About the Author

Authors and San Francisco Market Street Railway members Walter Vielbaum, Robert Townley, Walter Rice, Emiliano Echeverria, and Don Holmgren present here a fantastic collection of images and ephemera to tell the San Mateo Interurban's story. Stops along the way include details about the line's richly appointed cars, the rebuilding after the 1906 quake, the "funeral cars" that ferried entire wakes to cemeteries in Colma, the introduction and demise of the gigantic "Big Sub" cars, the competition with the greyhound bus line, and the line's eventual abandonment due to the rising popularity of automobiles. It's a fun ride, and a tale of adversity, ingenuity, and creative financing that resulted in San Francisco's first trolley line to the outlying suburbs.