Geary Street, Park and Ocean Railway

Geary Street, Park and Ocean Railway
The former carbarn at Arguello Street in 2018
Overview
Locale	San Francisco, California
Transit type	cable cars
Operation
Began operation	February 16, 1880
Ended operation	May 5, 1912
Operator(s)	Geary Street, Park & Ocean Railway (1880–1887), Market Street Railway (1887–1912), San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (1912–present)
Technical
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm),
Old gauge	5 ft (1,524 mm), converted in 1892

The Geary Street, Park and Ocean Railway was a street railway in San Francisco, California, United States.

History

The company received a franchise from the city to operate a cable railway on November 6, 1878. ^[1] Operations commenced on February 16, 1880 as a Russian gauge tram pulled by steam dummy locomotives. The route soon proved quite popular. ^[2] The line was purchased by the Market Street Railway in 1887; ^[3] operations were not consolidated as Market Street Railway did not own all of the outstanding stock in the Geary Street railway. ^[4]

The company's operating franchise expired in November 1903, but it continued to operate and pay its fees to the city. ^[5] Following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, cars had actually operated in the few hours immediately following the tremor but were stopped until June due to damage at the power house. ^[6] The company's operating permit was restored in 1907. ^[7] In 1912, the city declined to renew the franchise and instead took over the right of way. ^[8] The last day of cable operations by the Geary Street, Park and Ocean Railway was on May 5, 1912. ^[9]

The line was rebuilt into an electric streetcar line, forming the first element of the San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni) that was to become synonymous with transit in that city. Streetcar service on the new B-Geary line began on December 28, 1912, based out of a carhouse at Geary and Presidio Streets. Muni replaced the street cars with motor coaches in 1956, and the 38 Geary remains one of Muni's busiest bus routes, serving over 40,000 passengers per weekday. ^{[lower-alpha 1] [10] [11]}

Infrastructure

Cars terminated downtown at Geary, Market, and Kearny Streets. ^[12] The powerhouse was in a two-story wooden building on the northwest corner of Geary Boulevard and Buchanan Street. ^[13] The car barn was in a building on the northwest corner of Geary Boulevard and Arguello Boulevard, later an Office Max store. ^[14]

Rolling stock

Baldwin Locomotive Works built four 0-4-0 tank locomotives for the line. Numbers 1 and 3 (C/N 4801 & 4817) had vertical boilers while numbers 2 and 4 (C/N 4827 & 5115) had more conventional horizontal boilers. The two locomotives with horizontal boilers were sold to redwood logging railroads when line was converted to cable car operation on August 7, 1892. Locomotive #2 became #6 for Hobbs, Wall & Company of Crescent City, California; and #4 was sent to the Glen Blair Redwood Company on the California Western Railroad. ^[15]

See also

• 38 Geary
• San Francisco cable car system
• List of defunct San Francisco Municipal Railway lines

References

Notes

1. As of June 2024 ^[update] , including the 38-Geary and 38R-Geary Rapid routes

Citations

1. Callwell 1999 , p. 9
2. Thompson, Joe. "The Cable Car Home Page - Geary Street Park and Ocean Railway" . Retrieved December 24, 2007.
3. "Cable Car Company - Geary Street Park & Ocean Railroad". Cable Car Museum. Retrieved December 24, 2007.
4. Callwell 1999 , p. 17
5. Callwell 1999 , p. 19
6. Callwell 1999 , p. 22
7. Callwell 1999 , p. 23
8. LaBounty, Steve W. "Run Out of Town - Western Neighborhoods Project" . Retrieved December 24, 2007.
9. Callwell 1999 , p. 28
10. "What Might Have Been: Geary". Market Street Railway. September 22, 2008. Retrieved August 15, 2024.
11. "Average daily Muni boardings by route and month (pre-pandemic to present)". San Francisco Municipal Transportation Authority. Retrieved August 15, 2024.
12. Trimble 2004 , p. 18
13. LaBounty, Woody (May 2002). "Streetwise: Run Out of Town". outsidelands.org. Western Neighborhods Project. Retrieved October 25, 2020.
14. "Geary Street Car barn, Geary Street Park & Ocean Railway". outsidelands.org. Western Neighborhoods Project. Retrieved October 25, 2020.
15. Borden, Stanley T. (1971). "San Francisco Steam Dummies". The Western Railroader. 34 (376). Francis A. Guido: 3.

Bibliography

• Callwell, Robert (September 1999). "Transit in San Francisco: A Selected Chronology, 1850–1995" (PDF). San Francisco Municipal Railway.
• Trimble, Paul C. (2004). Railways of San Francisco. Arcadia Publishing. p. 18. ISBN   9780738528878.