Playing Tourist #3 -- December 11, 2010

Today we played tourist. Yesterday I bought three one-day Muni passports. We parked at Fifth and Mission and caught Milano car 1818 decorated for Christmas. We got off at Drumm and caught California Street cable car 60, decorated for Christmas by my friend Val Lupiz. We got off at Taylor, intending to look around Grace Cathedral, but there was some kind of event going on. We walked over to the Fairmont to see the giant gingerbread house.

We went down the hill to the cable car barn. I had heard they were remodeling the recreation center, but actually it had been torn down. I got some photos of a different angle of the barn. We found that the Powell Street cable was stopped. We walked down to Powell and Jackson to catch a car. 21 was stopped inbound just patch Washington. We later learned that there had been a hairball, an unstranded cable.

We caught an almost empty blue and gold car 16 on the Powell-Mason. I pointed out John Street, where my family had once lived, and looked for apartments where other relatives had lived while I was alive. We got off at Bay and Taylor and walked over to the IHOP for lunch. Since we flew to Southern California, we had not made our traditional stop in the summer at the IHOP in San Luis Obispo.

We walked out to Hyde and Beach and found a short line, so we joined it. We watched Escape Man do his act. He had an assistant chain him to a lamppost, then struggled free of the chains and a strait jacket. Not bad. We saw car 11 which had been decorated and we got on 13, which had been decorated by the Buena Vista Cafe. We had a nice ride back to Powell and Washington. The substitution bus was jammed.

We also saw 6, which had just gotten out of the paint shop. It had no dings except in the bell.

The Union Square area was jammed, but we stopped to see the sugar castle at the Saint Francis and the animals at Macys.

East Bay Terminal Being Demolished -- October 30, 2010

The ramp across Fremont Street is now an open air structure and they are tearing down the trainshed. I was surprised that the street and the sidewalk were open last week while the structure above Fremont was being demolished. I took this photo on 28-October-2010.

The Rangers beat the Giants 4-2. I'm not so happy, but the Giants almost came back. Tomorrow they'll do better.

Hark the Herald #12 -- October 8, 2010

The Byllesby shield adorned the Market Street Railway's vehicles from 1921 till the Muni took over in 1944, although the outer border with the Byllesby name was removed when the Market Street Railway's management purchased controll of the company from HM Byllesby, a public utilities holding company. Photo by Walter Rice. All rights reserved.

I went to Good Shepherd School on a long lunch break and talked to the Fifth and Sixth graders about Paul Revere. It was fun.

The Giants were ahead 4-0 in the 8th. They let the Braves tie it, then lost in the 11th. Sad. They'll do better on Sunday in Atlanta.

East Bay Terminal Closed -- August 10, 2010

I took a walk by the new Temporary Transbay Terminal and saw a bunch of people squinting with confusion at the signs. I was looking at a big bus map covered with multicolored lines and said to the man next to me "That's easy to read and digest." He said "Do you feel like a tourist in a foreign country trying to figure out where to go?" Then I walked by the now-closed East Bay Terminal and took this photograph.

Dress Rehearsal -- July 15, 2010

Yesterday I walked by the Temporary Transbay Terminal and AC Transit was holding a dress rehearsal. Buses drove around in circles and around the block. People with flags and Slow/Stop sign were directing traffic. Here is bus 3115 on the Main Street side. Buses were also lined up along the street on Main.

Today it was warm. The SemiCon West conference across the street was very large this week.

Firehouse #9 -- July 3, 2008

Another view of Company 35 at Pier 22 1/2, Embarcadero and Harrison, the home of the San Francisco Fire Department's two fireboats, Phoenix and Guardian. The station was built in 1915.

From the Report of the Department of Engineering of the State of California, 1917: "A fire house for the use of the San Francisco Fire Department, located on the bulkhead wharf between Piers 22 and 24. This is a two-story timber building, 38 feet by 62 feet in size, covered with cement plaster and containing a garage for a motor drive engine, with living and sleeping rooms for the company. This building was completed in April, 1915."

In other news: I was sad to hear on the radio this morning that Jules Tygiel, baseball historian, had died. I took California History from him at SF State. Baseball came up a lot. He was a good teacher and a good writer.

I was also sad to learn that my friend Val Golding of Seattle had passed away. He was a native of San Francisco, a man with a great depth of knowledge about transit history, and a nice guy. He wrote a very good article about his memories of transit in San Francisco, "San Francisco: That Was the City That Was": http://www.cable-car-guy.com/html/ccvalgolding.html#top