Nostalgia ain't what it used to be..... - Page 3

Cyclefrance · 11-25-2005, 06:31 PM

Earliest memories - two to do with public transport: certainly travelling on trolley buses as a very young lad (check out the routes shown here - they were all around the area where we now live). They were normally-tyred buses but driven by electric motors which were powered from overhead cables - there used to be a problem in that the arm that ran from the bus roof to the cabling often came adrift and so the buses ground to a halt while they waited for a man with long pole to arrive and to push the arm back in place; then there were trams which were phased out before I was 5-years-old so only have a hazy memory of travelling on them (seem to remember a big solid wheel attached to the body at the back inside of the tram which you could turn but which seemed to do nothing - I've no idea even to this day what it was for!) - these again were powered by electricity from an overhead cable, but they ran on rails so had wheels like those on trains.

11-25-2005, 08:24 PM

Well, see, there's the Brits for you. We had to walk barefoot through six foot drifts and you guys got to take the tram. There's no justice in this world, I'm telling ya!

wolf · 11-26-2005, 12:35 AM

Philadelphia had both proper trolleys and trackless trolleys (what you call a trolley bus). They're trying to bring them back.

Cyclefrance · 11-27-2005, 05:56 PM

IF you thought times were hard - this is how we had to get our milk delivered when I was a lad - and, yes that is me standing there, although I'm a bit concerned even myself at the shorts my mother had clearly decided suited me!

Bread was delivered in the same manner, although I don't have a photo of that.

Coincidentally I did some work for a software house two years ago that had its offices in what used to be the old dairy distribution point where the horse pictured was stabled. Small world.

Another memory involves the lampost just to the rear of the cart. My father worked as a manager in a grocer's shop that was near enough by that he could come home the odd day for lunch. One day he was just out of the house and crossing the road, when My mother called to him to give some message or other. He turned his head round and kept walking, turning his head back a couple of seconds later only to have it smash into the lampost. I remember he had a pretty good headache after that and a nice black-eye which he always claimed to have been the responsibility of my mother!

xoxoxoBruce · 11-27-2005, 06:12 PM

It did have those new fangled pneumatic India rubber tires, though

11-25-2005, 06:31 PM	#31
Cyclefrance Pump my ride! Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Deep countryside of Surrey , England Posts: 1,890	Earliest memories - two to do with public transport: certainly travelling on trolley buses as a very young lad (check out the routes shown here - they were all around the area where we now live). They were normally-tyred buses but driven by electric motors which were powered from overhead cables - there used to be a problem in that the arm that ran from the bus roof to the cabling often came adrift and so the buses ground to a halt while they waited for a man with long pole to arrive and to push the arm back in place; then there were trams which were phased out before I was 5-years-old so only have a hazy memory of travelling on them (seem to remember a big solid wheel attached to the body at the back inside of the tram which you could turn but which seemed to do nothing - I've no idea even to this day what it was for!) - these again were powered by electricity from an overhead cable, but they ran on rails so had wheels like those on trains. __________________ Always sufficient hills - never sufficient gears Last edited by Cyclefrance; 11-25-2005 at 06:33 PM.

11-26-2005, 12:35 AM	#33
wolf lobber of scimitars Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Phila Burbs Posts: 20,774	Philadelphia had both proper trolleys and trackless trolleys (what you call a trolley bus). They're trying to bring them back. __________________ wolf eht htiw og "Conspiracies are the norm, not the exception." --G. Edward Griffin The Creature from Jekyll Island High Priestess of the Church of the Whale Penis

11-27-2005, 05:56 PM	#34
Cyclefrance Pump my ride! Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Deep countryside of Surrey , England Posts: 1,890	IF you thought times were hard - this is how we had to get our milk delivered when I was a lad - and, yes that is me standing there, although I'm a bit concerned even myself at the shorts my mother had clearly decided suited me! Bread was delivered in the same manner, although I don't have a photo of that. Coincidentally I did some work for a software house two years ago that had its offices in what used to be the old dairy distribution point where the horse pictured was stabled. Small world. Another memory involves the lampost just to the rear of the cart. My father worked as a manager in a grocer's shop that was near enough by that he could come home the odd day for lunch. One day he was just out of the house and crossing the road, when My mother called to him to give some message or other. He turned his head round and kept walking, turning his head back a couple of seconds later only to have it smash into the lampost. I remember he had a pretty good headache after that and a nice black-eye which he always claimed to have been the responsibility of my mother! Attached Images __________________ Always sufficient hills - never sufficient gears Last edited by Cyclefrance; 11-27-2005 at 05:59 PM.

11-27-2005, 06:12 PM	#35
xoxoxoBruce The future is unwritten Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 71,105	It did have those new fangled pneumatic India rubber tires, though __________________ The descent of man ~ Nixon, Friedman, Reagan, Trump.

11-25-2005, 08:24 PM	#32
marichiko Guest Posts: n/a	Well, see, there's the Brits for you. We had to walk barefoot through six foot drifts and you guys got to take the tram. There's no justice in this world, I'm telling ya!

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