Slide of the Month - Cable Car

February 2020

Time to make: 2 hours

Boys Life "Slide of the Month"

September 1972 page 50

Original design: Unkown






Cable cars are a fascinating mode of transportation and, even though I never have ridden one, it must be exciting for first-time riders. You can find more information on cable cars here.  The information I found on this particular cable car is from the Cable Car Museum.

"Built by the Carter Bros. of Newark, California during 1893-1894 for the Market Street Railway's Sacramento-Clay cable car line. The United Railroads transferred it to the Powell Street cable car lines in 1907, after the Earthquake and Fire of 1906. Until 1973, numbered as No. 510. Extensive rebuilding, by Muni's Elkton shops 1960."

I took a different path to this slide deciding to carve the cable car and glue the details onto the slide instead of gluing the wood to the photo.  So my first step was to Google a suitable picture if a cable car and then I printed several copies onto a piece of photo printer paper.  Next, I took one of the copies and glued it to a piece of maple so I could cut out the outline of the cable car on a band saw. Also, using the photo I began to cut out the details from the cowcatcher to the roof. When I was finished, I painted the cable car with craft paints. The handrails are made from paper clips which were glued to the cable car. I then cut out, from the other printed copy, the scenes in the windows and the sign below the windows and glued them in place. A couple of coats of poly finish it up.