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May 2020 Newsletter
Dear members and friends of Market Street Railway,

The next Muni Heritage Weekend has been postponed, tentatively until next spring (exact date still to be determined). Here's our blog post with all the details and explanation. When it does happen, we are committed to making it the best one ever. We are also committed to working with Muni to get the historic streetcars and cable cars back in action just as soon as it's safe for operators and riders.

During this hiatus in actual historic rail service, we are focused on deepening the content of our website, streetcar.org. We have added a whole new section called "We Built This City" (not on rock and roll, but on transit! It's got direct links to Chris Arvin's fabulous interactive maps of the lost streetcar routes of San Francisco and the Key System as well. It offers a growing number of vintage videos, with more to come on a regular basis, edited and narrated from our own archives. It has a section containing stories (with scads of photos) of transit history in various San Francisco neighborhoods, histories of familiar Muni routes, and stories of colorful personalities and events in transit history. We've also added links to archives you can search for great transit photos. Check it out! A couple of our newly added deep dives into neighborhood histories are linked below among our recent blog posts.

Upgrading our website is an important investment for keeping interest stoked on the historic streetcars and cable cars during their absence, and bringing their story to a new generation. We could really use your help to achieve this, through either monthly or annual membership options, or a one-time donation. Check out the options here.  And thanks once again to the readers of this newsletter who already support us.

Looking forward, 
Rick Laubscher
President, Market Street Railway

News from our Museum & Gift Shop

Our physical Museum remains closed at least until California's shelter-in-place initiative ends and a significant level of visitation to our Ferry Plaza surroundings resumes.

But our intrepid museum manager, Alison Cant, is continuing to expand the attractive merch in our online store, like this new sweatshirt featuring the classic Muni "O'Shaughnessy" logo, available in either this color or navy. Click here, and at the bottom of the sweatshirt page, you'll see the other items we offer with this great logo.

So show your support for Market Street Railway and our Museum with something unique from our gift shop. Every dollar you spend supports our work in keeping a delightful part of San Francisco’s past present in your future. Here's the online store link again.

 

Recent Posts from Streetcar.org

Subscribe here to have all our blog posts delivered straight to your inbox.

May 15, 2020

Streetcars in the Sunset

When one thinks of San Francisco’s Sunset District, the image of fog, cold salty winds, and sand dunes comes to mind.— Read the full post


May 9, 2020

The Castro's Rich Transit History


Cable cars on Castro? An ‘elevated’ railway at Harvey Milk Plaza? Four streetcar tracks on Market? It’s all part of the transit history in a San Francisco neighborhood that has truly seen it all over the years. — Read the full post

Photo of the month



Model Railroad - Jeremy Whiteman made the corner of 20th and Church Streets look like a model railroad with this shot of  "EuroPCC" 737 out training on April 20.  Jeremy is one of the stalwart photogs continually adding to the great body of work around San Francisco's vintage transit vehicles. Here's a look at his work.

Here's another salute to the dedication of all transit operators at this time of extra challenges, including those who have been operating and will again operate Muni’s cable cars and historic streetcars. Be careful out there!
 

Become a member today and get exclusive benefits like our quarterly newsletter, Inside Track, filled with information you won’t see anywhere else, a 10% discount on all gifts and memorabilia from the San Francisco Railway Museum, and other member perks. Or if you'd prefer to support our cause by donating, visit our donation page.

MSR is supported entirely by members and donors, and receives no financial support from Muni or the City of San Francisco. 

We depend on the generosity of volunteers to make things happen, and the more help we have, the more we are able to do. MSR offers a variety of volunteer opportunities, some requiring just energy and time, and some requiring advanced skills. We can provide training in some areas.

Visit our volunteer page, email us at volunteer@streetcar.org, or call (415) 956-0472 to learn more.

 

Interact with our Online Community
MSR Facebook Group
@sfmsr on Twitter
MSR Website
About Market Street Railway
 
We are an independent advocacy group with the mission of preserving historic transit in San Francisco. We operate the San Francisco Railway Museum and also serve as a nonprofit partner of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. SFMTA is the city agency that owns and operates San Francisco’s transit system, known as Muni, which includes the city’s historic streetcars and cable cars.

While we support Muni’s historic transit activities, we are not part of Muni and we receive no government money whatsoever.

Instead, we rely on membership dues and private donations to help keep San Francisco’s past present in the future by serving as an effective independent advocate for the famed historic streetcars that operate on the F-line and E-line, and the national landmark cable cars. These irreplaceable historic vehicles carry almost 50,000 riders per day.
 
Copyright © 2020 Market Street Railway, All rights reserved.


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