Eugenia Chien has been eavesdropping on the 47, 49, or 1 lines since the mid-90's. She lives by the adage, "Anything can happen on Muni" (and also, "That's not water.")

It’s a small world after all: Mini F-Market scene in incredible model railroad

Like a scene right out of Richard Scarry’s Busytown, this incredible railroad model perfectly captures the F-Market as it goes past the Castro Theater. Look closely and you’ll see details on the F car, including its overhead wire power lines. The model is built by Muni rider Harvey Simon, whose son, Dave, posted about it on Instagram. This is what Harvey had to say about his project:

I’ve been involved in the model railroading since my teenage years, and when Dave and his wife, Jennifer, settled in Oakland I decided to build a working model of the F-line. My layout is about 2/3 finished—the Castro and downtown San Francisco sections—with the unfinished area what will eventually become Fisherman’s Wharf.  

You’ll notice that the cars are models of the actual cars that serve passengers today on the F-line. I built the orange Milan, Italy car using parts I obtained from various suppliers, and was able to also include lights and sound in the car. Looking at the video, you’ll see how the car gets its power from the overhead wire, just like the real ones.  

The hobby is wonderful, and provides a very rewarding creative outlet. I can’t imagine not having something like this to keep me busy during my retirement years. Hopefully I’ll be able to continue with it the next several years, provided my eyesight holds out!

Harvey Simon

If you’re also a fellow model railroad fan, you can read more about it in Simon’s article in the July 2018 issue of Model Railroader magazine.  Thanks, Dave and Harvey, for pointing us to this delightful mini Muni world.

Our fall show is back next Saturday at Rickshaw Stop! Join us at Muni Diaries Live on Nov. 2 to celebrate (and commiserate) the strange and wonderful tales from our commute. Tickets are on sale now!

San Francisco Diaries: DJ Steve Fabus and the surprise farewell for disco legend Sylvester

DJ Steve Fabus has been called “one of the founding fathers of San Francisco’s gay disco scene,” and we were lucky enough to welcome him recently into our podcast studio. In today’s San Francisco Diaries episode, he shares a story many of us have heard or seen secondhand but was 100-percent real life for him. He moved to the city as a young gay man in the 1970s. At the time, he said he and his friends felt there was “power in numbers” as the gay movement gained momentum…to say nothing about “this amazing party going on,” he recalls.

Fabus has enjoyed a long career that spans from the disco era to today. He started DJing parties at his own flat, just around the block from Harvey Milk’s camera store. Harvey Milk, disco legend Sylvester, and other counterculture luminaries like Peter Berlin, the Fabulous Cockettes, and Pristine Condition became regulars at his events.

As Fabus found popularity and success spinning at venues like the Trocadero Transfer and I-Beam, the AIDS crisis also started to affect many people around him. In today’s episode, he describes the evening he found himself in the DJ booth providing the soundtrack to Sylvester’s farewell party.

Listen to his story:

Subscribe to the Muni Diaries podcast so you don’t miss an episode—and hear stories like these live on stage in just two weeks! Our live show is back on Nov. 2 at Rickshaw Stop. Tickets for Muni Diaries Live are on sale now.

Photo via Electric Soul

Newest sport banned on BART

On Instagram, rider @trasteverekev spotted the newest banned activity on BART: cross country skiing. I think we can agree that might be a bad idea on a moving vehicle. With no snow. Nice job hacking the sign, whoever this guerrilla graphic artist may be!

Previously we saw a hacked reserved seat sign on BART, and we applaud all such efforts! Click over this way for more creatively “improved” ads and signage that riders have submitted to us.

Got more important transit news? We want to hear all about it! Seize the day and add your commute story to Muni Diaries! Tag us on FacebookTwitterInstagram, or email us at muni.diaries.sf@gmail.com. Oh, and our live show is back on Nov. 2! Hear true and hilarious Muni tales (with or without cross country skiing). Tickets for Muni Diaries Live is on sale now.

The city gardener’s family shares the tale of the AIDS Memorial Grove

Before the area was named the AIDS Memorial Grove in the 1990’s, San Franciscans knew the wooded grove as DeLaveaga Dell. To Leef Smith, the area held special memories because his father was a city gardener who took care of the city’s parks. In today’s San Francisco Diaries podcast episode, Leef shares his childhood memories of growing up in San Francisco as the family of a city gardener, and how his childhood and this beautiful garden change when the AIDS crisis hit San Francisco.

Leef spent his childhood in DeLaveaga Dell playing with other children, wearing his mom’s homemade costumes and celebrating birthdays and other occasions there. As he was coming of age during a tumultuous in San Francisco, he recalls how a teacher came out to his class, and how DeLaveaga Dell became a symbol of the times to come.

Listen to Leef’s story here:

Leef kindly shared some of his childhood photos from De Laveaga Dell with us. Do you have stories of San Francisco during this time period? We want to know! Share your stories with us at muni.diarie.sf@gmail.com.

Want to hear more stories like this live? We are having two events this fall: a live podcast recording at the Betabrand Podcast Theater on Thursday, Oct. 3, and our Muni Diaries Live fall show at Rickshaw Stop on Saturday, Nov. 2. Tickets are on sale now!

Live podcast event! Muni Diaries presents: Hidden San Francisco

We uncovered thousands of Muni stories by exploring every nook and cranny—ew, not literally—of the commuter experience. Our next step is doing the same about the entire city. Those of you who’ve been following our podcast know this as our sister project, San Francisco Diaries, and it exists because we know that even after nearly 12 years of collecting stories, we’re just scratching the surface (also ew, not literally) of San Francisco living.

We’re returning to Betabrand Podcast Theater on Thursday, Oct. 3, for an evening dedicated to “hidden San Francisco” with two special guests who have walked 49 miles of our city.

Kristine Poggioli and coauthor Carolyn Eidson became the first people known to have walked San Francisco’s historic 49 Mile Scenic Drive—not in one day (like these crazy cats at the Chronicle!), over one year. They did it by dividing the route into 17 bite-sized walks. At our live podcast event, we’ll chat with them about what they’ve found on their walk, and invite you to share some of your hidden gems too. Tickets are only $5, so grab one today.

Betabrand Podcast Theater: Muni Diaries presents: Hidden San Francisco

With special guests Kristine Poggioli and Carolyn Eidson

Thursday, Oct. 3, 2019

Doors: 6:30 p.m., Show 7 p.m.

Tickets $5

Betabrand

780 Valencia Street (between 18th and 19th Streets)

Take Muni there: 12, 14, 22, 33, 47, 49. Or take BART: 16th Street Station.

Photo by @walkSF49

Video: Dress(er) to impress on Muni

When you see something you really want on Craigslist but you don’t have a moving truck, do you look at your Clipper Card and think, I can do this? We know at least one person did, and we have the footage to prove it. Rider @captum.cdxv tipped us off to this video of an ambitious mover who somehow hauled a giant dresser on this Muni train. Things went a bit dicey when he tried to exit at Civic Center station, though.

The dresser was so tall that it was stuck at the train door. Apparently, for 20 to 30 minutes, more and more SFMTA station agents arrived to figure out what to do. Presumably somebody finally yelled, “Pivot!” and the dresser was out the door at last.

We’ve seen some large and interesting cargo on Muni like this giant bubble wrap and a mattress, even. But this dresser takes the cake in size and awkwardness. Thanks again, @captum.cdxv, for this latest addition to the Strange Cargo report!

Did you know Muni Diaries is also a podcast? We are doing a live recording of our podcast next Thursday, Oct. 3, at the Betabrand Podcast Theater! The theme is “Hidden San Francisco,” and our special guests, Carolyn Eidson and Kristine Poggioli, are the first known people to have walked San Francisco’s scenic 49 Miles route. Tickets are only $5 and comes with free wine. See you there!

If you have other important rider news to report, we want to hear all about it! Seize the day and add your commute story to Muni Diaries! Tag us on FacebookTwitterInstagram, or email us at muni.diaries.sf@gmail.com.

1 5 6 7 8 9 303