# PCCs & Witts in San Francisco



## JackM (Jul 29, 2008)

It's amazing to me that, with so many people buying PCC's when AristoCraft came out with them a year or so ago, I never saw any mention on MLS about the amazing collection of PCC's and Peter Witts that San Francisco runs daily on their Muni's "F Market St." line. Nothing else, just PCCs and Peter Witts! 

I lived in "The City" (never, never, NEVER call it Frisco) in 1971-2. I was way overdue to revisit my all-time favorite city. And, boy, did I get a lot of use from my 7-Day Muni Pass ($27) last week!













The Motorman gets a short break while waiting for the PCC ahead to leave.












To think I could've gone my entire life without seeing the inside of a Peter Witt.




































Two main differences between Peter Witts and PCCs: wood and NOISE! Forget anwering your cellphone on a Peter Witt. You can't hear yourself think on those monsters.
PPCs are quieter than the modern SF trolley buses.











I had too much fun last week. I gotta go back.

JackM


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## Spule 4 (Jan 2, 2008)

JackM- 

We were there last week too for one day. We came up on Friday (not knowing it was Navy Fleet Week, oy!) and got to (after waiting a long time) to ride the PCCs (but our rides were full/standing room only with many full cars passing before stopping to pick people up). $2 with a 5 or so hour free transfer and $6 for the cable cars BEFORE finding out about Muni passes (again, our fault). 

Thanks for the interior photos, I really could not make much out of the cars due to the sheer volume of passengers! 

But other than the sheer overload, they were great to ride, having been 19 years since I last rode a REVENUE service PCC car. We did not get a chance to ride the Witt or European cars tho, but would love to go back and do it. 

The street cars add to the mix of cable cars, trolley busses, subay, light rail, commuter rail, etc.


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## JackM (Jul 29, 2008)

My timing was perhaps better - I left Friday morning.
Thursday was interesting, with the Blue Angels practicing overhead. Barely overhead. I was hanging out on Union Street and they passed over low enough to set off car alarms three separate times! I was not especially pleased, since the military air shows lose a pilot every ten years or so; I was in attendance at one such show. And after the Reno disaster, I'd think they'd be a bit less "daring" over such a heavily populated area.

On the other hand, where else could I be walking along the street looking for a coffe and Danish, and just whip out my camera and get this.....???











Here's a link to the story of the SF trolleys, photos,maps, etc.: http://www.sfmta.com/cms/mfleet/histcars.php

JackM


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## Spule 4 (Jan 2, 2008)

You had the right idea Jack, a co-worker who used to work for SFPD told me (once back home of course!) that Pride Weekend and Fleet Week were to weeks to avoid the town for normal tourist activity due the volume of people. 

Yeah, they were doing their stunts while we were there too for the big show on the weekend. A bit un-nerving. 

Lotta boats, but not tall ships, that was a great find! THanks for the history link also. I do remember riding a B'ham car tho that night, which is not listed there, so either another re-paint or car since the web post....


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## aceinspp (Jan 2, 2008)

Thanks for sharing. Very interesting reading. Later RJD


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## Merlin83 (Sep 23, 2011)

Holy Cow !

I was just down in Marin County for work ( I live in Oregon) and I made it a point to go into 'The City' to check out the 'NEW' old subway cars. Way back when I was kid in Boston (I lived there a short period of time, before returning to California), I used to ride these same style old Subway cars ALL over the place in Boston - just because it was an 'adventure'. I would take the B & M train from the 'burbs' and then just have the most fascinating time riding subway cars and trains all over Boston.


So when I saw these old cars running in San Francisco - it was so cool !! I only had a small amount of time to ride them though, I still had BART and the cable cars to go and ride on







. My wife thinks I am so weird for going out of my way while on a business trip to go ride trains. Of course she's also very tolerant of me setting up a 1000 ft. of LGB rail through-out the house for time to time.


Cheers
Brett


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