F Market & Wharves

F Market & Wharves is a tram line in San Francisco, California. Its special feature is that only historic railcars are used, most with built before 1960. Besides historic tram cars from San Francisco to drive yourself on the track a few cars that were originally in other cities in the world in action.

For the operation of the line, the San Francisco Municipal Railway ( Muni ) is responsible, supported by the volunteers of the Market Street Railway Organization ( which has nothing to do with the historic streetcar company of the same name ).

Despite their special nature museum car line F Market & Wharves belongs firmly to the public transport network of the city. The cars operate for 20 hours a day at intervals of about 15 minutes, and carry both locals and tourists along Market Street and the Embarcadero. On the line the same fares are raised as to the other lines of the Muni.

• 2.1 PCC cars
• 2.2 Peter Witt cars
• 2.3 pre- PCC cars ( classic cars from San Francisco)
• 2.4 Around the world

History

Former F- line

1915 opened the San Francisco Municipal Railway Route F Stockton. She led first by the intersection Laguna / Chestnut Streets in the Marina District via Van Ness Avenue, North Point, Columbus Street and Stockton Street to Market Street. The line was one of four for the Panama - Pacific International Exposition newly built tram lines. The following year, the north end was extended to Scott Street. The southern end was extended in 1947 along the 4th Street to the Southern Pacific Station in Townsend. In 1951, the tram service was suspended on the route and replaced by diesel buses. For example, the letter " F" was available again and could be reassigned later, albeit for a very different route.

Former lines on Market Street

The Market Street is a major thoroughfare in San Francisco. Originally wrong here horse-drawn wagons in 1883 replaced by a cable tramway. They were originally funded by the Market Street Railway operated ( 1902-1921 United Railroads of San Francisco) and drove along Market Street to the Ferry Building. After the great earthquake of 1906, the San Francisco cable car lines along Market Street were replaced by electric trams, as it was now possible - Market Street is nearly flat. 1915 built the Railway Municipial own tram route through the Market Street, which was now from the Ferry Building to Castro viergleisig. The Muni took over in 1944, the Market Street Railway and built the track by Market Street on two tracks back.

1970 was started under the Market Street with the construction of metro lines. BART and the tram lines from San Francisco were relocated under the earth and the previous car replaced by new and modern train compositions. The tracks along Market Street were, however, left the car and no longer need stored.

Museum train celebration

In 1982, the San Francisco Cable Cars had to be shut down for two years in order to urgently carry out necessary renovations can, sought those responsible for an alternative tourist attraction. Over the next two summers, therefore, the old tram cars were taken out of the depot and committed the Historic Trolley Festival. The festivals were so successful that they were repeated until 1987. Then the construction of definitive track systems for the new F line began.

The new F - line

After the festival was over by 1987, Muni, the tracks began along Market Street from new to replace. At the same time they began to look for a suitable vehicle fleet for the new line and decided for PCC cars, which had been previously used in San Francisco. Fourteen additional such cars were then taken over by Philadelphia, in addition to the three own PCC cars, which were still operational.

On 1 September 1995, the new line F Market & Wharves was officially opened. In a Parade presented themselves now in the colors of a number of American cities, where once such trams were driven, painted cars of the population. Significantly higher ridership than expected prompted Muni to buy more historic cars, including in 1998, eleven Peter Witt cars from Milan.

Extension along the Embarcadero

The Embarcadero is Kaistraße in the northeast of San Francisco. Previously, this was the most important landing point for ships from around the world and ferries locations around the San Francisco Bay. But after the big container terminals were relocated to Oakland, and also the San Francisco - Oakland Bay Bridge made ​​the ferries obsolete, they neglected slow. In the 1960s, the Embarcadero Freeway was built over it, divided the city mainly here in two parts. After the Freeway at the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 was badly damaged, it was decided not to rebuild it again.

Instead of traffic now occupied the longer the more the pleasure of the Waterfront. Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39 were to popular tourist destinations and places to go out for locals. Therefore, the Embarcadero has now been converted into a broad avenue, with a separate track for the tram. Since March 2000, the F Market & Wharves line leads to Fisherman's Wharf, two city blocks from the north end of the Powell - Hyde cable car line.

Fleet of cars

Muni has now a considerable number of trams that can be used on the F line, but never all at the same go. The cars operate separately in the rule rather than trains.

The fleet can be divided into four groups: The PCC cars, the Peter Witt cars, pre- PCC cars and cars from around the world. The brunt of the traffic bear the PCC and Peter Witt cars, but others are also in regular service.

PCC cars

27 PCC cars from SEPTA (Philadelphia ) and Newark City Subway Muni are available, some of them still to be revised. 30 more will be more long term use again.

Many of the restored cars are painted in the colors of a former or current street railway company, the PCC car starts or started. The cars, however, are all from San Francisco, Philadelphia or Newark. The companies represented are listed in the following list.

• Baltimore Transit Company
• Birmingham, Alabama
• Boston Elevated Railway
• Brooklyn & Queens Transit Corporation, in New York City
• Chicago Transit Authority
• Cleveland, Ohio
• Cincinnati Street Railway Company
• Detroit, Michigan
• El Paso City Lines connecting El Paso, Texas to Juarez, Mexico
• Illinois Terminal Railroad in St. Louis, Missouri
• Johnstown Traction Company, in Johnstown, Pennsylvania
• Kansas City Public Service Company, in Kansas City, Missouri
• Los Angeles Railway
• Louisville, Kentucky
• National City Lines
• Newark
• Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority in Boston
• Mexico City
• Pacific Electric Railway, Los Angeles
• Philadelphia Suburban Transportation Company, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Philadelphia Transportation Company
• St. Charles Avenue Streetcar in New Orleans
• San Diego, CA
• Toronto Transit Commission
• Twin City Rapid Transit in Minneapolis -Saint Paul
• Washington, D.C.

Among the not yet be ready for use again vehicles are five other double-end PCCs, 10 PCC's normal and 12 cars from St. Louis. These two Doppelendwagen from Philadelphia and two normal from Pittsburgh. One of the cars from Philadelphia had to be written off after an accident.

Peter Witt cars

The eleven Peter Witt car - named after Peter Witt, an American transportation experts - come from the tram Milan in Italy. They belong to the original comprehensive 502 car series Ventotto to 1928 were built and correspond to a spread in the United States tram type which is in Milan still in use today.

The car is still noted their Italian heritage. All instructions inside the passenger cars are written in the Italian language as before and were only added to those in English.

Pre- PCC cars ( classic cars from San Francisco)

This group of tram cars are those that were used before the introduction of the PCC cars in San Francisco. One of them is the number 578, one open timber car that the Cable Cars similar looks as the other tram cars. It was built in 1895 for the Market Street Railway Company, and is likely the oldest standing in active service cars in the world to be.

Around the world

In this category, there are ten cars from around the world. They come from the following companies:

• Blackpool tramway, Blackpool, England
• Hamburg High Bahn AG, in Hamburg, Germany
• Hankai Electric Rail Service Company, in Osaka, Japan
• Kobe City Railways & Hiroshima Electric Railway, in Kobe and Hiroshima, Japan
• Melbourne & Metropolitan Tramways Board, Melbourne, Australia
• Moscow, Russia
• STCP, in Porto, Portugal
• STIB / STIB in Brussels, Belgium

All these cars carry their original paint, except the one from Brussels, who carries the blue and white color scheme of the Zurich transport services. He has been painted as Zurich 's sister city of San Francisco. The tram cars which are actually in Zurich on the way, can not be used in San Francisco, as the Zurich Trams meter gauge use.

Future Plans

There are several plans to the F line to extend further:

• The planned line E Embarcadero to the northeastern part of the F- line along The Embarcadero concomitantly, but then held onto Market Street einzubiegen further along the coast and then run via Folsom and 4th south. There were several test runs on this route, such as during the Americas Cup Heats of 2012. A permanent recording operation requires the introduction of additional double-ended trams, as the south end of this route still currently owns neither a turning loop a hub.
• West of the return station at Jones Street there is an old, single-track tunnel, which is currently not used and passes under Fort Mason. He should be put back into operation and the lines F and E are extended accordingly to the west.