California car (streetcar)
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A California Car is a type of single-deck
tramcar 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 ...
or
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 ...
that features a center, enclosed seating compartment and roofed seating areas without sides on either end. These cars were popular in
California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
's mild
Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate (also called a dry summer temperate climate ''Cs'') is a temperate climate sub-type, generally characterized by warm, dry summers and mild, fairly wet winters; these weather conditions are typically experienced in the ...
offering passengers a choice of shaded outdoor seating during hot weather, or more protected seating during cool or rainy weather. They were also used in other climates to provide separate outdoor smoking and enclosed non-smoking areas. Some very early
motor buses 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 c ...
also used the combination car design. Early San Francisco cable car lines used two cars: a grip car (or "dummy") which contained the grip mechanism and a brake, and the trailer which carried passengers. A new car, called a combination car, was eventually developed which combined the trailer and the grip car into one vehicle. The combination car had one enclosed end and an open end with seats and the grip. In 1888, the
California Street Cable Railroad The California Street Cable Railroad (Cal Cable) was a long-serving cable car (railway), cable car operator in San Francisco, founded by Leland Stanford. The company's first line opened on California Street in 1878 and is the oldest cable car li ...
Company commissioned a new car from John L. Hammond and Co., with two open ends and a center enclosed section. Placed in service in 1889, this double-ended combination car, dubbed a “California Type” car, could be operated from either end, which eliminated the need for a turntable at the ends of the lines. The design was also applied to many electric streetcars in the late 1890s and 1900s. Henry Huntington’s engineers developed a standard streetcar design in the California Car style in 1902 for his
Los Angeles Railway The Los Angeles Railway (also known as Yellow Cars, LARy and later Los Angeles Transit Lines) was a system of streetcars that operated in Central Los Angeles and surrounding neighborhoods between 1895 and 1963. The system provided frequent loc ...
(LARy). Called the “Huntington Standard”, it featured a center enclosed section, open sections on either end with wire sides rather than solid sides, and a distinctive five-window front and rear. Eventually, LARy had 747 of these cars in service. The cars were featured in early silent movies, becoming indelibly linked in moviegoers’ minds with southern California. Other railways that adopted the design included the
Pacific Electric The Pacific Electric Railway Company, nicknamed the Red Cars, was a privately owned mass transit system in Southern California consisting of electrically powered streetcars, interurban cars, and buses and was the largest electric railway system ...
Railway, the
San Francisco, Napa and Calistoga Railway The San Francisco, Napa and Calistoga Railway, later briefly reorganized as the San Francisco and Napa Valley Railroad, was an electric interurban railroad in the U.S. state of California. Construction In 1901, Col. J.W. Hartzell and his brother ...
, The
Key System The Key System (or Key Route) was a privately owned company that provided mass transit in the cities of Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, Emeryville, Piedmont, San Leandro, Richmond, Albany, and El Cerrito in the eastern San Francisco Bay Area fr ...
’s East Shore and Suburban Railway . California cars are still operational on the
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 ...
. Both the single-ended cars on the Powell–Hyde and Powell–Mason lines, and the double-ended cars on the California Street line, are of this type. The single-ended cars have a single open section at the front of the car, with a closed compartment at the rear, whilst the double-ended cars have a central closed compartment flanked by open areas. Several California cars are now preserved and/or used on heritage operations. These include: *
Los Angeles Railway The Los Angeles Railway (also known as Yellow Cars, LARy and later Los Angeles Transit Lines) was a system of streetcars that operated in Central Los Angeles and surrounding neighborhoods between 1895 and 1963. The system provided frequent loc ...
521, an electric streetcar now preserved by the
Seashore Trolley Museum Seashore Trolley Museum, located in Kennebunkport, Maine, United States, is the world's first and largest museum of mass transit vehicles. While the main focus of the collection is trolley cars (trams), it also includes rapid transit trains, ...
*
Manchester Corporation Tramways 765 Manchester Corporation Tramways 765 is the only remaining electric tramcar from Manchester Corporation Tramways in regular operation. It is at Heaton Park, Manchester, UK. History No. 765 was built in 1914 and was one of a series of bogie cars ...
, an electric tram now preserved and operated on its home city's
Heaton Park Tramway The Heaton Park Tramway is a heritage tramway that operates within Heaton Park, a large municipal park in the English city of Manchester. It is operated by the Manchester Transport Museum Society, a registered charity. In normal times, the tram ...
*
San Francisco Muni 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 ...
578, an electric streetcar of similar design to that city's cable cars, now preserved by the Market Street Railway and occasionally operated


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{{reflist, 30em Tram vehicles