They should have stuck with trolleys!

[rangerrebew]

They should have stuck with trolleys!
March 10th, 2024

Not long after electrical power was first harnessed, trolley cars began carrying passengers, getting their electric power from overhead wires. The trolley’s pantograph makes contact with the electrified wire to send power to the motor that turns its wheels.

By the 1920s, 17,000 miles of wire-linked electric streetcar lines ran through American cities. Today, the noble trolley is largely a curious memento of a bygone era – before automobiles and big, mobile buses began crowding urban streets.

In the interim, once-profitable trolleys were absorbed by conglomerates, and local governments began dictating trolley routes, fares, and times of service. Many eschewed the wisdom of dedicated routes and let trolleys get bogged down by traffic. Diesel-powered buses soon became the favored mode of public transport, all too often requiring growing subsidies to remain afloat.

https://www.cfact.org/2024/03/10/they-should-have-stuck-with-trolleys/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=they-should-have-stuck-with-trolleys&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=they-should-have-stuck-with-trolleys

[Smokin Joe]

I remember the trolley cars in Washington, D.C.

I reckon that makes me an old fart...

[Fishrrman]

Currently re-reading my copy of "Trolley Car Treasury", by Frank Rowsome, published 'way back around 1957.

One of my favorite books of all time, I've reread it several times, and never bored with it.
My highest recommendation to other forum members.

You can find it here cheap:
https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/title/trolley-car-treasury/

[mountaineer]

I rode the trolley for years to get from our suburb to downtown Pittsburgh for piano lessons (by myself - imagine a parent letting that happen today). Loved it.

It may have been this one:

[Cyber Liberty]

The only "Trolley" I ever rode was a cable car in San Francisco.  Had to do it once.  All the rest are gone.

[the OlLine Rebel]

Oh boy, multiple things to say on this.

My mother just died and, RIP, she loved her Baltimore “streetcars”.

First off, streetcars actually already started with horses.

General Motors had a lot to do with screwing the trolley culture.  They wanted more business for their ICE model.

Regardless of power source, I would love to have trolleys back.  You see where the trolley will be, so you can stay out of the way.  And the trolley has to stay on that path, so it isn’t going to foul up traffic by going where driver wishes to squeeze in.

Still living near and driving through my mother’s formative neighborhoods, I still see where tracks break thru the pavement and we pass 1 trolley circle every day, and another circle down a few miles which was opposite the funeral home where we honored her.  They still exist and are used as bus(yikes) stops and turn-arounds.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

I lived in Boston from 2004 to 2009, and rode the Green Line regularly, it was basically a trolley. It was ok I guess, a bus on rails really. I think people just find them quaint, like much of society today. But I get the appeal.

[GtHawk]

I remember the trolley cars in Washington, D.C.

I reckon that makes me an old fart...

I remember riding them in Huntington Park, Ca. with my mom, it was the destination for shopping in the day....now it's just another POS ghetto

[Smokin Joe]

I remember riding them in Huntington Park, Ca. with my mom, it was the destination for shopping in the day....now it's just another POS ghetto

Yeah, we quit going up to DC for school shopping, which was a real event when we were little. About the time my elderly cousins moved out and went to Arizona and California in the 60s, the  trolleys stopped, and the store people just got nasty (mid 60s, a good time for my cousins to get out, and I 'get' why--no place for genteel elderly white women about then) 

After that we just drove down to Fredericksburg, where folks were friendlier and the selection just as good.

Wow. Long ago and far away. Never rode the trolleys in DC, that I can remember.

[GtHawk]

Yeah, we quit going up to DC for school shopping, which was a real event when we were little. About the time my elderly cousins moved out and went to Arizona and California in the 60s, the  trolleys stopped, and the store people just got nasty (mid 60s, a good time for my cousins to get out, and I 'get' why--no place for genteel elderly white women about then) 

After that we just drove down to Fredericksburg, where folks were friendlier and the selection just as good.

Wow. Long ago and far away. Never rode the trolleys in DC, that I can remember.

Pacific Red Car was pulled out the memory hole for a Disney movie, which has dropped into a memory hole...

[Smokin Joe]

The DC ones and a bunch of others from all over are preserved, some in working order, here:https://www.dctrolley.org/



My brother has probably ridden behind half (or more) of the working steam engines in the US, and he is how I know this place exists.

[the OlLine Rebel]

The DC ones and a bunch of others from all over are preserved, some in working order, here:https://www.dctrolley.org/



My brother has probably ridden behind half (or more) of the working steam engines in the US, and he is how I know this place exists.

Been there.  In limo-liberal Monty Co.  Also the Baltimore Streetcar Museum.  My mother made a giant donation to BSM last time we took her there for her birthday or Mother’s Day (within 1 week, hard to distinguish which).  They loved her.

[GtHawk]

The DC ones and a bunch of others from all over are preserved, some in working order, here:https://www.dctrolley.org/



My brother has probably ridden behind half (or more) of the working steam engines in the US, and he is how I know this place exists.

That's cool, there are a few old Red Cars around but they are just parked for viewing.

[mountaineer]

There's a trolley museum near me and I really need to visit someday! After all those years riding the old model of car (the photo I posted above) and the 1990s iteration (the big boxy subway car), I'm kind of an old hand at trolley travel.