The Cable Car Museum is a free museum in the
Nob Hill
Nob Hill is a neighborhood of San Francisco, California, United States that is known for its numerous luxury hotels and historic mansions. Nob Hill has historically served as a center of San Francisco's upper class. Nob Hill is among the highes ...
neighborhood of
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " 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 fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
. Located at 1201 Mason Street, it contains historical and explanatory exhibits on the
San Francisco cable car system, which can itself be regarded as a working museum.
Exhibits
File:SOUTHEAST CORNER OF POWERHOUSE DURING RECONSTRUCTION- Photocopy of July 1907 photograph taken during reconstruction of the powerhouse and car barn. View of the southeast HAER CAL,38-SANFRA,137-28.tif, Reconstruction of powerhouse (July 1907)
File:First Floor Plan - San Francisco Cable Railway, Cable Car Powerhouse and Barn, 1201 Mason Street, San Francisco, San Francisco County, CA HAER CAL,38-SANFRA,137-A- (sheet 4 of 5).png, Layout of Cable Car Museum; primary exhibit space is on the northwest mezzanine level
File:Tranvia-San Francisco-California4117.JPG, Preserved 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 ...
No. 8
File:Cable Car Power House MC.jpg, Motors and winding wheels; the signs above each cable ("Hyde", "California", "Mason", and "Powell") show which line it is driving.
File:Sutter Street Dummy No. 46 and Trailer No. 54 - San Francisco Cable Car Museum - San Francisco, CA - DSC04013.jpg, Preserved Sutter Street Railway No. 46 and 54
File:Cable car 21 in the carbarn, June 2017.JPG, Car depot (car barn)
The museum contains several preserved
cable cars, together with smaller exhibits and a gift shop. The cable cars displayed include:
*
Sutter Street Railway - grip car 46 and trailer 54 dating from the 1870s
*
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 ...
- grip car 8, the only surviving car from the first cable car company
The museum is part of the complex that also houses the cable car power house, which drives the cables, and the car depot ("barn"). The car depot is not open to the public, but two galleries allow visitors to view the power house from above, and to descend below the junction of Washington and Mason streets to view the large cavern where the haulage cables are routed via large
sheave
A sheave () or pulley wheel is a grooved wheel often used for holding a belt, wire rope, or rope and incorporated into a pulley
A pulley is a wheel on an axle or shaft that is designed to support movement and change of direction of a ...
s out to the street.
The museum was established in 1974, and is run by the Friends of the Cable Car Museum. The entrance is at Washington and Mason and the museum is open from 10 AM to 6 PM between April 1 and September 30 and from 10 AM to 5 PM between October 1 and March 31, apart from some public holidays.
The museum main level is wheelchair accessible via a separate entrance.
References
External links
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Cable Car Museum
Nob Hill, San Francisco
Railroad museums in California
San Francisco Designated Landmarks
Transportation in San Francisco
Street railway museums in the United States
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