Passenger Trains > SF Muni - N Judah Line - Modern Times

Marty Bernard has been posting some vintage shots of the SF Muni Street Cars / LRV's on the Nostalgia Forum. He asked if I had some recent views to match some of his older shots. My father in law lives in the area of 27th Ave & Irving St. and we go to visit one or twice a month. Usually I will take the dog out for a walk and go down to about 17th & judah and then walk back on Judah shooting a small handful of the current Muni Breda cars. Here are some of the closest views I have right now that reasonably come close to matching Marty's N-Judah posts.  The next time I go over there, I can get more specific shots from the top of the hill at 16th Ave.

Here are the links to Marty's previous posts: 


http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3762038

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3760427

Photos #1 & 2: We go back to September 11, 2010 and we are looking at an Inbound N-Judah train climbing the hill crossing 17th Ave at Judah. This one is very close to Marty's post of the old PCC car.The biggest difference is that the number of motor vehicle in SF have grown exponentially. The rails in the street were replaced over the last few years.

Photo #3: April 11., 2015, we see a N-Judah inbound train crest the top of the hill at 16th Ave at Judah. Again cars dominate the landscape.

Continued one more time....


Gary 



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 06/06/15 07:54 by SN711.

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Continued....


(This one does not match Marty's posts, but I thought it was worthwhile to add).

Photo #4 - April 25, 2015 an inbound N-Judah train climbs the hill at approaching 22nd Ave.  Some of those hills are a bit steep. At left, you can see a young couple in a strong "Good Bye" embrace before the woman boards the N train. It is Muni after-all.


Thanks for looking.


Gary



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 06/05/15 23:26 by SN711.

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Dear MUNI:

You are carrying more people than ever.  Please start running 3-car trains.  Just by doing that on the N-JUDAH line, you'll increase your carrying capacity by a whopping 50%.  It's not rocket science.  In a previous post showing the Salt Lake City UP station, you can see UTAH's light rail line, with a 3-car train.  If UTAH can run 3-car trains, then surely SF can.

I really wonder about MUNI managers sometimes.  Are they clueless???



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/05/15 23:33 by coach.

Gary, thanks for your pictures.  Really neat.

Marty

MartyBernard Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> coach Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Dear MUNI:
> >
> > You are carrying more people than ever.
>  Please
> > start running 3-car trains. 
> > I really wonder about MUNI managers sometimes.
> >  Are they clueless???
>
> UTA light-rail is a new system built for long
> light-rail trains.  MUNI is an old system built
> for sigle short streetcars.  Even the Market
> Street Subway is built to half-century old
> standards.  Have you really studied the MUNI
> system?  Can MUNI station platforms accomodate
> longer trains?  Can the signaling systems?  Can
> the curves and hills? How does all this and other
> important parameters compare to the Salt Lake City
> system?
>
> Why don't you find out why MUNI doesn't run longer
> trains. Please report back to us.  Note, planners
> and engineers make train-length decisions, not
> managers.
>
> Marty Bernard
>
> [EDIT: Three car trains mean longer headways which
> means poorer service.  How will this impact
> ridership?  Let us know.]


Marty. They cant run 3 or 4 car trains with the bredas.
They used to run 3 and 4 car trains with the Boeing Cars

Jerry Martin
Los Angeles, CA
Central Coast Railroad Festival

Jerry, do you know why they can't?   Marty

GP25 Wrote: 
> They cant run 3 or 4 car trains with the bredas. 


They can, have seen it myself. Issues range from coupling/uncoupling, station lengths, etc. Here's an article about one of the MUNI lines that utilizes three-car consists. This S-Line service is not included on the system map.

Nice photos Gary.  While not on Juday, it is on the N line.  We ate dinner at Pluto's on Irving last year on our spring break trip to The City.  Kids loved it, the food and atmospehere were fun.  And best of all was watching the fog and Muni roll down Irving.  The kids thought that was pretty cool.

Nathan

Not sure if this is actually the case, but I've heard that Muni just barely has enough Breda cars to cover the existing schedules--If they are going to run three-car trains, they either lengthen the headway or borrow the cars from another line.  As is true in most big cities, griping about the transit system is a part of life. I'm not sure whether Muni is better or worse than, for example, Boston, but one does sometimes wonder whether the management really knows what's going on.  I know in the Los Angeles area, someone did a survey and found that about 5% of Metro employees use the "sponsor's product" even though they get free transit passes.

I don't live in the City (but I do belong to Market St. Railway, the group that supports historic streetcar operation there).  One afternoon I was at Embarcadero station in the Muni Metro subway.  I was waiting for a "J" car and it seems like two or three cars for the other five lines went outbound, but no "Js".  Finally I got the attention of a Muni employee in the control room, and explained the situation.  So he tells the operator of the next car into the station, "You're a J" and the operator changes the headsign and moves the car over to the outbound track.  One would think that the Muni supervisors would not need a visiting railfan from the LA area to tell them how to run their railway.

DNRY122 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I don't live in the City (but I do belong to
> Market St. Railway, the group that supports
> historic streetcar operation there).  One
> afternoon I was at Embarcadero station in the Muni
> Metro subway.  I was waiting for a "J" car and it
> seems like two or three cars for the other five
> lines went outbound, but no "Js".  Finally I got
> the attention of a Muni employee in the control
> room, and explained the situation.  So he tells
> the operator of the next car into the station,
> "You're a J" and the operator changes the headsign
> and moves the car over to the outbound track.
>  One would think that the Muni supervisors would
> not need a visiting railfan from the LA area to
> tell them how to run their railway.

Reminds me of a story I heard from London. There's a line on the Underground, called the District line I think, that has a station where the line splits off into several branches. Sometimes, especially during rush hour when the headways are very quick, the operators don't decide which branch the train is taking until they arrive at the junction station. So, one day, someone was waiting for a train to Ealing Broadway during rush hour, and all the trains were being sent to Parsons Green. About ten trains pass going to Parsons Green, and everyone is getting annoyed. Finally, when two trains arrive with the displayed destination as Parsons Green, the station announcer tries to intervene: "The train at platform two is not going to Parsons Green but to Richmond. The train approaching platform three is also not going to Parsons Green but to Ealing Broadway. These trains are not going to Parsons Green despite what the signalmen think." So, this fellow gets on the train to Ealing Broadway, the doors close, and then the announcer says "Sorry folks, the signalmen are telling me I need to send this train to Parsons Green. I don't know what's so great about Parsons Green, but it must be fun. Have a nice adventure!" The train rolls off into the tunnel towards Parsons Green, and the person in question tries to tell the people on the train "Are you sure you all want to go to Parsons Green?", but the train is entirely made up of immigrants who barely speak English. I heard this story thirdhand, but it is allegedly true.

Tor in Eugene