Here is an amazing find buried in the street railway history of the Golden Gate region. We love to talk about multi-modal in today's transit conversations, but oh how backward we are. San Francisco (and Jacksonville) were truly MULTIMODAL in 1906, in fact our street railways were multiracial - something not even matched in the City By The Bay.
Take a few minutes and enter another world, one that clearly wasn't spinning too fast, but fascinating none-the-less. Note that the film is taken from a cable car, NOT a streetcar. Cable railways operate much slower then streetcars or interurbans, a constant 9.5 mph.
As of July 1, 2011, riding a cable car costs $6 for a single ride, the senior fare is $3. Cable car rides are included in monthly Muni passes, as well as 1-day, 3-day, 7-day passes, and the CityPASS program.
Today single-ended cars serve the Powell-Hyde and Powell-Mason lines. These cars have an open-sided front section, with outward-facing seats flanking the gripman and a collection of levers that actuate the grip and various brakes. The rear half of the car is enclosed, with seats facing inward and entrances at each end and the car has a small platform at the rear. These cars are 27 ft 6 in long and 8 ft wide and weigh 15,500 pounds. They have a passenger capacity of 60, 29 of them seated.
Most of these cars were built or rebuilt in the 1990s at Muni's Woods Carpentry Division.
Double-ended cars serve the California Street line. These cars are somewhat longer, having open-sided grip sections at both ends and an enclosed section in the middle. These cars are 30 ft 3 in long and 8 ft wide and weigh 16,800 pounds. They can hold 68 passengers, 34 of them seated. The California Street line lacks turning capabilities at each end, resulting in the necessity of the double-ended cars. Some of these cars are genuine O'Farrell, Jones, and Hyde Street cable cars, while some of these cable cars were built in 1998 at Muni's Woods Division/Woods Carpentry Division.
Both types of car ride on a pair of four-wheel trucks, to fit the somewhat unusual narrow gauge track of 3 ft 6 in. The term California Street car, as in a car running on the California Street line, should not be confused with the term California Car. California cars are a distinct type of street railway car, the most noticeable spotting feature of these cars are both an open and a fully enclosed section, M/L a 50-50 split.
In the film you will see gasoline automobiles and trucks, streetcars with electric trolley poles running off overhead electric power, horses, pedestrians, wagons, surreys, hacks, and just about every other means of conveyance known to man. How I would love to find a film from Jacksonville that includes such scenes.
http://www.youtube.com/v/d1RvgfoXGTs
Watching this movie is pretty cool.
It reminds me of a few things:
- Much was written in the 40's and 50's newspapers about streetcars and all of the accidents "they" caused (when it was poor driving habits by the cars). How many people do you see dodging the cable cars? In fact the movie ends with a car seemingly stuck between the 2 cable cars with nowhere to go.
- The 2 kids skitching on the back of that Buick by holding on to the folded up roof. That was a classic!
- The paper boy with his papers in hand almost daring the cable car as he stands in front of it.
- People staring at the front of the camera car wondering what that contraption was next to the motorman
The one problem everyone has forgotten prior to cars was the issue with flies in the central cities. Crowded cities with people using horses everywhere to get around causes a huge issue with the attraction to their excrement. Ordinances existed to manage it, but it was still a big issue. This is why fly paper was so popular at the turn of the century.
It is also one of the many reasons why cities embraced streetcars so quickly, to get people around and get rid of the horses!
Wow there are some seriously rude drivers and pedestrians around, twice I couldn't believe somebody didn't cause a wreck.