California car (streetcar)

This San Francisco cable car illustrates the typical California car arrangement of an enclosed central seating compartment with open seating on either end of the car.

Manchester Corporation Tramways 765

San Francisco electric streetcar 578

A California car, also known as a combination car, is a type of single-deck tramcar or streetcar including both enclosed seating compartments and roofed seating areas without sides. These cars were popular in California's mild Mediterranean climate offering passengers a choice of shaded outdoor seating during hot weather, or more protected seating during cool or rainy weather. They were also used in other climates to provide separate outdoor smoking and enclosed non-smoking areas. Some very early motor buses also used the combination car design.^[1][2][3]

California cars are still operational on the San Francisco cable car system. Both the single-ended cars on the Powell–Hyde and Powell–Mason lines, and the double-ended cars on the California Street line, are of this type. The single-ended cars have a single open section at the front of the car, with a closed compartment at the rear, whilst the double-ended cars have a central closed compartment flanked by open areas.^[4]

Several California cars are now preserved and/or used on heritage operations. These include:

• Los Angeles Railway 521, an electric streetcar now preserved by the Seashore Trolley Museum^[1]
• Manchester Corporation Tramways 765, an electric tram now preserved and operated on its home city's Heaton Park Tramway^[3]
• San Francisco Muni 578, an electric streetcar of similar design to that city's cable cars, now preserved by the Market Street Railway and occasionally operated^[5]

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