The museum houses a variety of mechanical devices like grips, track, cable, brake mechanisms, tools, detailed models, and a host of historic photographs. The museum store features many cable car memorabilia, books, clothing, cards and even cable car bells. Historic background information gives the visitor a glimpse into the cable cars' hoary past.

Visitors will have the rare opportunity to see the actual cable winding machinery from a raised gallery. They can also view the path of the cable getting into the building and exiting underneath the street- from the sheave room viewing area. The museum houses three antique cable cars- a Sutter street dummy and trailer, and the first cable car (1873). You can see various mechanical devices, such as grips, track, trucks, and cable along with break mechanisms.

The reason why tourists are enamored of San Francisco's surviving cables cars is because of the antique nature of the cars as also the curious method by which they run along the hills and grades of the City. You can also witness a short video presentation that shows how cable cars are able go around the corners, cross other tracks and excite people while moving at an incredible speed of 9 MPH.

Research studies suggest that nothing has changed since the manner the first cable car ran in Victorian San Francisco> during the late 19th century. Each of the cable car line originally had its own powerhouse and the earliest power sources were steam engines powered by massive quantities of coal and each powerhouse was equipped with boilers to heat the water to generate steam.

You will surely lose yourself and become part of the machine when you are inside - hearing the sounds of the sheaves and viewing the underground area of the cable structure. The museum occupies a pride of place in the list of most sought-after tourist attractions of San Francisco region. This is because it is the only operating cable car system in the world. Cable Car Barn & Powerhouse is located at 1201 Mason Street San Francisco, CA 94108 (corner of Mason and Washington Streets).

The museum occupies the bottom two floors of the Cable Cars' Barn and Powerhouse and is open to free public viewing from 10.00 hours to 18.00 hours during April to September and 10 hours to 17.00 hours during October to March of any calendar year. For cable car rides, you can purchase tickets and one-day cable car passes directly from the conductors of cable cars.