Old Poway cable car back on tracks

The Poway Midland Railroad’s cable car got a new debut on Sept. 19 after the group finished repairs.

The 1906 San Francisco cable car (No. 17) was brought out to run on the Old Poway Park tracks, but ended up having to be returned to the train barn after an issue with a wire.

“(The debut) went fine until we had a wire short out,” said railroad volunteer Chuck Cross. “We couldn’t foresee that, but we got a couple of laps in.” The speeder was pulled out to run the rest of the day instead.

Cross said the issue with the wire was “very minor” and has since been fixed. “We could have kept going (even with the shorted-out wire) but we’re very safety conscious. We always want to put safety first. We’re very proud of our 23-year safety record in this city.”

With the wire fixed, Cross said the cable car will join the regular rotation and will run the fourth weekend of the month at Old Poway Park.

The entire City Council came out on Saturday to witness the second debut of the cable car, which was originally acquired by the City of Poway in 1997 and made its first appearance in April 2012, before being shelved for several years while more work was done, mostly related to the drive train. Cross said volunteers have put thousands of hours in to restoring the cable car, including replacing most of the wood, scraping off layers and layers of paint, redesigning the entire operating system and redoing the entire power system. “A lot of volunteers put a lot of hours in scraping paint,” said Cross.

The cable car was one of 45 cars in the California Street Cable Railroad fleet and was used on a 12-mile section of California Street, between Market Street and Presidio Avenue until being retired in 1954.

After being retired, the cable car was one of six acquired by Knott’s Berry Farm and used as a parking lot shuttle until 1977. Four of the cars were returned to San Francisco, one went to the Orange Empire Railway Museum in Perris and one, No. 17, was purchased by San Diego’s Metropolitan Transit System.

The plans were to use it on MTS’ Old Town line, but it turned out that the car’s wheels didn’t match the track and the car ended up rotting in a MTS lot for 20 years. The car was going to be thrown away until the Poway-Midland Railroad approached Jim Bowersox and said they wanted it.

The city was able to acquire the car for only the cost to move it from the lot to Poway. “It was very sad looking,” said Cross. “We had to tent it for termites. Most of the wood was rotted, the operating system was shot.”

Some of the wood, including the benches, was able to be saved and is original.

“The city has been a marvelous partner throughout this whole thing,” said Cross. “The council always had vision. We’ve always been blessed in that regard.”

Cross estimated that the restoration of the cable car has cost about $100,000. Scott Edwards, the director of administrative services, said that records show that the city has reimbursed the volunteers more than $87,000 in restoration costs since March 2006.