CA: ‘It’s a nostalgic thing’: San Diego’s vintage trolley is a trip back in time for commuters and train buffs alike

Samson Osburn was on his way back from the San Diego waterfront with his two children on a Sunday in 2019 when he spotted the familiar red outline of a trolley at the 12th and Imperial transit station.

But it wasn’t a typical trolley. It was the 1001 U2 model, the very first trolley that ran in San Diego when the service began in 1981 — a model that is now part of the Metropolitan Transit System’s Silver Line fleet.

He immediately encouraged his kids to hop aboard to circuit the Silver Line’s downtown loop, which gives visitors the chance to ride antique vehicle models from the 1940s and early 80s.

For Osburn, 52, the experience was like a trip back in time, transporting him to his youth in the late 1980s when he rode the trolley as part of his commute from school in La Mesa to his home in

Jamul. It was a long trek, but Osburn remembers the feeling of independence it brought him to ride the trolley by himself.

“I thought it was incredible,” he said of his 2019 experience, recalling the sounds and smells of the trolley when he was a teen. “It brought back a lot of memories.”

Osburn returned home after riding the vintage trolley and started a Facebook group dedicated to celebrating MTS’s antique models — a group that now has over 350 members.

Today, riders can still take a spin on the Silver Line’s vintage trolleys, which run on select holidays throughout the year. The next one runs on Memorial Day on May 25.

The Silver Line completes a loop around downtown, including the Gaslamp Quarter, all while riders get to take in the history of the vehicles — from the original square shape of the 1001 U2 to the classic kelly green and white exterior of the Presidents Conference Committee streetcars built in the 1940s.

“It’s a nostalgic thing for people that grew up riding these kinds of vehicles,” said Brian Riley, chief operating officer of the MTS rail division. “They really enjoy seeing them out there, because now our vehicles are so different.”

Silver Line service began in 2011 and has three vehicles in its fleet: the PCC Streetcars 529 and 530 and the 1001 U2 trolley. MTS began restoring the streetcars nearly two decades ago — an effort pushed forward by former City Councilmember Harry Mathis.

It took years to refurbish the streetcars, one of which had been sitting on a collector’s property near Lake Tahoe until a San Diego nonprofit subsidiary of MTS acquired it in 2005 for restoration.

The streetcars themselves weren’t used in San Diego — one originally operated in San Francisco, the other in New Jersey — though San Diego did have its own streetcars from 1886 to 1949.

But the 1001 U2 trolley is at home in San Diego.

“It’s important for us to hang on to this historical vintage vehicle that we have the pleasure and the opportunity to rebuild and maintain the way the vehicle was originally developed to operate,” Riley said.

For the MTS employees who operated the trolley in the 1980s, it was an exciting time. San Diego’s trolley is considered the first modern American light-rail system, and the early days saw huge crowds of people ready to ride.

“It was cutting-edge,” said Jim Lundquist, 71, a 13-year operator at MTS who operated the trolley in 1981 and is now the director of museum services for the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum in Campo. “It was trying to do something that hadn’t been done in decades.”

Marilyn Cooper, 79, was a trolley operator from 1989 to 2006. MTS had a smaller staff then that felt like family — Cooper met her husband through the job — but the work was demanding at times. Operators had to manually throw switches and help load wheelchairs, since the old models only had stairs.

Some of San Diego’s other former trolleys have now been decommissioned and sent to museums — and one was given to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which uses it for training, Riley says.

More still have been donated to Mendoza, Argentina, as part of a partnership between the two cities in an effort to help expand access to public transportation.

Another vintage trolley car — the 1050 U2 — is set to be given to the local Karl Strauss brewery, which makes a Red Trolley Ale, for an upcoming location in Santee.

The vehicles in the Silver Line’s fleet are taken out on 10 holidays a year from the 12th and Imperial Station, where they depart every hour, though not all cars are used equally.

The U2 operated on two recent holidays — Presidents Day and St. Patrick’s Day — and one of the PCC streetcars was recently in the shop for maintenance.

About 1,000 riders take the Silver Line each year, according to MTS officials, and the trolleys’ maintenance budget is wrapped up in the department’s $135 million rail operations expenses.

Some riders, like Point Loma resident Vincent Ghio, 23, say the Silver Line is something to look forward to.

“Every time the Silver Line is running, if I’m free, I always try and go to downtown and ride it,” said Ghio in a text message.

Ghio has loved trains and airplanes since he was a kid, and he appreciates the vintage trolley because it makes the historical models more accessible than a museum would. It’s fun to see both rail enthusiasts and everyday commuters experience the Silver Line, too.

He’s ridden the PCC streetcars and recently hopped aboard the 1001 U2 trolley when it was operating on Presidents Day — a bucket list experience, he says.

For riders like Ghio and Osburn, the classic features of the antique trolleys are a big part of the appeal.

The Silver Line cars have been updated to include modern enhancements, such as wheelchair lifts, LED lighting and public address systems so operators can communicate with riders. But most of the original elements have been restored, including the interior and exterior paint colors, window functions, gear shifts and brake lights.

“It just has a really old look,” Osburn said. “It looks like it doesn’t belong on a modern street at all.”

Today, MTS maintenance crews and operators selected to work on the vintage cars are required to take two extra weeks of training on top of a 12-week course. Riley says only about five people are trained to operate the vintage trolley, since it runs so infrequently.

The older models are a different beast from today’s. The PCC streetcars have foot brakes and accelerators, while today’s light rail trains have hand controls. Past models require more mechanical technology, and today’s are all electronic.

Some of those features provide a fun challenge for current staff.

“I definitely like to problem-solve,” said James Cregg, MTS’s manager of light rail vehicle maintenance. “I think a lot of people in my department — that’s kind of our thing.”

MTS mechanic Edward Perry says working on the cars can feel like “a time capsule,” especially since all the mechanical information is printed out instead of online.

For many rail enthusiasts, the nostalgia of the old transit vehicles is just that — a trip down memory lane.

But others see past modes of transportation as part of San Diego’s future.

The community planning group Vibrant Uptown, which advocates for neighborhoods including Hillcrest, Bankers Hill and North Park, is pushing to bring streetcars back to San Diego. The group sees it as a way to better connect its communities, especially as the costs of gas and parking rise.

“We need to figure out a way to get people around, and you can move people faster with a streetcar,” said Vibrant Uptown’s co-founder Gail Friedt.

The sentimental pull of a vintage streetcar doesn’t hurt either.

“What’s old is new again,” Friedt said. “There’s a different flair … and I think people have nostalgia about that.”

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