MUNI, having the fleet that they do, obviously have to store the non-functional stuff somewhere. The result is little caches of outdated hardware all over the city.
We checked out a few of these sites, predominately focusing on the streetcars.
Here is a PCC (Presidents’ Conference Committee) streetcar sitting at MUNI Metro East, this one (car no. 1052) is typically active but has been sitting here for the last couple weeks.
Commemorative Los Angeles Railway (LARy) livery
Right next to car 1052 sit a trio of PCCs slated for restoration. Of particular interest is the MUNI Repair Car, its paint job was adapted from a livery created by Walter Landor, the same guy that came up with the Coca-Cola logo.
Right down the street in the MUNI graveyard is an original example of the Landor livery. I, among others, think MUNI should bring this one back and give the green and cream livery a rest. I mean, they already have one of each actively serving the F-line (wings and simplified.)
Also, nearby is the infamous Jast bus, it’s a little small but try to make out the SFPD badge on the side (sickness) (much better photo here). We were going in for a closer look when we were stopped by a surly rent-a-cop telling us it’s private property blah blah blah. No amount of coaxing could convince him to bend the rules so we left.
Being denied really whet our appetites for some abandoned mass transit interiors, so we decided to try our luck elsewhere. We figured a retired Metro car should do the trick. Unfortunately, this car’s proximity to the Duboce tunnel resulted in us meeting a more official, and far better equipped, security guard who politely informed us that due to homeland security restrictions, we can’t go anywhere near these guys. He was nice enough to let me hang over the fence to snap that shot though.
Next time, we’re going at night.
If you would like to read more about these little pieces of history I highly recommend visiting the Market Street Railway blog. They are running a multi-part series on the painting of 4 more PCCs and would like your input.
There’s actually a whole fleet of old buses being stored at either Pier 15 or Pier 17, and there’s another Boeing that’s stored at Metro Green Division off 280.
I poked around pier 17 tonight, saw the MUNI building but no buses, maybe I looked in the wrong window. I assume they are closed to the public? Thanks for the tips WWT.
[WORDPRESS HASHCASH] The poster sent us ‘0 which is not a hashcash value.