SAN FRAN POST

by Kevin Walsh

Classic light post, Union Street near Mason, San Francisco. San Fran has done a good job preserving classic posts — Union and Market have the same poles they had for the last several decades.

I have hundreds of photos from a 2008 visit — will get around to more posts one of these days.

9 comments

JOEL NORMAN March 4, 2012 - 2:23 pm

BY THE WAY THAT TROLLEY BUS IS A RE BILT AM GENERAL BUS…AM GENERAL BUSES WERE BILT IN THE 1980’S BY AM GENERAL CORP(THEY ALSO MADE USPO “””JEEPS”””)IN A SMALL TOWN IN OHIO….STLOUIS MISSOURI HAD A FLEET OF THEM DIESEL POWERED(VERY POOR BUS)…..

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andy March 5, 2012 - 7:38 am

The trolley coach pictured is not a rebult AM General. SF Municipal Railway did have a large fleet of AM General trolley coaches built in 1976-77, but the last ones ran in the early 2000s. The coach pictured is part of today’s fleet, an ETI (Electric Transit, Inc.) product. That firm is a joint venture between a Czech Republic firm and the U.S. based AAI Corporation. It built about 270 such coaches, including 30 articulated 60 foot ones, for the SF Muni in the early 2000s.

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Al Blank March 8, 2012 - 10:09 pm

Seattle is the city that rebuilt their AM Generals. They used the traction plant, new poles and Gillig bus bodies. But the main internal workings are rebuilt from the AM Generals.

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Tal Barzilai March 5, 2012 - 9:40 pm

Reguardless of what model that trolley coach is, they were designed to be a hybrid of the trolley and a bus. Just like a trolley, it can use overhead wires. However, it differs from the fact that it doesn’t need tracks to run on since it has wheels. San Francisco isn’t the only city in the US to have this, they are also in Seattle, Boston, and Philadelphia as well, though there might be a few other cities tha have them, but I don’t know any others at this point.

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Andy Sparberg March 6, 2012 - 9:50 am

In the US and Canada, Vancouver, BC and Dayton OH also use trolley coaches. Outside of the US and Canada they are used in other cities in Mexico, South America, and Europe. Just one correction – trolley coaches must use overhead wires, just like a conventional trolley car. The newer ones like the one pictured do have battery packs that allow them to run off wire for short distances (for servicing or emergency re routes) but normally these coaches are always attached to the wires.

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Glen Norman March 9, 2012 - 3:05 am

Hi, Kevin! Not sure if you saw these on your visit–there are twin versions of the fixture near 345 Stockton Street in front of the Union Square Hyatt. (Couldn’t get the Google Maps link to paste properly, hopefully someone else can figure it out). It’s tempting to call them retro lamps as they are much newer than the ones that remain around the city, but given this batch was installed in the early 1970s, they’re hardly new …

Also, the same lamps & brackets used to exist in a version that was mounted to wooden power poles. These can be seen in the movie Vertigo in the scene where Kim Novak is talking to James Stewart outside his house on Lombard Street. The apartment house still stands on the Northwest (North by Northwest?) corner of Lombard & Jones Street. If you look carefully at the power poles on the corners, you can still see the scars left behind when these great fixtures were removed decades ago.

Sorry to hear about the job–hope a new one comes along soon!

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steve September 2, 2015 - 3:11 am

A buddy of mine had one of these lamps in his bedroom. This was back in the 90’s. He said he found it sitting on the side of the street. Possibly after some type of construction or repair work had been done. Regardless of however he came to acquire it, the interesting aspect was that the lamp was fiberglass. Who knew?

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Steve Small September 2, 2015 - 3:15 am

A buddy of mine had one of these lamps in his apt. This was back in the 90’s. Said he’d found it sitting on the side of the street, possible after some construction or repair work had been done. Regardless of how he came to acquire it, what was so interesting was that it was made of fiberglass. Who knew?

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Gbear September 2, 2015 - 5:13 pm

Apparently this post was not fiberglass!
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/City-lamp-post-falls-and-urine-was-a-factor-6424634.php

When Vertigo was filmed SF was a nice place to visit.

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