Monday, November 22, 2010

Museums In Motion

With apologies to the Market Street Railway for borrowing their tagline for the F-Market streetcars, I'd like to take a moment to reflect on another vintage trolley line of sorts: the 49-Van Ness/Mission.

I'm not without a bias, I grew up riding the 49 home from school on Ocean Avenue near Balboa High.  My first job was at a movie theater on Van Ness, and the 49 was probably the last bus I rode before going away to college.

And Muni is still running those same 15+ year-old articulated trolley buses on the 49 today.  The one I'm on tonight has had a lot of work done recently and is now painted silver and red, but many others still bear the double orange Landor paint scheme - among the last in the city with that iconic livery.

It's kind of a trip to sit here and think that I might be in the exact same seat that I rode in back in high school.

1 comment:

Tamagosan said...

I bet you feel the same way about the 49 as I do about "my" 24. Heady were the days when I would catch the 49 from some place like a "movie theater on Van Ness" (Galaxy, Regency) and then the 24 up the 30th St "hill". I let my Fast Pass prey upon my youthful laziness; if only I'd known how much fun being on two feet could be...
And how I miss that double orange. Plus the three-butt side seats in the back...