1887 cable car being shipped to Connecticut in trolley trade
San Francisco is sending one of its oldest cable cars to a museum in Connecticut as part of a deal that involves history and a bit of cash.
The city’s Municipal Transportation Agency board approved donating cable car No. 28 to the Shore Line Trolley Museum in East Haven, Conn. In return, the museum will sell two streetcars to San Francisco for $198,000. It is an unusual trade deal — the cable car, which dates from 1887, is fit only for museum display. But the city hopes to rehabilitate the streetcars it is getting in return and operate them on the Muni’s E line on the Embarcadero.
Rick Laubscher, president of the nonprofit Market Street Railway, a transit historical group, thinks it’s a good deal.
“We are trading a cable car that won’t run for two streetcars that will run,” he said.
The two electric streetcars, which once ran
on Philadelphia’s Red Arrow line, were built in 1949 and are doubleended, unlike most cars of their vintage. That means they can be operated from either end of the car.
“Those cars are hard to get,” Laubscher said.
They will fit in with Muni’s operating fleet of old streetcars, which run on Market Street and the waterfront.
The cable car being sent to Connecticut is a rarity with a long history. It was built in 1887 for the Ferries and Cliff House railway and was a special car, even then. It was an open car with no sides and ran only in good weather on the Sacramento Street line from the Ferry Building to Sixth Avenue and Lake Street, a few blocks from Golden Gate Park.
In April 1906, the car and several others were at the far western end of the line when the rest of the city’s cable car fleet was destroyed in the great earthquake and fire. The car and a few others were rebuilt as closed cars and moved to the Powell Street lines.
The car was rebuilt several times, most recently in 1973. By 2000, it was clear the years of daily service had taken their toll and the old car was worn out. Instead of repairing it, Muni carpenters built a whole new car No. 28 in 2003, and the old No. 28 was retired as unserviceable.
The State Line Trolley Museum has an extensive collection of old electric streetcars and other transit equipment. It has no cable cars, however, and when San Francisco expressed interest in buying two of its Red Arrow cars, a deal was struck.
The museum will transport cable car No. 28 to Connecticut at its own expense and will put it on static display. Though they were invented in San Francisco, cable cars once ran in cities all over the United States, including New York, Chicago, Denver and Seattle.