Trolley Tuesday 4/27/21 - The Modern Market Street Railway

Modern city transit systems are usually not obligated to contain a heritage streetcar line; after all, they're just there to keep the city on the move. However, there are some certain specific exceptions to that rule, whether it's bringing out old equipment on modern lines for excursion services like Chicago or New York, or keeping old lines operating just "as-is" as long as the spares are there like Boston. San Francisco is no different to the art of the heritage streetcar, but it might as well be both the prototype and the codifier on how to do it for the rest of the world. The interplay between tourist trolley and viable transport is on full display on today's San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni for short), and nowhere is that more evident than through the non-profit organization that keeps the city's historic streetcars running: the Market Street Railway Foundation. On today's Trolley Tuesday, let's see just how the Fabulous F Market and the Exciting E Embarcadero keep history rolling on the street tracks!

Trolley Tuesday 1-5-21 - The Pre-History of the Pacific Electric

Welcome to the first Trolley Tuesday post of 2021! We're all glad you've been able to read our blog for the past year, and maybe even on Twitter for the past two years, and my conductor and I want to keep providing informative and entertaining content for however long we can keep this up. 

For this month's streetcar excursion, we're in home territory as I take you through a complete history of the Pacific Electric Railroad, one of the most well-known and iconic streetcar systems... in the world. However, before we can get to the World's Wonderland Lines, we first need to see where these streetcars all came from, and it all started in a little valley next to a wide river with a very, very big problem...