San Francisco Cable Car Museum, Transportation museum in Nob Hill, San Francisco, US

The San Francisco Cable Car Museum is a transportation museum in Nob Hill that displays the mechanical components and historic vehicles of the city's famous cable cars. The collection includes original artifacts, technical drawings, and photographs that explain how this distinctive transportation system works.

The museum was established in 1974 and is run by the Friends of the Cable Car Museum. It occupies part of the complex that also houses the cable car power house, which drives the cables, and the car depot, or barn, which is not open to the public. Two galleries let visitors look down on the power house and descend below the junction of Washington and Mason streets to see the haulage cables routed over large sheaves.

The museum is run by the Friends of the Cable Car Museum, the volunteer group that has operated it since it opened in 1974. Its exhibits centre on the surviving cars: Sutter Street Railway grip car 46 and trailer 54 from the 1870s, and Clay Street Hill Railroad grip car 8, the only car left from the first cable car company. Across Mason Street stands the Betty Ann Ong Chinese Recreation Center.

The museum sits at 1201 Mason Street, across from the Betty Ann Ong Chinese Recreation Center. It opens at 10 a.m. and closes at 6 p.m. from April through September, at 5 p.m. from October through March, with some public holidays excluded. The main level has a wheelchair-accessible entrance of its own. The car depot itself is closed to visitors, but two galleries look down on the powerhouse and the cable cavern.

Below Washington and Mason streets, the haulage cables run through a large cavern and are routed out to the streets over big sheaves. Two galleries let visitors look down on this junction and on the powerhouse that drives the cables. The car barn itself is not open to the public.