Tag Archives: PCC Streetcars

Vestiges of DC’s streetcar network

IMAG0148700 Block, 8th St SE

Winter’s freeze/thaw cycle chipped enough asphalt away from 8th St SE to expose the remaining vault of DC’s old streetcar system.  The rails themselves are gone, but the underground vault that provided power for the system remains, as does one of the square access panels in the street.   The rest of 8th Street contains discolorations and visible stress in the asphalt where more of the square access panels would have been, indicating more of the vault structure remains just below the surface.

New York’s streetcars used similar conduit technology.  The extensive website nycsubway.org has some fascinating pictures from New York’s streetcar infrastructure remnants, as well as this handy explanation of the system:

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This isn’t your basic track of two rails and wooden crossties. The track structure extends some two and a half feet into the earth. Under the paving blocks are cast iron yokes 5 feet apart, the trapezoidal shape shown here and in the previous line drawing. The yoke holds the shape of the lengthwise pieces, keeping the rails the right distance apart and keeping the conduit open.

The diagram above shows a double-track cable installation, but the basics are the same on Broadway. There is a yoke every 5 feet, and a pair of insulator covers around the conduit every 15 feet, and a cleaning manhole cover every 105 feet, of which every fourth one (420 feet apart) was also a slightly larger feeder manhole. It’s a lot of cast iron and concrete.

The exact diagram used here is actually for a cable car track, not a streetcar conduit – but the engineering is essentially the same.  Some of DC’s old cable cars were converted to electric power.

Wikipedia also has a great image of track work at 14th and G Sts NW, showing the extensive cast iron underpinnings of these underground conduits:

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GGW and PoP have also taken note of remnants of DC’s streetcar infrastructure in the past, some of the last remaining signs of a once extensive network.

Observations from San Francisco

As a nice respite to DC’s heat, I was able to spend the last week in California – including several days in San Francisco.  Some thoughts and observations from the trip:

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Hills and Grids: Gridded streets have plenty of benefits, to be sure – but the downside is that they do not react to topography.  San Francisco provides the extreme example.  The city has even preserved the right of way where topography makes streets impossible.  My own adventure to the top of Telegraph Hill included ascending the Greenwich Street stairs.

Surely, relaxing the grid would offer opportunities for a more understanding development pattern.  Nevertheless, the spaces along the staircases are certainly interesting, as are some of the extremely steep streets.  Such a pattern would not work in a colder climate that has to deal with ice and snow on a regular basis, however – lest you end up like these poor folks in Portland.

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Trucks and Buses not advised.  Um, yeah.

Trolleybuses: As a direct response to the city’s grade issues, the electric-powered trolley buses are a great solution.  The overhead wires for the buses can be a little obtrusive – but they are not nearly as much of a visual blight as the broader patchwork of utility wires strung from house to house and pole to pole.

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Zero emissions, but the wires (like rails) do act as a visual cue for a newcomer to the city (like myself) to find a bus line when I need one.  That’s a plus.

Signage: Actual signs telling you where you are or what transit line to take, however, are sorely lacking – particularly for Muni and BART.

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We can do better than this – the BART platform at Montgomery station.  The boarding signs for various train lengths is nice, but not all that intuitive – but actually determining which station you’re at when the train arrives is another challenge entirely.  Similarly, on the Muni lines that turn into streetcar routes in the outer neighborhoods, signage at the larger stations is almost non-existent – certainly not useful for a first time rider.

That said – Muni’s route symbology is incredibly easy to understand.  Each line is assigned a name (corresponding to the main street it travels on), a letter (as a single symbol) and a color.  It’s something I think Metro could learn from as its route structure becomes more and more complex.

Wayfinding signage around town, however, was much better.  Kiosks offered maps, highlighted transit routes, and in general provided very useful information – even potential ferry routes, for example:

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My favorite ‘signs’, however, where the ones doing double duty – the public toilets:

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Granted, the actual map here is faded and hard to read, but the presence of a self-cleaning public toilet in a popular tourist area like this is priceless.  Thanks to nature’s urges, I never had a chance to actually use one – but the process seems quite self-explanatory.  If not, there are simple instructions:

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This particular toilet is from JCDecaux, the same outdoor advertising firm that operates Paris’ Velib bikesharing system.

Streetcars: The F Market line’s heritage streetcars are both interesting to see on the street and also an effective part of the transit network.  They’re also quite popular:

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One note about these old PCC cars – when you’re standing (as I was while taking this picture), it’s extremely difficult to see out the small windows of these old rail cars to determine where you are – especially with Muni’s aforementioned lack of quickly visible signage.  The PCC car wiki page talks about “standee windows,” but these weren’t of much help to me.

From the outside, the diverse colors of the various liveries from around the world Muni opts to use are fantastic.

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The liveries include this lovely pastel DC Transit paint job.

More (perhaps) to come later.