San Francisco gets a new Cable Car

[Auggie]

San Francisco Chronicle, 6-22-2009

San Francisco's newest cable car has its public premiere today, joining an elite transportation fleet known the world over.

The unveiling marks the 25th anniversary - plus one day, for sticklers of fact - of the return of full cable car service after the city's aging system was shut down for nearly two years to undergo a major overhaul.

For more than five years, nearly 30 Municipal Transportation Agency crafts workers - carpenters, a patternmaker, metal workers, transit mechanics, welders and painters - labored on and off to build the cable car from scratch, working off blueprints more than a century old.

They started by laying down the I-beams, then built the floor, the frame, the elaborate curved roof. Next came the mechanical components. Included is the grip, which grabs the cable that tows the cars up and down the city's hilly streets at a steady clip of 9.5 mph.

LINK: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/06/22/BA4B189SLQ.DTL&tsp=1

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GORGEOUS!

[mainegreen]

1. All I can think is 'Rice-a-Roni'.

:D

[madinmaryland]

2. That just gave me an earworm!

x(

[Auggie]

3. You do know that "San Francisco treat" claim is an adman's B.S...

No one eats it here

:puke:

[mainegreen]

4. I know. But the trolly is on the box.

Therefore San Francisco = Rice a Roni.

[ronnykmarshall]

8. Are you kiddng?

When I lived in San Francisco we used to start everyday with a bowl o' Rice-A-Roni! I have such fond memories of the Rice-A-Roni truck coming down the street every morning. Happy school children skipping along side of it singing the Rice-A-Roni song.

Ah! Such memories.

[mainegreen]

10. Happy school children skipping along side [the Rice-A-Roni truck] singing the Rice-A-Roni song.

:rofl:

[Auggie]

11. Thank you, ronnykmarshal...

I'm going to be laughing ALL DAY

[JVS]

19. Nobody at all?

If I ever make it out to SF, I'm going to pester chefs until I get the original recipe rice-a-roni

[Auggie]

22. You'll be laughed out of town

[marzipanni]

26. If they wouldn't add chicken bouillon with an astronomical amount of sodium

it wouldn't be that bad...(original recipe just says salt & pepper).
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93067862

[Xithras]

28. That may be true today, but it once wasn't.

Rice-A-Roni was invented by an Italian family in the Mission and was a mix of Italian and Armenian cooking styles that demonstrated the diversity of San Francisco's immigrant community (Rice-A-Roni is essentially an Armenian Pilaf flavored and spiced like an Italian noodle dish). The company that started the whole Rice-A-Roni thing was owned by that San Francisco Italian family until Quaker bought them out in the mid-80's. When I was a kid, most working class restaurants in San Francisco served some kind of Rice/Macaroni Pilaf similar to Rice-A-Roni, and it was considered good working class food.

When compared to the San Francisco of the 1950's to 1970's, the San Francisco of today is a very different city racially, culturally, economically, and demographically (that big "San Francisco The Industrial City" sign used to actually mean something). Those changes are reflected in the types of food consumed by its residents.

The ad line isn't B.S., it's just dated.

[Auggie]

29. Thanks

I stand corrected

[siligut]

5. Very cool!

We rode the cable car quite few years back. Fascinating that they worked from blueprints more than a century old.

[Vidar]

6. Excellent.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

7. I adore our cable cars!

They are like an E ticket ride! I love them because they are so fun/dangerous they would never be given permits today. :D

I mean, really -- a mode of travel that is simple a car holding onto a cable by a single cable and stopped by the use of blocks of wood that wear out in weeks, ridden by people who hang off the sides while hanging onto poles.

Not a chance in HELL their construction would be passed today! :D

The drivers/brakemen are amazing -- they multitask like crazy - part showman, part artisan, part safety officer, part tour guide. The cable car jobs are highly coveted -- those guys are the Rock Stars of public transportation. :D

[hunter]

9. Beautiful. Simply Beautiful.

Too often the artistic and cultural traditions of a place are abandoned for a mediocre and ephemeral modernity.

What will our generation be remembered for? Scary empty box stores and abandoned restaurant chains rising up out of seas of disintegrating asphalt, perhaps?

[tigereye]

12. that is so cool! We love riding them when we visit SF

There is nothing like the views..

[City of Mills]

13. Love the trolley!

Reminds me of a couple that run here in my town:





More pics and info here:

http://www.railwaypreservation.com/vintagetrolley/lowell.htm

[KamaAina]

14. PSA: There was no movie called "A Trolley Named Desire"

New Orleanians love to goof on outsiders who call the streetcars "trolleys", or occasionally even "cable cars'!

[City of Mills]

21. Well around here, we call them trolleys and streetcars

Maybe it's a regional thing?

I could be mistaken, but then someone better tell the Seashore Trolley museum, who refer to these both ways :)

http://www.heritagetrolley.org/existLowell.htm

http://www.heritagetrolley.org/defHeritage.htm

[Hell Hath No Fury]

15. Cable cars aren't trolleys...

We do have both in SF -- the trolleys run on tracks and off of overhead electrictal lines. The cable cars are just that -- they run by attaching themselves to long, underground cables that are powered by a central wheel house and hanging on for a ride -- they have no onboard power. Kind of like a ski rope line -- just grap on for the ride and then let go when you get there. :)

[scheming daemons]

16. Why cable? Isn't DirectTV good enough for 'em?

[Deep13]

17. How long until it smells like urine? nt

[JVS]

20. Well today's monday, so I'm going to say 6 days tops.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

23. They tend not to get peed on.

They are expensive to ride and primarily used by tourists.

[Gormy Cuss]

25. +1

although I do have friends who commute on one of the lines some days because it's convenient and doesn't cost any more than a bus if one is using a monthly MUNI pass.

[KamaAina]

18. Favorite cable car memory

We were having a big march in SF against the contra war (I know, I'm dating myself...). We came up Market St. chanting "No contra aid! No contra aid!" Then when we got to the cable car turnaround at Powell, we heard "Ding ding da-ding! Ding ding da-ding!" from one of the cable cars!!

[Hell Hath No Fury]

24. Just for you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKmqKUfyuA8

[marzipanni]

27. Carol Doda

the San Francisco teats :P