Family friend's 1901 pic: NYC Hotel Bartholdi 20 passenger electric sightseeing bus

[RH77]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Ridden on the streetcar lots - used to live very close to the Queen Street line.

Great pics...

I took the streetcar in 2002 when I visited Toronto regularly for work (didn't rent a car -- transit is too good, the Rapid is pretty quick). I recall getting on the wrong one and got a bit lost I once gave Via Rail a try, over to Ottawa and walked. Ah, the good old days. Can't walk or take transit easily in the Midwest

I wonder if it's still possible to convert back to electric buses with the trolley lines. Too bad they discontinued them -- makes too much sense these days. As a kid in the Akron area, I used to use the bus all the time to get around. At the time, they had the largest route system for a city its size.

Hmmm - wonder if I could get a set of tethers to get the ForkenSwift on the Queen St line...

Not sure of the voltage, but you could probably outrun anyone that has a problem with it

RH77

[MetroMPG]

FYI, a New York Times blog has picked up this thread.

Word travels faster in the internet age than electric buses used to.

[Yaristock]

To bad they misspelled ecomodder

[MetroMPG]

Ben sent the writer a message on Friday partly to ask about correcting that. We'll see...

[basjoos]

I recall reading where some electric car drivers back in 1900 used to recharge their cars from the overhead trolley lines that were common back then when they were out on extended drives. Some electric car manufacturers included instructions and equipment for recharging their cars from a trolley line (a long bamboo pole, wire and hook for the overhead wire, another wire and contact to connect to a rail, recharge selector on the car set for trolley voltage, if a streetcar comes along, disconnect until after it passes).

[bennelson]

Recharging an electric car from a trolley line is a great idea. I had never heard of it before, but it makes sense.

Just imagine - way back when, there was INFRASTRUCTURE for remote charging!

Of course nowadays, there are electric outlets everywhere, but we still aren't designing right for electrics.

[bbjsw10]

That is a great find, I saved a copy of the pic. Green Car, that is great to see from way back when.

Tethers for the forkenswift, LOL. How about a big electo-magnet then you could do highways speeds just sneek up and attach it. You could just explain to the cops you were reducing their drag by using your car as a boat-tail.

[bennelson]

I just saw this same thing on AutoBlog Green. This one was in Toronto. I had to compare the two photos to make sure they weren't the same model.

Very similar vehicles from the same time period. This one was also used to ferry tourists about.

[jjackstone]

The following link(if it works) has info about the Green Car Sightseeing Co. in 1918. Apparently there was some accounting problems in the newly publicly traded company.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive...BE668383609EDE

JJ

[trikkonceptz]

Not to rain on the parade here, I know electric is cleaner and better for the enviroment, but at what point do we consider visual polution. That shot of the bus tethered to the grid makes that neighborhood look like a dump IMO.

It would be something to consider in the future now that someone has developed or rumored to have developed bluetooth charging for small devices like cell phones. Otherwise, I would not be happy with bringing back the ways of old.