.Best Place for Fans of Outmoded Transportation to One-Up San Francisco

Ardenwood Historic Farm

Okay, so the trains at Ardenwood Farm don’t deliver the near-vertical
plunges or white-knuckle brake lurches of San Francisco’s cable cars,
and you’re not going to be able to fantasize about starring in a
Rice-A-Roni commercial when you get home, but if you like a little
19th-century charm in your train trip, check out the trains at
Ardenwood. The open-air wooden cars are replicas of what used to be a
branch of the South Pacific Coast Railroad. They’re powered by a
pre-steam-engine, pre-cable-car technology: a big, strong horse. The
ten-minute trip through the vegetable gardens, toward the granary and
the working blacksmith’s shop, is not really faster than walking, but
you get to pet the horse and you get a firsthand view into the 1870s,
when rural branch lines without the funds for a steam engine were
pulled by horse. (So were some of San Francisco’s cars!) This railway
does have an engine, and the horse doesn’t work every day, so call in
advance for the schedule.

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