St. Louis Car Company Trolley Coach

graphic of Muni trolley coach 506

Muni didn’t build the first trolley coach line in San Francisco. That honor went to competitor Market Street Railway (our namesake), which converted its 33-line streetcar over Twin Peaks in 1935 to use trolley coaches (Brills, of which none survives). But Muni was aware of the advantages of trolley coaches, especially their hill climbing ability and their need for only a single driver, instead of a crew of two, as streetcars retired.

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AM General Diesel Coach

The GM “Fishbowl” buses Muni bought in 1969 and 1970 did the job all right, but their loud V8 engines and even louder “Jake brakes”, which sounded like machine guns when applied downhill, ticked off people along their routes, especially in quieter residential areas. So, Muni decided to finish replacing its venerable fleet of Macks with a smaller, quieter bus.

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Flyer Trolley Coach

When Muni converted two dozen streetcar lines to buses at the end of the 1940s, it bought 255 trolley coaches from three manufacturers (Marmon-Herrington, Twin Coach, and St. Louis Car Company). By the mid-1970s, these buses were at the end of their lives. They were all replaced by a new fleet of trolley coaches from Canada’s Flyer Co. The front ends of the Flyers resembled the GM “New Look” diesel coaches Muni was then using, but the sides appeared different, with squared-off windows. They arrived in the iconic livery of “California Poppy Gold,” “Sunset Glow,” and white created for Muni by famed San Francisco industrial designer Walter Landor.

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White Motor Co. Gasoline Coach

1938 White Motor Company Gasoline Coach

Cable cars aren’t the only San Francisco transit vehicles that “climb halfway to the stars.”  This 1938 White Motor Company bus spent parts of four decades growling up and down Telegraph Hill on Muni’s 39-Coit line.  White had built Muni’s very first bus in 1918, and was Muni’s favored source for its then-infrequent bus purchases.  Bus #042 was one of 22 Model White 784 buses delivered to Muni in 1938-39, at a cost of $10,477.53 each (including farebox).

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Marmon-Herrington Electric Trolley Coach

1950 Marmon-Herrington Trolley Coach

Trolley coaches are a cross between streetcars and conventional motor buses. That’s why they were called “trackless trolleys” in some places. They run on electricity from double overhead wires, with one wire supplying the 600-volt DC power, the other serving as a ground to complete the circuit. (For streetcars, the track generally serves as the ground.)

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