Terence McCann Posted May 18, 2011 Report Share Posted May 18, 2011 I've cut and pasted this from another forum I haunt. I haven't researched it to check on its validity but it's a pretty cool vid none the less. The background music is a little trippy so don't forget to start your lava lamp. "You are there for a cable car ride in San Francisco . " This film was "lost" for many years. It was the first 35mm film ever that has come to light. It was taken by camera mounted on the front of a cable car as it`s traveling down the street. You feel as if your really there, standing at the front looking down the street, amazing piece of historic film. The number of automobiles is staggering for 1906. Absolutely amazing! The clock tower at the end of Market Street at the Embarcadero wharf is still there. How many "street cleaning" people were employed to pick up after the horses? Talk about going green! Great historical film! http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=NINOxRxze9k This film, originally thought to be from 1905 until David Kiehn with theNiles Essanay Silent Film Museum figured out exactly when it was shot. It was filmed only four days before the Great California Earthquake of April 18th 1906 and shipped by train to NY for processing. Amazing, but true! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inspectorjoe Posted May 18, 2011 Report Share Posted May 18, 2011 That's cool beyond words. I'll be watching that more than once, for sure. It seemed like a LOT of people enjoyed playing a game of chicken with the gripman. I wonder if it was because of the camera. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Katen Posted May 18, 2011 Report Share Posted May 18, 2011 I've seen that several times. I don't think it was ever "lost." It's just found a new life on the internet. Somewhere out there is an analog of the same trip made during modern times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurt Posted May 18, 2011 Report Share Posted May 18, 2011 Pretty cool. So, is that third rail electrified, or is there a cable pulley system in that center track. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inspectorjoe Posted May 18, 2011 Report Share Posted May 18, 2011 So, is that third rail electrified, or is there a cable pulley system in that center track. http://www.sfcablecar.com/gripmans.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurt Posted May 19, 2011 Report Share Posted May 19, 2011 thanx (duh......cable car..........) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inspectorjoe Posted May 19, 2011 Report Share Posted May 19, 2011 Hey, it could have been an electric cable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hausdok Posted May 19, 2011 Report Share Posted May 19, 2011 The way so many people are stopping to stare, it's pretty obvious that there must have been some kind of platform mounted on the front of that car with a guy standing there probably cranking one of those old manual movie cameras. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurt Posted May 19, 2011 Report Share Posted May 19, 2011 Yea, that's what I thought. It's really pretty amazing to think that it was only a little over a hundred years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gpdewitt Posted May 19, 2011 Report Share Posted May 19, 2011 Wow, thanks for the film. If any of you are out to SF, the cable car power station is open to the public for a look see, worth the trip. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terence McCann Posted May 19, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 19, 2011 Gee wiz Kurt - I never took you for a spammer [] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurt Posted May 19, 2011 Report Share Posted May 19, 2011 Wow is right........ My computer did this really oddball thing last night, and I had to shut it down and restart. I was posting the comment during the hiccup. I don't know what the heck happened, but I guess this is part of the result. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghentjr Posted May 19, 2011 Report Share Posted May 19, 2011 As sharp eyed inspectors i'm sure you all noticed the drivers were sitting on the wrong side of their cars? Cool "moving picture". Were early auto's right side drive? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hausdok Posted May 19, 2011 Report Share Posted May 19, 2011 I deleted all of the dupes. Kurt, it might not have been just you. I was in the middle of writing a report last night when my computer hiccuped and the next thing I knew I got this message that Word was shutting down and was recovering the file. When it did recover the file a section of the report had been duplicated hundreds of times and I couldn't delete the duplicate stuff. I finally had to shut it down and re-boot and then spent the next two hours cleaning up the mess it had made of the report. What time did that happen? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hausdok Posted May 19, 2011 Report Share Posted May 19, 2011 Were early auto's right side drive? What's the matter, John, memory getting hazy? [] Hee, hee, You walked right into that one. For those of you who don't get it, John has been at this gig since somewhere in the middle 1950's, right John? OK, so according to Wickapedia most auto manufacturer's moved the steering wheel to the left side around 1910 but Ramblers were the first to do so several years before that. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steering_wheel ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghentjr Posted May 19, 2011 Report Share Posted May 19, 2011 Were early auto's right side drive? What's the matter, John, memory getting hazy? [] Hee, hee, OK, so according to Wickapedia most auto manufacturer's moved the steering wheel to the left side around 1910 but Ramblers were the first to do so several years before that. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steering_wheel ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike I should have thought about looking that up, but I figured there would be someone that would educate me. As to time the company dated back to 1956. We just celebrated our 50th year when we sold it. Were those Ramblers the ones with the seat that folded back into a bed?They came in handy at the drive in movies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inspectorjoe Posted May 20, 2011 Report Share Posted May 20, 2011 I spent several days in San Fransisco in '86. I stayed with a friend who lived there, so I got an insiders tour of the city. I wasn't crazy about it and couldn't wait to start our trip down the coast. The cable cars were one of two things that I really dug. I was fascinated by the technology used and how it survived to that day. It was just so cool when the gripman would clamp onto the cable and that car would roll mostly silently through the noisy city. (My scanner is crappy with slides.) Click to Enlarge 57.35 KB Click to Enlarge 41.08 KB Click to Enlarge 58.96 KB Although the basic technology was ancient, the infrastructure was brand new. The system had been completely rebuilt two years earlier. I would have loved to have seen it in its original form. Click to Enlarge 45.98 KB Click to Enlarge 49.59 KB The other thing I dug about San Fransisco? That would be Matomi Hibino. She was Japan's entrant in the 1979 Miss World Pageant. She wasn't a finalist, but that's OK. Matomi & (a dorky looking) me on a very windy night at Twin Peaks: Click to Enlarge 61.09 KB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurt Posted May 20, 2011 Report Share Posted May 20, 2011 I deleted all of the dupes. What time did that happen? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike Thanks for cleaning it up. I don't know.....really late. It was like the 'puter got the hiccups; very strange. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mgbinspect Posted May 20, 2011 Report Share Posted May 20, 2011 So, purely out of curiosity, how many TIJ loiterers have actually experienced a ride on a trolley car still in service? Having grown up in the Washington, DC area in the 1950s, when I was a little guy, they were still in service - all an off green. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terence McCann Posted May 20, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 20, 2011 The wife and I rode the cars in Frisco - was a lot of fun. Rode them down to the Buena Vista where I would have one or four of their Irish Coffee's. Frisco's a fun town. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mgbinspect Posted May 20, 2011 Report Share Posted May 20, 2011 The wife and I rode the cars in Frisco - was a lot of fun. Rode them down to the Buena Vista where I would have one or four of their Irish Coffee's. Frisco's a fun town. Much of DC had cobblestone streets back then as well, which were as rough as a cobb - not fun. But, the trolly cars were. The operator was right there in the car with you standing at the polished aluminum horizontal control wheel. Just a litle half-high wall between him and the riders. Naturally, my little brother and I kept close talley regarding who's turn it was to pull the "this is my stop" cord. We took turns pressing the start button on the family 1955 Ford sedan, as well. (I tried to blow the candles out on my most recent birthday cake, but the heat drove me back...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Raymond Posted May 20, 2011 Report Share Posted May 20, 2011 Very cool! I was really impressed by the amount of traffic (of all kinds) and very surprised to see that after 100 years we still haven't figured out how to drive[] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hausdok Posted May 20, 2011 Report Share Posted May 20, 2011 So, purely out of curiosity, how many TIJ loiterers have actually experienced a ride on a trolley car still in service? Trolley car or cable car? I'd ridden on trolleys in Europe but I can't remember ever riding on a cable car. Apparently, they used to have a similar arrangement here in Seattle to carry folks up and down Capital Hill - either before or after the Denny regrade. I remember reading about it someplace. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Amaral Posted May 21, 2011 Report Share Posted May 21, 2011 We still have them in service in Boston... www.mbta.com There is one line with one of the older versions of car in Dorchester.. I've ridden the grip cars in San Fran.. wonderful... Nice trolley museum up on the Maine coast.. check it out if you ever get the chance.. Bottom line---they are 'fun'.. (but not). If you like trains, the Boston area is loaded with interesting infrastructure, tunnels, bridges, odd views, odd stations and so forth.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurt Posted May 21, 2011 Report Share Posted May 21, 2011 All of our mass transit systems here are museum grade. The Chicago El? Museum. You take it to the Cubs game, folks come to town, you take it downtown for grins. Real life.......woof..... When I was in China, I rode the MagLev from Pudong to Shanghai. Magnetic Levitation. Zero vibration. It's very strange and wonderful. Then, I took the bullet train to Hangzhou. 200 mph, glassy smooth, ghost quiet. Refreshment cart, comfortable seats. 180 miles in a about 40 minutes. Why can't we have that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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