Above: San Francisco MUNI car 1056, painted in the livery of the Kansas City Public Service Company.
Car 1056 was out of commission for six years after an accident in 2001. MUNI began extensive repairs on the car in 2004, including a complete rebuilding of the car's front end. The car returned to service the first week of April 2007. It's now missing the "wings" around the front headlight. More details on this and other historic streetcars are available from the Market Street Railway, the volunteer organization that helps acquire and maintain historic streetcars, including a page specifically about Car 1056.
This photo of Car 1056 was taken in September 1998 along Market Street near the Castro district.
What's that vehicle?
It's an electric streetcar, one of seventeen Presidents' Conference Committee (PCC) cars running on the San Francisco Municipal Railway's F-Market line. These cars were among many built in the late 1940s. They were common in United States transit systems until streetcars fell out of favor in the mid to late 1950s. I find it interesting that many cities are now trying to rebuild rail-based transit systems that they ripped out around 40 to 50 years ago. Fortunately, San Francisco retained a strong public transit system, even when many other cities were abandoning their streetcars.
In San Francisco, a private organization, the Market Street Railway joined forces with the San Francisco Municipal Railway ("MUNI") to run the restored PCC cars on the F-Market line. It's been a popular and reliable service.
This particular car has been given the paint scheme of the Kansas City Public Service Company, which ran an extensive streetcar network in Kansas City (Missouri and Kansas) until 1958.
In a way, this car is symbolic for me: I lived in Kansas City for six years before moving to the San Francisco area. I used to live not far from the F-Market line and often took it to work downtown.
Other photos at this site
Aside from the galleries and albums listed to the right under Features, here are some other selected photos:
Oakland, California
E-mail: Please see the Contact Information page.
