San Francisco Municipal Railway car 1010 slows, prepared to stop at the Church Street station. The 1010 is painted in tribute to the ‘Magic Carpets’, as Muni’s first five modern-design streetcars were known. When the PCC streetcar debuted in 1936, some cities lined up quickly to buy them, but in San Francisco, the privately-owned Market Street Railway Co. couldn’t afford further capital investments, while the Municipal Railway was prohibited by the City Charter from paying patent royalties covering several PCC features. Muni’s solution was to have these five streetcars custom built without the patented items. The double-end cars arrived in 1939, wearing this blue & gold livery. The five ‘Magic Carpets’ were retired by 1959. Only one survives, in a museum. Car No. 1010, one of Muni’s first ten true PCCs (purchased in 1948), is painted to honor the ‘Magic Carpets’. No. 1010 itself ran from 1948 until 1982 on Muni’s J, K, L, M, and N lines, and was then retired and stored before being fully restored for the opening of the F-line in 1995.
