Trolley Thursday 4/8/21 - The Golden Age of San Francisco's Cable Cars

Like every great American story, San Francisco's cable cars are a story of grit, determination, and innovation in the face of adversity. However, like we mentioned last time, the era of the cable car was not simply a flat line to success. As this unique mode of transportation picked up in popularity across the city (and across the United States), there soon arose a rift in how the cars were built and operated. Do we go with side-grip or horizontal-grip? Do we add curves to the line or not? What to even do with a rotating horsecar? All of these questions, and more, will now be answered on today's Trolley Thursday, celebrating the Golden Age of San Francisco's Cable Cars!

  

Sutter Street Blues

A possibly contemporary
sketch portrait of Henry Casebolt.
(Find A Grave)

A normal Market Street Horsecar by Casebolt and Van Gulpen,
waiting at San Francisco's Grand Hotel in 1867.
(Nancy Herriman)

Following the opening of Andrew Smith Hallidie's pioneering Clay Street Hill Railroad in 1873, all of San Francisco was abuzz to see where the next cable railway was going to be and where it would run. They needn't wait long, as just four years later another transit king of the bay threw his hat into the cable car ring. Henry Casebolt (1816-1892) had a stake in bayside street railways long before Hallidie even set up shop in the city, as he and his business partner Charles Van Gulpen were in the horse-drawn omnibus business. They also built the first horsecars for the original Market Street Railway (MSR) in the late 1850s, providing rolling stock for the first street railway in California. However, Van Gulpen and Casebolt parted ways in 1863, and it was around this time that Casebolt built what was the oddest street railway car ever built: The Balloon Car.

The infamous "Balloon Car" on its normal route to Woodward Gardens.
I wonder what happens if we strap rockets to either side and spin it real fast.
(Mid-Continent Railway Museum)

An interestingly fancy horsecar built by Casebolt
and Van Gulpen for the Sutter St. Railroad. Note the
oval standee windows.
(Calisphere)

In 1866, Casebolt was contracted to design and engineer rolling stock for the Front Street, Mission & Ocean Railroad (FSMO), and instead of paying him a contractual fee, the owners of the FSMO paid him in "railroad notes". When these early checks defaulted, Casebolt became the sole owner of the railroad and immediately recognized a problem. More often than not, service turnarounds took a long time as the horseman had to lead their draft animal to the other end of the car and reattach the bridle and bits, and this delay cost money overtime. In an attempt to quicken service intervals, Casebolt created a rotating ovoid horsecar that many residents labeled the "Balloon Car". Now, instead of leading the horse around the car, the car could rotate around the horse and get locked in with a pin on the pivot. Unfortunately, the car suffered from extremely-light construction (which made it jump the tracks frequently and suffer from a debilitating wobble), an easily-damaged center pin, and a severely reduced riding capacity. Casebolt only used the car on one line, from Larkin Street to Woodward Gardens via Mission Street, and went back to traditional horsecars on the rest of the line.

Patent Trending

An original Sutter Street Railway train, preserved by
the San Francisco Cable Car Museum.
(Pargon)

By 1876, Casebolt had noted Hallidie's new Clay Street Line and immediately desired to capitalize on "cable car mania" by creating his own line. Unlike Clay Street, though, much of the original FSMO was on flat and level ground, with the steepest grade being just 4% compared to Clay Street's 7%; that said, it was still tripping up horses and Casebolt was certain cables could do what horses could not. As he designed the new and now-renamed Sutter Street Railway, Casebolt went directly to Hallidie to see if he could use his patent grip cars on the new line. Over a series of a dozen conferences, Casebolt and the Sutter Street executives made their case to Hallidie at his home on Everett Street to use his grip patent for their road. It was a dire affair, as the Sutter Street cable needed to become profitable quickly if Casebolt had any chance of retaining any control of it. However, despite making a good case to Hallidie, the Scotsman knew he had the only grip technology in town and put forward that Sutter Street should pay him $50,000 a year for his patent as well as royalties on every grip built by Casebolt's car shops. 

Henry Casebolt and Asa Hovey's "side grip" design, as patented.
For some awkward reason, the "grip" is labeled the "crotch".
Stop giggling.
(San Francisco Cable Car Museum)

A front-on view of the "side grip".
(The Cable Car Guy)

To say the executives and Casebolt were absolutely stunned would be an understatement. After leaving Hallidie's home in a huff, Casebolt worked 24 hours a day converting the horsecar line to cables as well as designing his own grip with the help of engineer Asa Hovey. By late 1876, close to the re-opening of the Sutter Street Railway, Casebolt and Hovey had invented the "side grip", a device that changed cable car design forever. Instead of using screw-type wheels to engage the cable from below as Hallidie had designed, the "side grip" instead pinched the cable in two moving jaws operated by a lever. This smaller-profile design also thinned the gap over the cable channel, which meant horse hooves and wagon wheels no longer got tripped up operating over cable car tracks. In trying to keep the line as distinct from the Hallidie system as possible, Casebolt even designed the Sutter Street to accomodate a 5' wide gauge instead of the Clay Street's 3'6" gauge. When the Sutter Street Line opened on January 27, 1877, the "grip war" between Hallidie and Casebolt was on as they both waited to see which new cable car line would adopt either grip system. Thankfully, unlike most transit wars, it was won rather fair and bloodlessly when the "side grip" was determined to be the safest design to use on all new cable railways. 

The massive Sutter Street Railway headquarters at Sutter and Polk Streets,
which ran both the Sutter Street and the crosstown Polk, Larkin, and Ninth Street Line.
(Randolph Brant)

The gentle incline of the Sutter Street Cable, undated.
(Calisphere)

Casebolt continued expansion of the Sutter Street Cable up until 1883, starting with further development of the powerhouse at Larkin and Bush Streets. In his head, Casebolt saw a single stationary steam engine powering two, three, four, or even five or more cables stretching all throughout the city, and he soon put it into practice starting with a crosstown line from the powerhouse to Hayes Street via Larkin. By the time Casebolt sold the Sutter Street Railway to real estate broker Robert F. Morrow, the system was one of the largest single-company cable car systems in San Francisco. It even had a "steam dummy" extension through the Marina to the Presidio, with one locomotive named after Casebolt himself, up until 1880. Hallidie continued to maintain control of the Clay Street Hill Railroad until 1888, when he sold it to the Ferries & Cliff House Railway (F&CH) as their new Sacramento-Clay line. Both men remain important figures in the history of the cable car to this day, with Hallidie being the "father of the cable car" and Casebolt being the "father of the modern cable car" as we know it today.

Cable Car Crazy

The San Franciscan Cable car system at its most expansive by 1892. Note the centralized
locations of the powerhouses, which were done to lessen strain of the cables.
(San Francisco Cable Car Museum)

The differences between "Let-Go" and "Pull"
curves on the San Francisco cable car system.
(San Francisco Cable Car Museum)

After the opening of the Sutter Street Line, the floodgates were opened and in was ushered a period known as the "Golden Age of Cable Cars". From 1877 to 1891, eight different companies controlled twenty-three different independent (and one joint) lines covering all of San Francisco. Not only did the lines connect many of the city's most transportationally-inhospitable areas, but it also helped build up areas like Presidio Heights to the northwest and Golden Gate Park to the very west to suburban development. Even the rate of new cable car technology was coming in quite fast. The Presidio & Ferries Railroad (P&F), which was franchised in 1878 and opened on October 23, 1880, was the first line to feature curves on its inclines in the form of downhill "Let-Go" curves. Using only the car's 9.5-mph momentum, the gripman would let go of the cable and drift through, meeting up with the cable at the other side of the curve. The cable would go farther ahead and curve using an idler wheel, which the car would then reattach itself to and slow itself down.  In 1880, the Sutter Street cable introduced another new invention from New Zealand known as the "pull" curve. In contrast to the P&F, the "pull curve" used a series of sprung idler wheels that conformed the cable to the curve profile (much like trolley wire profiling around a curve) and yanked the car up no problem. The sprung idler wheels were able to push themselves away from the grip and reset when the car finished passing through.

A "steam dummy" of the Geary Street, Park, and Ocean Line. Prior to 1892,
the line was a steam dummy line and was one of the busiest lines in the system.
(Outsidelands.org)

An 1890 shows off two fancy Ferries & Cliff House
cars posing at Haight and Stanyan. All destinations
were painted instead of signs, as cars weren't expected
to stray off their routes.
(Unknown Author)

One thing that became clear about the cable car companies was the severe differences in gauge. Not only was the Sutter Street Railroad 5' gauge, but also the Geary Street, Park & Ocean Railway (GSP&O, which opened in February 1880) and the P&F as well. The Market Street Cable Railway (MSR) was the only standard gauge (4'8.5") cable railway ever opened, due to it being owned by the Southern Pacific Railroad, and it eventually bought the GSP&O and converted it to standard. The rest, like the Ferries and Cliff House Railway (F&CH, opened in March 1888), and the Omnibus Railroad & Cable Company (opened in August 1889) used Hallidie's narrow 3'6" gauge which seemed to suit them just fine. The Omnibus holds the distinction of being the last new cable car company to open, but due to its meager reach it didn't take long for it to be bought out by the MSR in 1893. There'll be more about the MSR much later in its own posts, but right now is a good time to introduce it. 

A Ferries and Cliffhouse single-ended car, with fancy minaret roofs, curves down
inbound from the Cliff House, bound for North Beach, year unknown.
(San Francisco Cable Car Museum)

Adolph Sutro, the closest to
"Mr. San Francisco" we have.
(Immigrant Entrepreneurship)

Speaking of the F&CH, this little line was the brainchild of Gustav Sutro, brother of famous San Franciscan land developer Adolph Sutro, who designed the line to go out to the famous "Cliff House" resort on San Francisco's west coast. Its first line, the "Powell and Market", served the shopping districts of Union Square, went through Nob Hill and past North Beach, before ending at Bay and Taylor Streets. Its single powerhouse, at Washington and Mason, worked this line and the sister route on Washington and Jackson to Presidio as well as powering the O'Farrell-Jones-Hyde extension of the California Street Line (see below) and what was left of Hallidie's original Clay Street Line, which became the Clay-Sacramento route of the F&CH in 1892. Finally, the F&CH also introduced the iconic "Powell St." car in 1888 after scaling down designs by Henry Root that were used on the MSR. These cars were the first to combine the grip car and the passenger car into one convenient package, and eventually became an iconic San Franciscan treat. 

An early F&CH car without a front windscreen. Note the 
mesh underneath the enclosed section to guard the wheels.
(Calisphere)

Oh, So That's Why He Uses the Term "California Car"

Leland Stanford, one-half
of the mighty "Octopus".
(Public Domain)

One year after the Sutter Street Cable Railway opened, former-governor and railroad executive Leland Stanford franchised the California Street Cable Railroad (or "Cal Cable") in 1876. Stanford had a mighty interest in cable car development on California Street, as he and other rich nobs like Mark Hopkins (one of his "Big Four" associates) had their mansions up and down the street, eventually nicknaming the area "Nob Hill". Central Pacific Railroad engineer Henry Root was hired to engineer the line, but when it came time to design the rolling stock, a man as rich as Stanford could not avoid being bilked forever. Neither he nor Root had the engineering acumen to completely redesign Hallidie's patents, or even circumvent them, so Stanford had to reluctantly spend $30,000 up front to use Hallidie's grip design. The line broke ground on July 5, 1877 and spanned 1.7 miles up California Street from Kearney Avenue to Fillmore Street, past all of the "nabob palaces" that gave Nob Hill its name. After the line opened on April 10, 1878, it was then further extended west to from Fillmore to Presidio Avenue. The extension was built on the cheap, and it wouldn't be refurbished until after Stanford sold his interest in "Cal Cable" in 1884.

An original "Cal Cable" train emerging from the powerhouse at Hyde and Pine Streets.
(San Francisco Cable Car Museum)

Wearing a "United Railroads" logo, "California Car"
no. 16 shows off its original minaret vents as it pauses
en route to Fillmore, Sacramento, and Clay Streets.
(SFMTA)

Before the big man exited the cable car business, though, he helped finance the last big development in cable car design. At this point, cable cars on the line were two-car affairs with a "grip" or "dummy" car and a seperate horsecar with only small turntables to turn one car at a time. As the Cal Cable line experienced heavy ridership, service intervals were once again important and the company was looking to eliminate any wasted time or practices it saw fit. With the help of the John L. Hammond & Co, a local carbuilder, they debuted the "California Car" in 1891. Instead of two seperate cars, the "California Car" was double-ended and included a set of grips at either end. Now there was no need to turn the cars around anymore, and the capacity was now 150% what the original cars could do, while the source of the nickname is incredibly obvious. With these new cars came two new lines, the O'Farrell-Jones-Hyde line and an extension of the California Street Line down to Market Street in 1891. At this point, all cable car line extensions or development froze, with existing lines being bought up and merged into other systems. The golden age of the cable car was over. 

Carville-by-the-Sea

A false-color postcard of Carville-by-the-Sea, as rendered by Woody LaBounty.
(Woody LaBounty)

A single horsecar from the Market Street Railway,
resting on the beach at Carville by the Sea in 1920.
(Public Domain)

And what happened to the old horsecars that were soon retired by the new California Cars? Well, they found new uses in homes in a rather unusual neighborhood on the western end of Golden Gate Park. Starting in 1895, the MSR put out an ad selling horsecars for just $20 ($10 without seats) in the San Francisco Examiner. While most of these cars ended up dotting the city landscape as playhouses, offices, or poor shelters, one smart person named Col. Charles Dailey set up a coffee saloon named "The Annex" along the GSP&O Line to the beaches and the Cliff House near Ocean Beach. The land, at the time, was owned by Adolph Sutro, the famous land developer, but canny real estate agent Jacob Heyman stepped in began buying lots around Dailey's coffee shop. His plan was to build upon Dailey's odd little horsecar shop and advertising it as a new beachfront development named "Carville by the Sea". To accommodate people, horsecars were bunched, grouped, and even piled high amongst each other to create these ersatz transit bungalows that rivalled even the works of architectural art up on Nob Hill.

One of the most famous dwellings was this three story folly
that commanded some of the highest rents on the property.
(Outsidelands.org)

Another landmark was St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, whose
second story was made of old horsecars.
(Outsidelands.org)

Inside the last Carville house to exist, featuring the
familiar trappings of horsecar construction. It looks
very cozy, and honestly I'd AirBnB it.
(SFGATE)

It wasn't just people moving in and living in the former horsecars, as it also housed businesses, churches, and most surprisingly, bohemian art colonies. Even Jack London, the famous American outdoors author, had rolled through once and attended a clubhouse owned by a "Dr. Cross". Heyman continued to own and operate Carville, raising rent as time went on but never to a point where it became impossible to live. By 1908, the population of Carville was 2,000 people and most of the old horsecars were swallowed up in conventional houses, with only a few familiar ones poking through. The doom for Carville came in the late 1900s, when what was once undesirable beach property suddenly became desirable and the horsecars were seen as "impeding progress". In 1913, Heyman sold the property to the Oceanside Improvement Club, who inaugurated their new ownership of the land by burning four old cars under the slogan "Make clean today by sweeping and burning up the debris of yesterday" By 1920, Carville was a thing of the past and only one home (at 1632 Great Highway) has survived today, complete with its original horsecar interior intact.

The last Carville house from the outside.
(Atlas Obscura)

Thank you for reading today's Trolley post, and watch your step as you alight on the platform. My resources today included the volunteers and archives of the San Francisco Cable Car Museum and their profiles on the eight original cable car companies, "The Coming of the Cable Cars" by Walter J. Thompson on SFGenealogy.org, the SFMTA Library and Archives, and SFGate's article on Carville-by-the-Sea. The trolley gifs in our posts are made by myself and can be found under “Motorman Reymond’s Railroad Gif Carhouse”. On Tuesday, we look at the infamous "United Railroads of San Francisco", and how it set up one of America's first municipal street railways. For now, you can follow myself or my editor on Twitter, buy a shirt or sticker from our Redbubble stand, or purchase my editor's self-developed board game! It's like Ticket to Ride, but cooler! (and you get to support him through it!) Until next time, ride safe!