track, which will be mailed to our members next week.)
The first of the four double-ended Muni PCC streetcars has left San Francisco for a complete rehabilitation in Pennsylvania, at Brookville Equipment Company. No. 1008, which operated in passenger service until 1982 and was then converted into a “repair car” to tow broken-down streetcars back to the barn and perform other services, left Metro East February 9. When it returns, it will be painted in the green and cream “Wings” livery in which it was originally delivered to San Francisco in 1948.
Market Street Railway produces a calendar each year featuring San Francisco’s historic streetcars and cable cars. The Museums in Motion calendar is an important project to us as both a thank you to members (included with membership of $100 or more) to raise funds for our non-profit work preserving historic transit.
The Great Highway circa 1903.
In this case, it needs to recover its nervous system. Streetcar No. 1071, painted in the original livery it ran in when new in Minneapolis-St. Paul in the late 1940s, left Muni’s Geneva Division today for a cross-country trip to Brookville Equipment Company in Pennsylvania where it will be completely rewired.
