This is a 1960s street car {being followed by a new fangled "bus"}using over head electrical wires and tracks in Pittsburgh.
The Boston area had electric buses that ran off an overhead catenary.
No stinkin’ batteries involved.
Atlanta did, as well, until the Civil Rights movement destroyed it. The last electric buses ran in 1963.
“Within two years, [Frank J.] Sprague had contracts to construct 113 street rail systems, and the within a decade horse-drawn streetcars had virtually disappeared from America’s cities, replaced by an estimated 13,000 miles of urban streetcar tracks.”
https://www.nndb.com/people/904/000173385/
“In addition to revolutionizing urban rail systems, Sprague made key improvements to elevator technology.”
“The Boston area had electric buses that ran off an overhead catenary.”
Detroit had the same thing when I was growing up until they were replaced by Diesel buses. Most of the downtown area was cris-crossed with overhead wires. Each bus had a frame on top that connected to the wires. No batteries required.
Fully electric vehicles are stupid. Hybrids make a lot more sense because they can charge as they go and don’t require an unreliable, expensive power grid to charge them.
ETB networks in Edmonton (AB) and Toronto (ON) were liquidated some years ago and replaced with diesel buses.
There are still trolleybus routes in both Boston and Philadelphia.
Not very far removed from trolley cars?
Chicago had those also up to the 1960’s. Wow, the overhead wiring was ugly and dilapidated. Electrical cables taped up with balls of tape as big as your fist. I remember my grandfather and I were helping the bus driver keeping the “brushes” at the back of the bus on the overhead wires as we went along. What would OSHA think about that today???
This is a 1960s street car {being followed by a new fangled "bus"}using over head electrical wires and tracks in Pittsburgh.