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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Important, Simply Because It Stands Alone,
By Paul Dana (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The White Front Cars of San Francisco (Interurbans Special 44) (Hardcover)
The key to this volume -- a history of San Francisco's Market Street Railway -- lies in its dedication to C.D. Miller.Miller -- to those who weren't in San Francisco in the 50s era --was General Director of San Francisco's Municipal Railway in the period following its absorption of competitor Market Street Railway after a general bond issue in 1946. Part of that takeover provided that many of MSR's key personnel (Miller most predominantly included) would be absorbed, along with physical properties and plants, in the takeover. (This provision, by the way, is more than abundantly addressed in Anthony Perles' companion volume, "The People's Railway," which outlines SF Muni's early day history.) C.D. Miller subsequently became known in the minds of many San Franciscans as 'Seedy' Miller, due to the resultantly low grade of service which Muni found itself providing at his hands. (The Market Street Railway, having long since devolved into a subsidiary of the nationwide conglomerate Byllesby System, had adopted a 'can't-do' philosophy as regards passenger service and accomodation. It is a philosophy which -- unfortunately prevails to the present day with Muni.) Author Charles Smallwood, unfortunately, chooses to largely ignore this aspect of Market Street Railway's history and operations as he attempts to detail MSR's birth-to-demise nistory. "Attempts," by the way, is the keyword here. How did so many of Market Street Railway's key streetcar lines -- the 1 and 2, or the 5, 6, 7 or the 14 and 31, just as examples -- find themselves downgraded to trolley-bus routes, or to coach status with Muni? Was this part of the so-called "National Bus/Tire Company Conspiracy"? Or was it something other? Good luck finding the answers (let alone the questions) here. Where, for that matter, are the maps for those early routes (so many of which, by the way, form the basis for successor Muni's current schedule), to say nothing of supporting photographs? Both are sadly underrepresented in these pages. Read "The White Front Cars" if you have any interest in San Francisco and its early-day (1900-1946) public transit. Just don't look for any solid answers to any questions you may have.
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