Company: San Francisco Municipal Railway (“Muni”)
Car Type: Single-ended PCC streetcar
Builder: St. Louis Car Company
Year Built: 1951-52
Year Acquired: 1982
Status: Out of service
General
This Presidents Conference Committee (PCC) served San Francisco’s MUNI streetcar system until the early 1980’s when Boeing made LRV’s (Light Rail Vehicles) took over its duties on the then five streetcar lines which were funneled into the new Market Street Subway which was constructed above the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) subway also under Market Street. While this was seen as a transit improvement, San Franciscans clamored to have streetcars back on the surface of Market Street and thus was born the F Line which still functions today using restored PCC cars painted to resemble every city that had such units and are also supplemented with older style cars from Milan, Italy and a pair of “boat” trolleys from Blackpool, England. The city’s famous cable cars touch the Market Street transit corridor at two places as part of a unique and coordinated urban transit system.
History
1030 is one of the last 25 PCC type cars constructed in the United States by the St. Louis Car Company as order #1675 submitted on February 3rd, 1951. The cars were completed and shipped between October 18th, 1951, and March 21st, 1952. Originally, they were set up to be a two-man car with a conductor at the center doors but as labor agreements were negotiated one operator was permitted to run the car just as MUNI’s trackless trolleys and motorbuses were. When a RELIC (our predecessor organization) member purchased the car, it was loaded on a Santa Fe Railroad flat car which in turn was loaded aboard a Santa Fe car float to cross the Bay for a connection with the Sante Fe’s transcontinental route to Chicago where it was handed over to the Illinois Central Railroad for delivery to our AE&FREC railroad at the Coleman yard. Our electric locomotive L-202 then pushed the flatcar up to Castlemuir onto our Track 2. The locomotive was uncoupled, and a rail ramp temporarily constructed to the rails on the flat car and it eventually 1030 powered itself off the flatcar on December 4th, 1982. The ramp was taken down and L-202 returned the flat car to the Coleman interchange.
Narrative
The museum now had a streetcar that was similar to those that ran in Chicago. The car was operated a few times the first two years it was here but being single ended it has severe limitations as we have no place to turn it at either end of our railroad as all our other cars have controls at both ends. 1030 did have a backup trolley pole as MUNI’s historic Genva Car House was designed for double ended cars and the single ended PCCs needed them for switching purposes.
Author: Joseph Hazinski, Curator