The San Francisco Historic Trolley Festival was a heritage streetcar service along Market Street in San Francisco, California, United States. It used a variety of vintage streetcars and operated five to seven days a week, primarily in summer months, between 1983 and 1987. Sponsored by the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce and operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway, it was the predecessor of the F Market & Wharves heritage streetcar line that opened in 1995. It used historic streetcars from several different countries, as well as a number of preserved San Francisco cars. The impetus behind the Trolley Festival was that the city's famed cable car system, one of its biggest tourist attractions, was scheduled to be closed for more than a year and a half for renovation, starting in September 1982. The Trolley Festival was conceived as a temporary substitute tourist attraction during the cable car system's closure.
When its operation began, in the summer of 1983, the Historic Trolley Festival was expected to be a temporary service, operating only five days a weekThursday through Mondayand not expected to continue beyond that summer's tourist season. However, its popularity was such that it was repeated in subsequent years, gradually expanded to additional months of the year, and even operated seven days a week in 1985. Each season, a few additional streetcars joined the festival fleet, adding variety and helping to maintain tourist interest. The five seasons of Historic Trolley Festival operation helped to establish strong public and business support for the proposed full-time F-line streetcar service (an all-day, daily, year-round service) that ultimately came to fruition in 1995.
Overview
The San Francisco Historic Trolley Festival was a heritage streetcar service along Market Street in downtown San Francisco, California, that used a variety of vintage streetcars and operated five to seven days a week, primarily in the summer months, between 1983 and 1987. Operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni), the city's primary transit agency, and co-sponsored by the city's Chamber of Commerce and various corporate and private donors, it was the predecessor of the F Market & Wharves streetcar line that opened in 1995. It used historic streetcars/trolleysthese two terms are synonyms in most parts of the United Statesfrom several different countries, as well as a number of preserved San Francisco streetcars, many of which were borrowed from museums. The impetus behind the Trolley Festival was that the city's famous cable car system, one of its biggest tourist attractions, was due to be closed for 20 months (this ended up stretching to 21 months) starting in September 1982 for a needed rebuilding of its aging infrastructure. Local business owners and city officials were very concerned that the temporary absence of the cable cars would lead to a sharp decline in tourism, especially during the one summer season included in the 20-month period.
The first Historic Trolley Festival took place in summer 1983, operating five days a week, and was so well-received that a second festival was organized for the summer of 1984, even though the cable cars would be back in service by then. Additional vintage trolleys were borrowed or acquired, from other cities and foreign countries, to add variety. The service's popularity remained so strong that it was repeated every year until 1987, and during its five seasons it gradually expanded to additional months of the year, additional days of the weekeven operating seven days a week in 1985and with improved frequency. In addition to streetcars from San Francisco and other U.S. cities, the service featured streetcars from cities in Australia, England, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, and Russia.
An estimated 300,000 passengers were carried the festival's second season, in 1984, and "considerably more" the following year. By 1987, the trolley fleet had grown to 10 cars.
During the first four seasons, Muni spent around $526,000 per year to operate the Trolley Festival, but the private sector funded the costs of acquiring and restoring the vintage trolleys, with corporate gifts and public fundraising. A small portion of Muni's costs were recovered from fare revenue. Although the Trolley Festival was originally conceived as a temporary substitute tourist attraction during the cable car system's closure for renovation, by 1987 it had become "a star in its own right", able to "[stand] on its own as a tourist attraction".
Origin and development
The idea for what came to be called the San Francisco Historic Trolley Festival was born in summer 1982, when regular use of the streetcar tracks on the surface of Market Street–the city's main street–was about to end and a 20-month closure of the cable car system for rebuilding was about to begin.
Although there had been proposals for a historic-streetcar service along the Embarcadero as early as 1974 and in 1981 Muni planners had also formally proposed the eventual implementation of such a service along Market Street, the idea only really began to attract strong support from the business community and city officials in 1982, as the nearly two-year suspension of all cable car service loomed. The famed cable car system, a National Historic Landmark and one of the city's biggest tourist attractions, was determined in 1979 to be in need of extensive repairs. A thorough rebuilding of the entire system was scheduled to begin in September 1982 and last 20 months, with service on all three lines suspended for the duration; it ultimately lasted 21 months (until June 1984). San Francisco business owners and others who benefited from tourism were very concerned that the temporary closure would lead to a steep drop in the number of visitors to the city. A historic trolley "festival", using a variety of vintage trolleys from around the U.S. and the world, was proposed as a substitute tourist attraction during the cable car suspension, especially during the one summer season that would be included in the 21-month suspension, summer 1983.
A phasing-out of the use of the tracks along the surface of Market Street had begun in February 1980, when weekday service on the N Judah line was converted from the old PCC streetcars to new trains of Boeing LRVs (light rail vehicles) and moved into the newly opened upper level of the Market Street subway as the first stage of an upgrading and rebranding of the city's remaining streetcar lines as the Muni Metro. Weekday service on the four other then-surviving Muni streetcar lines (J, K, L and M) was gradually also converted to the modern, longer trains and moved off of the surface of Market. By June 1981, all weekday service on the five lines had been moved into the subway, and only on weekendswhen the subway was closedwere the tracks on Market Street still in use, with PCC cars still providing the service on weekends. However, the final conversions were scheduled for fall 1982. Weekend service on J-K-L-M-N would be converted from PCC cars to light-rail vehicles and all use of the Market Street tracks would end, the last day of the old arrangement being set for September 19, 1982.
In 1981, one of Muni's own preserved vintage trolleys, 1912-built car No. 1, had been operated in fare-free shuttle service along Market Street from the Transbay Terminal to the track wye at 11th & Market on alternate Saturdays beginning April 18. In September 1981, former Muni car 178 (K-type, built in 1923) was brought to the city on loan from the California Railway Museum (renamed the Western Railway Museum at the beginning of 1985) for operation on railfan trips in conjunction with the 1981 convention of the Association of Railway Museums. Its loan to Muni was extended, and on some Saturdays in fall 1981 car 1 or 178 ran in service on the J-line. The operation of the vintage streetcars was well received by the public. In summer 1982, both cars were operated in regular J-line service almost every weekend and holiday from July 4 until the closure of the Market Street tracks on September 19.
The popularity of the limited 1981 and 1982 use of historic trolleys in service demonstrated that such operation had the potential to attract tourists and led to the realization that a full-scale service with vintage trolleys might be feasible. The city's Board of Supervisors and San Francisco Public Utilities Commission both passed resolutions in August 1982 endorsing the continuation of vintage streetcar service in some form. Car 178's lease ended, and it was returned to the California Railway Museum (Rio Vista) in fall 1982, but Muni still had its 1912 car 1 along with a few other cars that could be used.
Organizing the event Starting in the summer of 1982 the idea of organizing a historic trolley "festival" to take place during the 1983 tourist season was developed jointly by Muni and the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, with help from others such as businessman and trolley fan Maurice Klebolt, who had helped to arrange the earlier operation of historic streetcars 1 and 178. With growing consensus that a 1983 Historic Trolley Festival could alleviate the anticipated loss of tourism revenue caused by the cable car system's shut down, the Chamber of Commerce became the festival proposal's sponsor. The San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau was on board, and the city government also supported the idea. There was some resistance within Muni, where many in the administration were opposed to any return of streetcar operation to streets in the city center, but this was overcome by strong support of the idea from Muni's recently hired new general manager, Harold Geissenheimer, and from then-mayor Dianne Feinstein and others at city hall.
Rick Laubscher, who then chaired the Chamber's transportation committee, organized the event in collaboration with Mayor Feinstein. A roster of vintage streetcars still needed to be assembled and a route chosen. For the vehicles, Muni's car 1 would be joined by Muni car 130 (built in 1930 by Jewett Car Company), which was nearing completion of a restoration from its last configuration as work car 0131, and car 178 would be borrowed again from the California Railway Museum (Western Railway Museum). Several railway and streetcar museums across the country were contacted and asked whether they would loan a streetcar for the event. Most declined, but the Oregon Electric Railway Museum agreed to loan its Portland car 503 (a 1903 Brill), and the Western Railway Museum would loan Blackpool, England, "boat tram" 226 in addition to its San Francisco car 178. The Oregon museum's Paul Class, who had become well known to streetcar fans through his streetcar importing business, Gales Creek Enterprises, arranged the lease to San Francisco of two single-truck streetcars from Porto, Portugal, Nos. 122 and 189. Maurice Klebolt arranged for a W2-class streetcar to be brought from Melbourne, Australia. The planned fleet was becoming increasingly international, a development enthusiastically supported by Klebolt, who had acquired a 1954 streetcar from Hamburg, Germany, in 1979 and donated it to the city of San Francisco in hopes that it would one day operate on the city's transit system. (Trolley Festivals in subsequent years saw the addition of trolleys from Japan, Italy, Mexico and Russia.)