The Market Street Railway Company was a commercial
streetcar
A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...
and
bus
A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...
operator in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
. The company was named after the famous
Market Street Market Street may refer to:
*Market Street, Cambridge, England
*Market Street, Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia
* Market Street, George Town, Penang, Malaysia
*Market Street, Manchester, England
*Market Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
...
of that city, which formed the core of its transportation network. Over the years, the company was also known as the Market Street Railroad Company, the Market Street Cable Railway Company and the United Railroads of San Francisco. Once the largest transit operator in the city, the company folded in 1944 and its assets and services were acquired by the city-owned
San Francisco Municipal Railway
The San Francisco Municipal Railway (SF Muni or Muni), is the public transit system for the City and County of San Francisco. It operates a system of bus routes (including trolleybuses), the Muni Metro light rail system, three historic cable ...
. Many of the former routes continue to exist into the 2020s, but served by buses.
The company should not be mistaken for the current
Market Street Railway, which is named after its predecessor but is actually a legally unconnected non-profit support group for San Francisco's
heritage streetcar
Conservation and restoration of rail vehicles aims to preserve historic rail vehicles.
Trains
It may concern trains that have been removed from service and later restored to their past condition, or have never been removed from service, like UP ...
lines.
History
Horse and steam
![SF Woodwards-Gardens-no-14-horsecar-at-Post-and-Market-1860s](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/SF_Woodwards-Gardens-no-14-horsecar-at-Post-and-Market-1860s.jpg)
The franchise for what would become the Market Street Railway was granted in 1857 to
Thomas Hayes. The line was the first
horsecar
A horsecar, horse-drawn tram, horse-drawn streetcar (U.S.), or horse-drawn railway (historical), is an animal-powered (usually horse) tram or streetcar.
Summary
The horse-drawn tram (horsecar) was an early form of public rail transport, wh ...
line to open in San Francisco, opened on July 4, 1860, as the Market Street Railroad Company.
Market Street Railway (nonprofit)
Market Street Railway is San Francisco Municipal Railway's (Muni) 1,200-member non-profit preservation partner. It relies on private contributions to help maintain San Francisco’s fleet of historic streetcars in service on the E Embarcadero ...
(2004).
A Brief History of Market St. Railway
'. Retrieved September 23, 2005. Section ''The Market Street Railroad Company, 1860-1882'' A few years later, the line was converted to steam power utilizing
steam dummy
A steam dummy or dummy engine, in the United States and Canada, was a steam locomotive enclosed in a wooden box structure made to resemble a railroad passenger coach. Steam dummies had some popularity in the first decades of railroading in the U ...
locomotives pulling a trailer car. Four
Portland gauge
, a broad gauge, is the track gauge used in India, Pakistan, western Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Argentina, Chile, and on BART in San Francisco, United States.
In North America, it is called Indian Gauge, Provincial, Portland, or Texas gauge. In Arge ...
tank locomotive
A tank locomotive or tank engine is a steam locomotive that carries its water in one or more on-board water tanks, instead of a more traditional tender. Most tank engines also have bunkers (or fuel tanks) to hold fuel; in a tender-tank locom ...
s were built by San Francisco's Albion Foundry. Locomotives #1 and #4 were long with engine, baggage and passenger compartments driven by the front wheel only
0-2-2
An 0-2-2, in the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement, is one that has two coupled driving wheels followed by two trailing wheels, with no leading wheels. The configuration was briefly built by Robert St ...
T. Locomotives #2 and #3 were
0-4-0
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents one of the simplest possible types, that with two axles and four coupled wheels, all of which are driven. The wheels on the earliest four-coupled locomotives were ...
Ts with a baggage compartment. Both types pulled double-truck trailers with seating for 64 passengers.
Baldwin Locomotive Works
The Baldwin Locomotive Works (BLW) was an American manufacturer of railroad locomotives from 1825 to 1951. Originally located in Philadelphia, it moved to nearby Eddystone, Pennsylvania, in the early 20th century. The company was for decades t ...
built two 0-4-0T steam dummies (C/N 5004 & 5009) in 1880 to operate over the
standard-gauge railway
A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...
extension from Valencia Street to Castro Street until 1888.
In 1895 the company placed a newspaper advertisement in ''The San Francisco Examiner'' offering horse cars for $20 ($10 without seats). Many of these became the basis for the impromptu community built from streetcars called
Carville-by-the-Sea.
Cable
Following the opening of the
cable hauled Clay Street Hill Railroad
The Clay Street Hill Railroad was the first successful cable hauled street railway. It was located on Clay Street, a notably steep street in San Francisco in California, United States, and first operated in August 1873.
History
The promoter of ...
in 1873, pressure grew to convert the city's horsecar lines to the new form of traction. In 1882,
Leland Stanford
Amasa Leland Stanford (March 9, 1824June 21, 1893) was an American industrialist and politician. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 8th governor of California from 1862 to 1863 and represented California in the United States Se ...
and associates bought the Market Street Railroad Company and converted its lines to cable haulage. In the process, the company's name was changed to the Market Street Cable Railway Company (MSCRy). This company was to grow to become San Francisco's largest cable car operator. At its peak, it operated five lines all of which converged into Market Street to a common terminus at the
Ferry Building; during rush hours a cable car left that terminus every 15 seconds.
The main line, which began operation from the Ferry Building down Market to Valencia and Twenty-Ninth in August 1883, was joined by four lines that branched off Market by the end of 1888: McAllister, Hayes, Haight, and Castro.
Electric and United Railroads
However transit technology was still moving on, and the new electric streetcar quickly proved to cheaper to build and operate than the cable car, and capable of climbing all but San Francisco's steepest hills. In 1893, Stanford died and the company was taken over by the
Southern Pacific Railroad
The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...
. The company was again renamed to the Market Street Railway Company, and began the process of converting its lines to electric traction. In 1895, MSRy inaugurated service on the
Fillmore Counterbalance
The Fillmore Counterbalance was a streetcar device operated by the Market Street Railway (MSRy) in San Francisco. It aided the company's 22 Fillmore line in traversing the steep northern slope of Fillmore Street from 1895 to 1941. The weight of ...
, which was the steepest rail line to date, operating as a hybrid of counterbalance funicular and electric traction.
In 1902, the Southern Pacific Railroad sold their San Francisco railways to a syndicate of eastern investors, led by
Patrick Calhoun
Patrick Calhoun (March 21, 1856 – June 16, 1943) was the grandson of John C. Calhoun and Floride Calhoun, and the great-grandson of his namesake Patrick Calhoun. He is best known as a railroad baron of the late 19th century, and as the found ...
, which consolidated with other San Francisco lines into a new company called the United Railroads of San Francisco (URR).
![Standard-Car-for-United-Railroads-of-San-Francisco](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Standard-Car-for-United-Railroads-of-San-Francisco.jpg)
Conversion to electricity was resisted by opponents like Rudolph Spreckels and other property owners who objected to what they saw as ugly overhead lines on the major thoroughfares of the city center. At 5:12 am on April 18, 1906, those objections were swept away as the great
San Francisco earthquake
At 05:12 Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (''Extreme''). High-intensity sha ...
struck. The race to rebuild the city allowed the company to replace all but the steepest of its cable car lines with electric streetcar lines.
On May 14, 1906, Supervisors gave United Railroads permission to string overhead trolley wires on Market St. The next day the ''
Examiner
Examiner or The Examiner may refer to:
Occupations
* Bank examiner, a kind of auditor
* Examiner (Roman Catholicism), a type of office in the Roman Catholic Church
* Examinership, a concept in Irish law
* Medical examiner
* Patent examiner
* Tr ...
'' accused United Railroads of exploiting the disaster to push through its overhead trolley franchise. United Railroads proceeded to install overhead power on all of its lines.
The
San Francisco graft trials
The San Francisco graft trials were a series of attempts from 1905 to 1908 to prosecute members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, San Francisco Mayor Eugene Schmitz, attorney Abe Ruef, who were receiving bribes, and business owners who wer ...
were a series of attempts from 1905 to 1908 to prosecute both government officials accused of receiving bribes. These included members of the
San Francisco Board of Supervisors
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is the legislative body within the government of the City and County of San Francisco.
Government and politics
The City and County of San Francisco is a consolidated city-county, being simultaneously a c ...
, San Francisco Mayor
Eugene Schmitz
Eugene Edward Schmitz (August 22, 1864 – November 20, 1928), often referenced as "Handsome Gene" Schmitz, was an American musician and politician, the 26th mayor of San Francisco (1902-7), who was in office during the 1906 San Francisco earthqu ...
, attorneys
Abe Ruef
Abraham Ruef (September 2, 1864 – February 29, 1936) was an American lawyer and politician. He gained notoriety as the corrupt political boss behind the administration of Mayor Eugene Schmitz of San Francisco during the period before and after t ...
and
Tirey L. Ford
Tirey Lafayette Ford (December 29, 1857 – June 26, 1928) was an American lawyer and Republican politician who served as a California State Senator and the 18th Attorney-General of California. He acted as General Counsel for the United Railroa ...
, and the business owners who were paying the bribes.
[
]
Consolidation and decline
Over the years many independent lines had been absorbed, including the Clay Street Hill Railroad
The Clay Street Hill Railroad was the first successful cable hauled street railway. It was located on Clay Street, a notably steep street in San Francisco in California, United States, and first operated in August 1873.
History
The promoter of ...
, the San Francisco and San Mateo Electric Railway
The San Francisco and San Mateo Electric Railway (SF&SM) was the first electric streetcar company in San Francisco, California. The company was only in business for ten years, starting from 1892 until it was merged into the United Railroads of San ...
, the Presidio & Ferries Railway
A presidio ( en, jail, fortification) was a fortified base established by the Spanish Empire around between 16th and 18th centuries in areas in condition of their control or influence. The presidios of Spanish Philippines in particular, were cent ...
, and the Ferries and Cliff House Railway. Ironically the earthquake that brought so many benefits to the company also sowed the seeds of its demise, as the independent Geary Street, Park & Ocean Railway
The Geary Street, Park and Ocean Railway was a street railway in San Francisco.
History
The company received a franchise from the city to operate a cable railway on November 6, 1878. Operations commenced on February 16, 1880 as a Rus ...
was acquired by the city and became in 1912 the beginning of the San Francisco Municipal Railway
The San Francisco Municipal Railway (SF Muni or Muni), is the public transit system for the City and County of San Francisco. It operates a system of bus routes (including trolleybuses), the Muni Metro light rail system, three historic cable ...
(Muni). Horsecars were finally withdrawn from city streets on June 3, 1914. By 1918, and assisted by the construction of several tunnels under the city's hills, Muni was in direct competition with the URR down the length of Market Street. The two operators each operated their own pair of rail tracks down that thoroughfare, which came to be known as the 'roar of the four'. The two Market Street Railway tracks were on the inside and the two San Francisco Municipal Railway tracks were on the outside.
Competition, labor troubles and a bad accident in 1918 led to the reorganisation of the URR, to re-emerge again as the Market Street Railway Company. This continued to operate electric streetcars throughout the city, the Powell St. cable car lines, and a growing fleet of buses. But relations were not good with the city, who controlled their franchises, and on May 16, 1944, after defeating the proposal six times previously, voters elected to purchase the operative properties of the Market Street Railway for $7.5 million ($ in adjusted for inflation) and the company sold all its assets and operations to Muni.
Surviving vehicles
These are the only surviving vehicles from the Market Street Railway fleet:
Passenger Cars
*Car 578 was built in 1896 by the Hammond Car Company and is a single-truck (four-wheel), California car with open end sections and an enclosed middle compartment. After serving many years as a work car, it was eventually restored to its original form by the Muni, and is still run for special events and charters.
*Car 798 was built in the company's own shops in 1924. This car was sold for scrap after World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. Used as a residence and jewelry store in the California town of Columbia, it was reacquired in 1984 and is currently undergoing restoration for occasional use on the F Market
The F Market & Wharves line is one of several light rail lines in San Francisco, California. Unlike most other lines in the system, the F line runs as a heritage streetcar service, almost exclusively using historic equipment both from San Franc ...
line.
*Car 755 was built in 1895 by the Hammond Car Company and is similar to car 578. It was sold to the Presidio & Ferries Railroad in 1906. In 1913, the Muni
Muni may refer to:
Municipal
* A common US abbreviation for municipal, municipal services, and the like
*Municipal bond
*Municipal Bridge, the former name of the George Rogers Clark Memorial Bridge in Louisville, Kentucky
*"Muni", slang for a mu ...
acquired the Presidio & Ferries upon the expiration of its operating franchise and the car continue to run in passenger service for the Muni until 1922. At that time it was converted into a work car. It was retired in 1946. It was acquired by private owners in 1947 and stored in Pescadero. It was moved to the Western Railway Museum in 1965 where it awaits restoration.
*Car 974 was built in the company's own shops, and was acquired by the Bay Area Electric Railway Association. Unfortunately, it was burned while in storage in Stockton before the formation of the Western Railway Museum
The Western Railway Museum, in Solano County, California is located on Highway 12 between Rio Vista and Suisun. The museum is built along the former mainline of the
Sacramento Northern Railway. Their collection focuses on trolleys, as it is ...
.
*Parlor car "San Francisco" was built in 1901 by the St. Louis Car company as San Francisco & San Mateo 61. It was rebuilt by the United Railroads of San Francisco as parlor car available for rent named "San Francisco." In the 1920s the luxury charter business became unprofitable due to competing tour buses and automobiles and the car was converted into a school car for transporting students anywhere on the system free of charge. This came to an end due to World War II and the car was used for minimal charter service by the San Francisco Municipal Railway in 1944. It was sold for scrap in 1951 and became a hot dog stand in the Valley of the Moon. It was eventually required by the San Francisco Maritime Museum for a failed museum and donated to the Western Railway Museum in 1980.
Maintenance Equipment
*Car 0109 was built in 1891 by O'Brian and Sons in 1890 as a passenger streetcar with combination open and closed configuration similar to a Powell Street cable car for the Metropolitan Railway. In 1894 the Metropolitan Railway was acquired by the Market Street Railway. In 1900 the car was rebuilt into a motorized side dump car by WL Holman Car Company for the Market Street Railway. It was later rebuilt as a rail grinder in 1912. It became the property of the San Francisco Municipal Railway
The San Francisco Municipal Railway (SF Muni or Muni), is the public transit system for the City and County of San Francisco. It operates a system of bus routes (including trolleybuses), the Muni Metro light rail system, three historic cable ...
in 1944 and served as their grinder until being put on temporary loan to the Western Railway Museum in the 1970s. It was formally acquired by the Western Railway Museum in 2019.
*Car 0130 was built as an electric crane in the United Railroad of San Francisco's shops in 1904. It became Market Street Railway 0130 in 1921 and San Francisco Municipal Railway
The San Francisco Municipal Railway (SF Muni or Muni), is the public transit system for the City and County of San Francisco. It operates a system of bus routes (including trolleybuses), the Muni Metro light rail system, three historic cable ...
0130 in 1944. In 1973 it was acquired by Western Railway Museum
The Western Railway Museum, in Solano County, California is located on Highway 12 between Rio Vista and Suisun. The museum is built along the former mainline of the
Sacramento Northern Railway. Their collection focuses on trolleys, as it is ...
.
*Car 0304 was built by Hammond as a double-truck California car for passenger service on the San Francisco & San Mateo Electric Railway in 1900. It became United Railroads of San Francisco 673 in 1902 and was rebuilt into wrecker 0673 in 1907. It was rebuilt into United Railroads of San Francisco overhead lines maintenance car 0304 in 1910. In 1921 it became Market Street Railway 0304 and San Francisco Municipal Railway 0304 in 1944. It is still on Muni property.
Routes
The last of the company's streetcar routes were discontinued or converted to bus or trolleybus
A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or troll ...
by 1949. Two of the former cable lines were integrated into the current San Francisco cable car system
The San Francisco cable car system is the world's last manually operated cable car system and an icon of the city of San Francisco. The system forms part of the intermodal urban transport network operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway ...
. The company operated the following routes:
See also
*San Francisco cable car system
The San Francisco cable car system is the world's last manually operated cable car system and an icon of the city of San Francisco. The system forms part of the intermodal urban transport network operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway ...
* San Francisco Railway Museum
*San Francisco Municipal Railway
The San Francisco Municipal Railway (SF Muni or Muni), is the public transit system for the City and County of San Francisco. It operates a system of bus routes (including trolleybuses), the Muni Metro light rail system, three historic cable ...
*Market Street Railway (nonprofit)
Market Street Railway is San Francisco Municipal Railway's (Muni) 1,200-member non-profit preservation partner. It relies on private contributions to help maintain San Francisco’s fleet of historic streetcars in service on the E Embarcadero ...
*San Francisco Municipal Railway fleet
With five different modes of transport the San Francisco Municipal Railway runs one of the most diverse fleets of vehicles in the United States. Roughly 550 diesel-electric hybrid buses, 300 electric trolleybuses, 250 modern light rail vehicles, ...
References
Bibliography
*
*
Further reading
* Smallwood, Charles A. (1978). ''The White Front Cars of San Francisco'' (Interurban Special #44). Glendale, California: Interurban Press
Interurban Press was a small, privately owned American publishing company, specializing in books about streetcars, other forms of rail transit and railroads in North America, from 1943MacDougall, Kent (May 19, 1983). "Books Ring Bell With Devotees ...
. —a complete history of the Market Street Railway company with numerous photos, illustrations and maps
{{DEFAULTSORT:Market Street Railway 1893 1944
1857 establishments in California
1944 disestablishments in California
Cable car railways in the United States
Companies based in San Francisco
Defunct California railroads
Defunct companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area
Defunct public transport operators in the United States
History of San Francisco
Interurban railways in California
Market Street (San Francisco)
Public transportation in San Francisco
San Francisco Municipal Railway
South of Market, San Francisco
Streetcars in California
Tram, urban railway and trolley companies