San Francisco Cable Car — Handmade Metal Model

The only moving National Historic Landmark in the United States, in hand-formed iron.

Handcrafted with rolling metal wheels and hand-painted livery, with open end platforms, running boards, side benches and the grip lever the operator uses to seize the moving cable beneath the street.

Details

• Handcrafted iron construction
• Metal wheels that roll
• Hand-painted municipal livery with applied detail
• Open platforms, benches, running boards and grip detail
• Ready to display

The system

Andrew Hallidie built the first line in 1873 after watching a horse team fall on a wet cobbled hill while dragging a loaded streetcar. His answer had no engine on board at all: a steel cable runs continuously in a slot beneath the road, and the operator clamps onto it to move and releases it to stop.

Electric streetcars made the technology obsolete almost everywhere within thirty years. San Francisco kept three lines, largely because cable cars climb grades that defeat anything relying on wheel adhesion. They still run on the original principle.