Headed to SF for a few days. What are the things to check out? Only part of the trip will be available for rail sites however. Any suggestions? Also, a friend mentioned a good article in Trains magazine on the area (or maybe Classic Trains) and I searched my back copies to no avail. Anyone with an issue date for this article?
All help appreciated.
Without even trying to find them you’ll no doubt see the historic streetcars that run up and down Market Street and out to Fishermans’ Wharf. BART may be shut down by a strike starting tomorrow (Wednesday).
Southern Pacific’s headquarters used to be at One Market Plaza. I think Trains had an article about the Bay Area in 1998.
Here are a few links that might help:
http://www.trains.com/RailRoadGuide/RailRoadprofile.asp?paridRailRoad=1078
Also, if you’re looking for good spots to catch trains for photography, there is a new California railroad fourm called TrainFoamers at:
http://www.trainfoamers.com/phorum2/index.php
You must sign up to post, that takes a minute or so, then post your question on
the northern California board. There are a bunch of good photogs there that I know will help.
Jim
Thanks guys. Off to the airport.
The most important thing to see, if you have the time, is the Cable Car Museum, Retired cars, existing ones, and seeing the cables coming and going after they have been wound around large wheels is a sight to see…
Also, take a ride on a cable car. You won’t regret it.
Stand on Market Street and see a vast array of trolley cars.
Be sure to see Muir Woods, Chinatown, Alcatraz and if you have the time and access to a car I suggest you go up to the Nappa Valley and ride the Nappa Wine Train for lunch or better still dinner…my wife and I did this a few years back and really enjoyed having dinner in the Great Dome.
My bro says Martinez 1 hour east of SF is terrific. He says you get shots of the bay in the backround then the train. He said 2 hours east of SF is Stockton or Roseville. [:o)][:p][:D]
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Originally posted by Swift
Cable car operation details at the main plant/museum were great. The mechanical technology for the era along with maintaining it presently is pretty amazing. Did the Wine Train as well. I had never ridden in a “heavyweight” and that was very posh. No cab ride but got a cab tour from the engineer. A pair of 1959 MLW FPAs were our mtive power. The wine railroad apparently has a freight operation as well which is switched by what appears to have been an RS11. Great suggestions on both and I highly recommend to others. I rode the cable cars and restored trolleys everywhere we went (Chinatown, etc.) except for Napa and of course Alcatraz. For those who haven’t been, the trolleys are restored to their home line schemes and lettering (e.g. Illinois cars in their home lettering and colors) and are definitely worth checking out.
Thanks again for the suggestions.
Some of the PCC cars are not quite the cars they represent. The idea was to represent all the USA and Canadian cities that operated PCC cars and in some cases the cars from those cities were simply no longer available. So, when they had duplicate cars from a particular city, including San Francisco, they simply repainted the cars most resembling those of the missing cities. I think they did a good job. For example, the car representing “Red Arrow”, the suburban Philly system, is double ended like the Red Arrow cars (trucks on the original were not PCC, however, and other details departed from the PCC specs on the real Red Arrow cars, which do exist at Branford and at two PA musuems), while the Philadelphia city system car is single-ended. They also took two Milan 1928-era Peter Witt single-end cars and built one double-end car out of them! Very much like a Brooklyn 8000-8535 series but with the angled from ends of the single front end of the Brooklyn 6000-6099 and 6200-6299 series. But I understand they have painted that car like the Manhattan Broadway “Huffliner” which was a lighter and more modern car. Maybe you saw this equipment and can report if the details were noted. The Manhattan cars ran in NY from 1936 to 1947 and then were sold to Sao Paulo, Brazil, but the Brooklyn 8000’s ran from about 1926 to 1952.
I rode on the Italian cars a couple of trips (pre-PCC, I guess) and several others which appeared to be American Vintage and PCC design (including Illionois Terminal Rwy). I haven’t gotten my pictures back yet to check details. The Italian cars still had the Italian placards and advertising inside. It appeared that most of the older cars had been completely rebuilt at a coach builder before seeing service again.