Trolley Thursday 3/29/21 - San Francisco's Cable Cars in Film and Television

There are two things certain in life whenever the city of San Francisco is established in a film: the appearance of the Golden Gate Bridge and the familiar "clang-clang" of a cable car. In the 148 years since the establishment of the Clay Street Hill Railway, San Francisco's once-revolutionary cable cars are as much a part of the city identity as Coit Tower, Fisherman's Wharf, and Lombard Street. Hollywood studios have since caught on to the cable car's inextricable link to the city identity, so much that if a film is set anywhere near San Francisco, there's bound to be the familiar "clang-clang" and clatter of a passing cable car, even if they don't appear! On the last Trolley Tuesday of April, let's look back on the film cameos of these wonderful little cable cars! (And by no means is this an exhaustive list, just some films I find interesting that are worth checking out.)

Trolley Tuesday 3/9/21 - The Los Angeles Railway Type A "Maggies" and Type B "Huntington Standards"

Henry Huntington prided his electric lines to have a bit of familiarity and class among the citizens of Los Angeles, and so his shop crews always strove for some kind of standardization. The biggest factor in standardization was the iconic "Huntington Standard" window design, a five-window front with curved corner glass that not only was quite complex to manufacture, but provided a uniquely-refined air to both the Pacific Electric (PE) and the Los Angeles Railway (LARy) that no other streetcar company could match. On the LARy, the "Huntington Standard" design was found on their standard line of wooden "California Cars", the Type "A" (also known as the "Maggies") and the Type "B" (Huntington Standards), of which hundreds were seen rolling through the hills and valleys of the City of Angels at all times. On today's Trolley Tuesday, let's take a balmy ride aboard a Huntington Standard as we appreciate these fine antique cars.

Trolley Tuesday 2/16/21 - The Pacific Electric Hollywood Cars

In the common person's mind and in popular culture, there is no more an evocative image than a red-and-orange streetcar rolling down Hollywood or Sunset Boulevard in mid-century Los Angeles. After all, who can blame them? Everything can be glamourized in Los Angeles, even and especially its public transit vehicles. The one-hundred-and-sixty "Hollywood Cars" of the Pacific Electric (PE) stood and continue to stand as those immaculate pieces of Angelino-stalgia, from the old folks who used to ride them regularly to modern fans that recognize representations of this car in films like "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" and "Gangster Squad". But how did such a legendary streetcar come about and last over 30 years in service AND 60 years in preservation? Find out on today's Trolley Tuesday as we ride in style on the poor man's limousine, the Pacific Electric Hollywood Car!