Real Trolley Cars

I have seen this a few times before but this is the first time I've watched it closely and noted several things.  I was born and raised in San Francisco - my family moved from there to the East Bay when I was eleven.  I grew up in the Castro/Market district and so rode the trolleys (and buses) down Market Street many times.  This trip is most certainly down Market Street as the Ferry Building can be seen in the distance pretty much for the entire film.  What's interesting to note is that the majority of what's seen in this film, and the platform that it's filmed from, are not trolley cars (no overhead catenary or poles) but  cable cars as can be noted by the slotted track down the center (and they say 3-rail O doesn't have a prototype!) in which a cable ran that moved the cars at a constant speed. 

Another thing I noted is that there were many "extra" cars added, probably for the sake of this film.  First, the density and frequency of them is much higher than one be expected and then many of them do not have destination signs on the front - usually the second car of a pair or trio traveling in close proximity.  There are 2 or 3 trolleys that can be seen crossing the tracks and one later one waiting to the left later in the film but none running on Market Street.  When I lived there, it was trolleys and busses on Market Street and there were only 2 cable car lines (Powel & Hyde and California Street) and neither of them crossed Market.

As the camera car gets closer to the Ferry Building a second set of tracks can be seen paralleling the cable car tracks to the outside and later a horse drawn trolley pulls to one.  I had forgotten that somewhere I'd read there were competing transit companies in the early City.

One final thing I noted is that many of the automobiles shown have right hand drive.  There also doesn't seem to be a consistent or enforced rule of cars driving on the right hand side of the road.  At one point there is a vehicle which is clearly chauffer driven that is traveling what now would be the "wrong way."  This may have been done for the sake of the film but he's traveling what would be against traffic now-a-days.  I was also surprised at the frequency with which vehicles cross the path of the trolley and cable cars but, as noted in the YouTube description, this may have been done at the director's request.  When I lived there it was also frowned upon to drive on the tracks as can often be seen in this film.

Just some observations.  What did you see?

It quickly becomes apparent people couldn’t drive any better in 1906 than they do in 2020. 🤔

Curt

Byrdie, there were many cities with cable car lines at one time. When the cables were pulled from Market St. street cars replaced them. Market street once had four tracks. Don

@scale rail posted:

Byrdie, there were many cities with cable car lines at one time. When the cables were pulled from Market St. street cars replaced them. Market street once had four tracks. Don

Thanks for your reply, Don.  There were 4 tracks in this video as it got closer to the Ferry Building too - 2 for cable car and 2 for horse drawn.

If we ever get the chance, you and I should chat sometime.  Sounds like, though there's a small difference in age, you and I have some common haunts - worked/lived in the Bay Area, my first job out of college was for Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays (Maui is the only major island I didn't get to), I've even driven a couple old Key trains.  A pretty well known popular band member, who I think would be about the same age you are, went to the same high school I did in the East Bay.  I met him a couple times as we were both pretty involved in archery at the time.

Byrdie, my E-mail is on my profile. Don

Byrdie, there are some good shots of Market St. railways from the 30's in this documentary. It was the very first doc I produced for TV in 1984. I was just a kid them but had been working in television for 13 years at that time! Don

Byrdie, you worked for Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays, I did all the advertising videos and promotion films for SunTrips of California. Small world. Don

Scale Rail,

Thanks for the SF transit video. My wife and I vacation in Sausalito from Houston regularly and take the ferry across the bay and always ride a cable car or two to explore and shop.

We had no idea of the transit history.

Ron

Ron H, next time go a little farther and visit Maui, we need the tourists. Don