Photos april 2009 exclusively for www.draemmli.info by © Maren Müller

Operating daily along Market Street and San Francisco's famous waterfront, the Embarcadero a six-mile route the F Line operates with 34 elderly streetcars, some of them restored local trolleys, the rest from all over the world. Less than two years old in its present form, the F Line is a an attraction for tourists and San Franciscans commuters.

In 1983 the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce sponsored a Historic Trolley Festival, with the opening of a new trolley line under Market Street. The festival was so popular that it was restaged every summer through 1987. In 1995, the old cars began regular service between the Castro District and the Financial District near the Ferry Terminal. When the 1989 earthquake, damaged the Embarcadero Freeway, it was torn down and the F line came into its own. With the freeway gone, the old trolleys became an new attraction of the waterfront. The extension from the Financial District to Fisherman's Wharf opened in March 2000 and was an success.

Three general types of vintage streetcars are used in San Francisco: a collection of unique vintage cars from both San Francisco and around the world; streamlined art deco PCC streetcars from the 1940s and 1950s that provide the backbone of daily service; and 1920s Peter Witt trams from Milan, Italy, which also operate daily.

A second historic-streetcar line is already being planned. It would run the length of the Embarcadero to the new Pacific Bell Stadium and the adjoining Caltrain railroad terminal. To be known as the E Line, it would share the southern part of the N Line route with the sleek new light-rail vehicles, or LRV's, that began replacing the PCC's on most of the city's streetcar lines 20 years ago.