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Dave Valstad,
Carpenter
I was raised in the city. When I got a chance to build cable cars, I jumped on it. This is my second car. I like doing the wood work; some guys like working with metal. We just got John, who used to work for a stair company. He loves making the pieces. If I show him a piece on the prints, he will make it up to spec. There’s a lot of team work. With all the rain in San Francisco, these cars need to be built more like boats. I convinced them to thoroughly seal all sides of the wood. You really have to battle against the elements. We also work on the vintage street cars. We just rebuilt Street Car 28, which was pretty exciting for me, because my grandfather was a streetcar driver. The other day, I went and rode Car 28 with my grandchildren. This is one of the best union carpenter jobs in the US.
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