Christmas tram

YES! PCC! Very nice, must show DH tomorrow!

It takes so little to make me happy :-)

I'm glad you like it! Did you see the turntable videos (a few posts back)?

Just did. Can't quite make it out - is that a cable car turnstile, or is it a trolley? We have one of those at the Museum in the shop for turning single-ended cars, like this one is. And yes, it's done by hand. Given the style I'm assuming trolley - as I wouldn't think a cable car would need turning, but I could be wrong. Next time I'm up the Museum I'll have to get some more photos for you - we have an ancient cable car in the collection :-)

You will have to educate me on the difference between trolley and cable car. They have completely different meanings in Europe. If you mean a small, open-sided tram with a single bench seat down each side when you write trolley, then that is what they were turning. I'll amend the tags once I know what you think :)

It's simple - a cable car is operated by way of clamping onto a cable under the street which pulls it along - not many cities ever had them, and San Fran is the only one that still does. You'll know it's a cable car if there is a groove in the street between the tracks - that's where the clamping arm goes. The system was invented for San Fran due to the extreme hills - an ordinary streetcar could not pull the kind of power on it's own to climb those hills! A trolley is an electrically operated car which gets it's power from a power cable above it, which it gets through a pole with a wheel or carboon shoe (which is the "trolley" that the name comes from) that rides along the wire.

The trolley you have there (see the single pole on the top) is what is called a PCC car. A bit of googling reveals this page which talks about San Fran's historic PCC cars:

www.streetcar.org/mim/streetcars/faq/index.html

That's wonderful! Thanks for taking the trouble to give such a comprehensive explanation :) So, the above is a trolley car or trolley (in the UK, trolley means "shopping cart") and the videos are of a cable car (which over here is something that hangs from an overhead cable and is generally found in mountain areas). There is a groove in the street, between the cable car rails, from which a strange noise emanates. I now understand that that is the sound of the cable being fed through :D

Et voila - the info on your specific car there:

www.streetcar.org/mim/streetcars/fleet/pcc/1060/index.html

Beautiful car. Here is another example of a PCC from Philidelphia, this one is in a post-WWII livery and we have her at the Museum:

www.trolleymuseum.org/collection/nation/2709.html

Thanks again! I'll try and post a picture of one of the Milan trolley cars before I go tomorrow :)