Passenger Trains > San Francisco Cable Car and Possible Fake?

I was looking at bus pictures from 2008 and comparing to my recent trip in California and came across this one. The one on the left is a real San Francisco cable car, being pulled by cable in the slot in between the tracks here on Powell at Sutter Street. The one on the right is rubber tired but whoever made the body did a damn good job of making it look like a cable car. So is it a good manufactured fake body or is it possibly a used cable car body that someone made into a bus? This is from February 22 2008 and only time I ever saw the critter out operating.

Jim



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/27/16 13:49 by tq-07fan.

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Well at least the "old" cable car hasn't put up fence and bars to keep people from falling off!  And it is a "cable" car, not a "rope" car ("pulled by a rope"). Built as a replica.

Ed



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/27/16 11:30 by Auburn_Ed.

Those rubber tired things are quite common in some cities.  We had a fleet of them running for the past 15 or 20 years in Louisville, Ky.   They were taken out of service last year and replaced with some electric buses, running on batteries.  They make their loop and pull up to a charging station for a few minutes, and make another loop around the downtown area.  

John

I personally do NOT like those fake trolley cars or cable cars that run on rubber tires.  For the most part they ride like a school bus or worse.  However unfortunately there are many folks who ride on one of these contraptions and actually believe that this is the way a streetcar operated and rode.  Anyone who has ridden a real streetcar on rails knows that there is no comparison at all, and as far as the bars on that thing, in this day and age and with the liability issue always at hand, those rubber tire things operate at fast speeds in heavy traffic at times so they need something to keep the passengers inside.

Auburn_Ed Wrote:
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> Well at least the "old" cable car hasn't put up
> fence and bars to keep people from falling off!
>  And it is a "cable" car, not a "rope" car
> ("pulled by a rope"). Built as a replica.
>
> Ed

Corrected, mind was set on impulse power when I wrote rope. Thank you Auburn_Ed, was not sure if it was a replica or a used cable car body modified to fit a truck chassis. 

ClubCar Wrote:
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> I personally do NOT like those fake trolley cars
> or cable cars that run on rubber tires.  For the
> most part they ride like a school bus or worse. 
> However unfortunately there are many folks who
> ride on one of these contraptions and actually
> believe that this is the way a streetcar operated
> and rode.  Anyone who has ridden a real streetcar
> on rails knows that there is no comparison at all,
> and as far as the bars on that thing, in this day
> and age and with the liability issue always at
> hand, those rubber tire things operate at fast
> speeds in heavy traffic at times so they need
> something to keep the passengers inside.

Although I will give this outfit credit that this one looks more like the cable car it supposed to represent I too do not like the various fake trolleys. In some cases though the fake trolleys do get people riding public transit so I have to accept them. You are true in that some people think that the fake trolley is just like the real thing.

Jim

These things were first developed to be used as a replacement for the real San Francisco cable cars when they had to rebuild the whole system from the ground up in the early 80’s.  The cable cars were shut down for something like two years.  They had a big civic party when the cable cars came back that I got to play in when a group from work spent a weekend up there at the end of the 84 Olympics, when the party was going strong and the cable cars smelled of new paint and hard work.  Then the trolleys got dispersed all over California.  After the original batch went out, bunches of people feel in love with them and a cottage industry in building them started up and they proliferated all over the place.  That looks like a good one, though, compared to some of them. 
 

Whoa!  And I thought the fake was the car on the rails...

cabanillas Wrote:
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> These things were first developed to be used as a
> replacement for the real San Francisco cable cars
> when they had to rebuild the whole system from the
> ground up in the early 80’s. 

I thought the temporary replacement for the cable cars was the vintage trolleys as San Francisco's transit tourist attraction.

Back in the mid-1980s, SP hosted an Association of American Railroads convention in San Francisco. These "cable cars" we're used for a tour of the city for non-RR employee wives. They were reportedly very enjoyable, particularly by those from out of state.

Westbound Wrote:
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> Back in the mid-1980s, SP hosted an Association of
> American Railroads convention in San Francisco.
> These "cable cars" we're used for a tour of the
> city for non-RR employee wives. They were
> reportedly very enjoyable, particularly by those
> from out of state.
​But they are still FAKES and they give the wrong impression of what the real thing is like, that is my complaint.  The general public is fooled so easily which is a shame, and I feel that they are not that enjoyable compared to the real thing.  Sorry.
​John

These rubber tired "cable cars" have been around for decades, I first saw them in the 1960s. I think that the early ones used cable car bodies from lines abandoned in the 1950s.

On my way to a wedding rehearsal last Saturday outside Temecula, California, when a "cable car" came over the hill just ahead.  A little strange to see them on rubber tires, even stranger in the rural areas touring the wine country. 
 

In commercials I have seen rubber tire cable cars on the track using a camera angle to conceal the rubber tires.

RuleG Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> cabanillas Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > These things were first developed to be used as
> a
> > replacement for the real San Francisco cable
> cars
> > when they had to rebuild the whole system from
> the
> > ground up in the early 80’s. 
>
> I thought the temporary replacement for the cable
> cars was the vintage trolleys as San Francisco's
> transit tourist attraction.

Look up San Francisco Muni's Line "E" and/or Line "F."  In fact, the only transit available along much of The Embarcadero are streetcars.  PCC's from Philadelphia PA. Newark, NJ and several other types including one from Zurich, Switzerland, and several from Milan, Italy, actually hold down daily regular service.   In fact as I write this at 11:30 pm, Muni's PCC 1077, followed by PCC 1080 are still in service on Market Street, on their last trips. 
The "E" line streetcars run on the same tracks as light rail (Breda) cars on both the "N" and "T" lines from The Embarcadero near Harrison Street, to the end of the line at 4th and King, even laying over among the Bredas. 

RuleG Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> cabanillas Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > These things were first developed to be used as
> a
> > replacement for the real San Francisco cable
> cars
> > when they had to rebuild the whole system from
> the
> > ground up in the early 80’s. 
>
> I thought the temporary replacement for the cable
> cars was the vintage trolleys as San Francisco's
> transit tourist attraction.

The historic trolleys were a replacement event during the cable car rebuild.  I was also corrected in that these wheeled cable car trolley things were around before the shutdown, and the story that was going around down here that I remembered when these things started showing up in LA and OC in the early 80's was mythmaking.

Yes, beginning in 1983 San Francisco hosted the Historic Trolley Line, summer season only. Thart's correct.  However, due to the success of that service in succeeding years, it was turned into a continous, basic part of the Muni system, referred to as the "F" line.  My earlier post was to point out that today they are an integral part of Muni's transit operation, and many locals use them for their transit purposes. The Market Street corridor, service to Caltrain, etc.  But on any current day, the passenger loads going to and coming from the Fishermen's Wharf area are clearly tourists.  But those schedules operatihng after around 9-10 pm or so, don't carry as many tourists as they carry regular riders.