Chicago’s trolley bus system, for the 43 years it lasted, provided vital transportation through the streets of the city. Even though it mainly served the Northwest Side with a few lines on the Near South Side, it had the largest fleet of trolley buses in the country. And even though

The Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Co. served Milwaukee residents’ transit needs well, operating electric interurban lines to outlying towns and streetcars and motor buses in the city. Starting in 1936, they began replacing some streetcar routes with trolley buses, which they called “trackless trolleys” as in many Northeastern cities.

Few manufacturers worked as hard to improve bus technology and increase buses’ role in public transit as Fageol-Twin Coach, from Kent, Ohio. This company, begun by brothers Frank and William Fageol, had built their groundbreaking Model 40 bus, capable of carrying a quantity of passengers previously thought only a streetcar

M&ST 350 is an electric trolley bus built by Pullman-Standard at its plant in Worcester, Massachusetts. It is typical of hundreds of Pullman-built trolley buses used in many large cities in the United States. Builder: Pullman-Standard Year Built: 1947 Model: 44CX Seats: 44 Length: 38ft Width: 8ft 6in Height: 10ft

Trolley buses in Dayton, Ohio, have a long and rather unusual history. One of six private streetcar companies in the city, the Dayton Street Railway Co., suffered a car barn fire in 1932 that destroyed most of its fleet. It borrowed cars from other companies to get by, but falling

The Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Co. served Milwaukee residents’ transit needs well, operating electric interurban lines to outlying towns and streetcars and motor buses in the city. Starting in 1936, they began replacing some streetcar routes with trolley buses, which they called “trackless trolleys” as in many Northeastern cities.

The start of the Great Depression came at a particularly bad time for Indianapolis Railways: it needed to make some large expenditures soon to replace worn-out streetcar tracks, and decreased ridership caused by the poor economic conditions limited their revenue. In 1932, following other cities’ lead, they chose to convert

Few cities tested the ability of trolley buses to handle steep hills more than San Francisco. Considering the abnormally short lifespan of engines and transmissions in motor buses there, the city has retained trolley buses, and has the largest fleet in North America. Although service began on one line in

San Francisco’s cable cars (streetcars pulled by a constantly moving cable beneath the street) are legendary. But hilly Seattle also had a cable car system, and was the last American city to abandon their use, in 1940. Recognizing the trolley bus’s ability to climb hills easily, it was chosen as

Trolley bus 874 started its life far from Cleveland, in New England. Pullman-Standard, Chicago’s huge railcar builder, had purchased a plant in Worcester, Massachusetts, and built trolley buses there. This bus was built there as number 1418 for United Electric Railways in Providence, Rhode Island. After only a few years,