10-03-03 PHOTOS: San Francisco 2010 - Part 1: MUNI

Well with last week's Caltrain post this would arguably be Part 2, but I'm treating the photos I took in and around San Francisco while attending the 2010 RAS Security conference as a separate event. Unlike the last photo set where I could safely discard most of the photos as poor quality signal fluff, in this case most of the photos are of generally good quality and covering various transit vehicles so for the sake of everyone I'll split it up into two parts, the first covering the MUNI light rail system, the second the Cable Cars.

In this trip I decided to cover the one remaining line I had not yet ridden, the K Ingleside. I also covered the J Church returning from a brief layover at the Balboa Park station. The remainder of the photos were of course taken at various points along the F Market because who is going to railfan San Francisco and not hit up the F market.

You can view the entire photo set here, but this post will only be covering the first half or so of the photos.

I shall begin by showing the new tracking system implemented on the MUNI light rail system that shows the location of every MUNI trolley across its entire network, excluding the F Market. Hmm, how many instances of bunching can you count?

Here we see the West Portal portal with an inbound M Ocean with LRV #1413A.

There were quite a few LRVs stacked up at West Portal. Here we see two more including 1427A on an inbound K routing.

Approaching the M/K divide at St. Francis Circle we were being followed by an outbound M Ocean with #1460A. The St Francis Station features a pair of platforms on the central reservation, ADA mini-highs and a trailing point turnback.

The Junipero St alignment of the K features its own Right of Way similar to the Rt 36 Eastwick.

#1409B on Ocean about the make the turn onto Junipero.

MUNI #1432B at the Phelan Station which is located just south of City College.

Upon reaching Balboa Park we have my previous ride, #1510B, next to 1494B.

For being the 69th St terminal of the MUNI system, Balboa park is kinda a dump that barely even has platforms at its main trolley stop.

Front truck of a Breda LRV. 

 Here we see my K train pulling out to loop back around as an inbound K. I decided to let it go and switch to a J instead.



Instead of pulling directly out onto the street the LRVs run along side of the shoppe building before using dedicated pull in/out tracks. MUNI 1494A was quick to pull up into position as the next inbound J train.

The wire frogs in this area have to support both the trolley poles of the vintage equipment and the pantographs of the new LRVs. The heritage cars use the J line to reach the Geneva carhouse.

Randall St station is located at the east end of the San Jose Ave RoW here with outbound J train with #1424B. 

The hallmark of the J is the steeply inclined hill climb Right of Way between 20th and 22nd St that marks the only non-tunnel route across the spine of the peninsular. I took some videos and edited them together into a non-stop express run down the hill.



Jumping over to Fisherman's wharf we find a what looks to be a PCC II that's gotten about as lost as one can get. Oh wait, that's MUNI #1055 in PTC colors.

Here is Double Ended PCC #1007 on Market at the Civic Center station painted in Philly Suburban "Red Arrow" colors. 

It's a trolley...its a bus...NO, its a trackless trolley! MUNI non-flexible TT #5603 at the 4th Street diamonds.

MUNI Milan Peter Witt car #1818 at the 4th St station on Market.

Orange painted Peter Witt #1895 at 8th and Market.

No trip to San Francisco is complete without a visit to the Pacific Ocean and the best way to get there is via the L Traval. Unfortunately my L tram decided to short turn at Sunset Blvd. Here we see the operator bending the iron, hopping in and taking the trailing point crossover back toward downtown.



Here we see out flaked out LRV, #1506A, and its replacement, #1530B. There is also an off-street tail track for turning, but in this case our tram used the crossover.

Our replacement #1530B about to stop with the ZOO as its final destination.

MUNI 1530B making the turn onto 46th Ave en-route to the Zoo.

MUNI #1538 making the turn eastbound on Traval St.

Some video of the previous two LRV's doing their thing with a stinkbuggy thrown in to boot.



Here at the far edge of the continent we find the last remaining segment of Belgian Block embedded trolley track on the MUNI system.

And we finish up with #1007 in Red Arrow colors waiting for passengers at Fisherman's Wharf.

Well I hope you enjoyed the trip. Tune in next time for either Part 2 and the cable cars or an essay on the 16TH ST tower in Chicago.