Using a Trolley Car as a Moving Van

The Conestoga Traction Company, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, made the not-so-obvious leap of faith that a trolley car could be put into service hauling furniture etc. for people moving house. It helps if your trackage covers the locality pretty densely; otherwise, you'll spend all your time loading and offloading to horse-drawn wagons. The comment about the market for this common carrier being "from some point in the city to the country or vice versa" seems to me to imply a fatally limited for an already questionable project. Click for larger.

Originally published in the July, 1908 issue of POPULAR ELECTRICITY.

Electric Locomotive from 1888

Another piece from POPULAR ELECTRICITY, this early design was built in Wisconsin and put into operation between Ansonia and Derby, Connecticut. Read the text; it's quite interesting (you can click the image to make it larger).

 

Original magazine publication: May, 1909. I think it's remarkable that as early as 1909, there were exhibitions showing early equipment; that's over a hundred years ago.