Great review! We had the old Birney trolleys running in my town up until 1946. I lived in California and we had an Army Air Core base full of high speed, twin engine fighters to protect the west coast from the Japanese. The air base was 6 miles out of town and the airmen would use the trolleys to visit downtown on their days off, along with other people from the community. The operator would reverse the overhead trolley pole with a long wooden pole with a metal hook on the end. He would the unlock his coin box and carry it to the opposite end of the car and reverse the seats. Not all Birney trolleys had reversing seats, they were optional. The driver would simply flip the seats over to face the opposite directions. The seats were made from wood. The was a speed control and brake mechanism on both end of the cars. The air base was closed in 1946 and domestic automobiles were once again being produced, so the trolleys disappeared. No, I am not old enough to have ridden on these cars. I learned about them from the old timers in town when I was young.
Great review! We had the old Birney trolleys running in my town up until 1946. I lived in California and we had an Army Air Core base full of high speed, twin engine fighters to protect the west coast from the Japanese. The air base was 6 miles out of town and the airmen would use the trolleys to visit downtown on their days off, along with other people from the community. The operator would reverse the overhead trolley pole with a long wooden pole with a metal hook on the end. He would the unlock his coin box and carry it to the opposite end of the car and reverse the seats. Not all Birney trolleys had reversing seats, they were optional. The driver would simply flip the seats over to face the opposite directions. The seats were made from wood. The was a speed control and brake mechanism on both end of the cars. The air base was closed in 1946 and domestic automobiles were once again being produced, so the trolleys disappeared. No, I am not old enough to have ridden on these cars. I learned about them from the old timers in town when I was young.
Yes Iv watched the video on your channel!
This was such a brilliant design, did Lionel create this idea? Trick or Treat -Heath
As far as I know the moving trolley pole feature was a lionel exclusive.