Geary Street, Park and Ocean Railway
The Geary Street, Park and Ocean Railway commenced operation on 16 February 1880 as a Russian gauge tram pulled by steam dummy locomotives. The route soon proved quite popular. The line was purchased by the Market Street Railway in 1887.
Baldwin Locomotive Works built four 0-4-0 tank locomotives for the line. Numbers 1 and 3 had vertical boilers while numbers 2 and 4 had more conventional horizontal boilers. The two locomotives with horizontal boilers were sold to redwood logging railroads when line was converted to cable car operation on 7 August 1892. Locomotive #2 became #6 for Hobbs, Wall & Company of Crescent City, California; and #4 was sent to the Glen Blair Redwood Company on the California Western Railroad.
In 1912, the city declined to renew the franchise and instead took over operation of the Geary Street railway. The line was converted into an electric streetcar line, forming the first element of the San Francisco Municipal Railway that was to come to be synonymous with transit in that city. Muni replaced the street cars with motor coaches in 1956. Today, the bus routes that serve the Geary corridor are the most heavily used in San Francisco.
