Muni plans

This recent post on the Heritage Rail Alliance site provides an interesting look into the planning going on at the San Francisco Municipal Railway. The post suggests that Muni is preparing a proposal to restore seven pre-PCC double-ended cars in its fleet as well as five Milan Peter Witts. Of the seven double-ended cars, one - Muni 130, built in 1914 by Jewett - is to be rebuilt in kind with its original electrical and mechanical equipment. Three other American cars - Market Street Railway 798, Johnstown 351, and New Orleans 913 - are to be restored with "standardized" electrical equipment for ease of maintenance. The first two of those are currently incomplete while the last, car 913, is complete but has only two motors and is thus underpowered on San Francisco's hills. It's not clear what standard Muni will settle on but it may be equipment common to its fleet of Milan cars or it could be new-build K-35's or something similar. The seven double-enders to be rebuilt also include three foreign cars not on the PNAERC list, cars hailing from Melbourne, Hiroshima, and Oporto.

No specific mention is made of the two Red Arrow double-enders recently acquired and moved to Brookville though they may have already been put on the list for rebuilding. The article does state that about a dozen of the PCC cars in storage, those in the worst shape, will likely be given away to whoever wants them. This most likely means the 12 ex-St. Louis Public Service cars in the 1100-series that have been in dead storage for years. Most have been in outdoor storage in San Francisco since they were retired some 35 years ago though a few were actually purchased by Muni from other owners about 15 years ago not long before the Newark cars were acquired. Even if Muni gets rid of the ex-SLPS cars it still has nine of the "Baby Ten" PCC cars, built for San Francisco in 1951, that are in storage awaiting their chance at a full rebuild in case it decides more PCC cars are needed.