On this and many interurbans are what seem to be parallel wooden strips above the end roof. Were these to deflect rain? Or used to provide purchase during maintenance?
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Roof mat for climbing on and for safe footing.
Nice picture of Illinois Traction System - Illinois Terminal class B motor 1564 at the Decatur, IL. shops complex.
Thanks. ☺
Bars on Roof.
View deck.
A place to drink above the street.
Roof protectors.
You see, trolley pole rope spools come in two flavors: Catchers and retrievers.
City cars have catchers; if the pole dewires, they keep the pole from popping all the way up.
High speed cars, on the other hand, have retrievers. If the pole dewires, it is promptly yanked down out of the way so that the pole doesn't hit a span wire at 70 mph. So, depending on the line, you'll have wood roof protectors to protect the canvas roof, or possibly metal guards like the Pacific Electric used:
Hope this helped!
Mitch
Wow. I never gave trolley poles much thought. I had no idea there are two types of pole systems, and I never gave a thought to what would happen if pole went off the wire at high speed. Mitch, thanks for the education.
Bobby Ogage posted:Wow. I never gave trolley poles much thought. I had no idea there are two types of pole systems, and I never gave a thought to what would happen if pole went off the wire at high speed. Mitch, thanks for the education.
My pleasure! 
Here are a couple more examples:
Note the guard on this trolleybus as well:
Incidentally, if you see a pic or model of an older interurban with a spare pole strapped to the roof, that means that line has a history of poles that pop up and get mangled on the span wire! It was the train crew's job to get on the roof and swap out the bent pole for a straight one so they could get back to the shop...
Mitch
Catchers and retrievers. A very interesting engineering aspect of trolley history! Thanx for the info. You prompted me to do a u.s. patent search on trolley poles and retrievers, and this turned out to be fascinating.
Tommy posted:Catchers and retrievers. A very interesting engineering aspect of trolley history! Thanx for the info. You prompted me to do a u.s. patent search on trolley poles and retrievers, and this turned out to be fascinating.
It's also interesting to see how various roads addressed the issue. For example, I just got in this pic of a Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines car at the Camden, NJ terminal!
Mitch
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My understanding of roof mats is a little different. On high speed operations the wheel or shoe could come off the pole and hit the roof so hard it would go through the roof. This was especially true of wheels, which could burn up the bearing, and get loose spinning with that additional momentum. A six inch wheel going sixty mph is turning really fast. Roof mats were also found on trailing cars, weather they had motors or not, to protect the roof from the wheel or shoe on the car ahead of it. It would also protect the car from any overhead line hardware that was knocked loose by a pole that was off the wire.
David Johnston posted:My understanding of roof mats is a little different. On high speed operations the wheel or shoe could come off the pole and hit the roof so hard it would go through the roof. This was especially true of wheels, which could burn up the bearing, and get loose spinning with that additional momentum. A six inch wheel going sixty mph is turning really fast. Roof mats were also found on trailing cars, weather they had motors or not, to protect the roof from the wheel or shoe on the car ahead of it. It would also protect the car from any overhead line hardware that was knocked loose by a pole that was off the wire.
Quite right; that aspect had slipped my mind. Thanks!
Mitch
I have to ask. What on earth does it mean to say: "It's crackers to give a rozzer the dropsy in snide?" ☺
I wondered about that, too, and figured out it means (approximately) "It's really stupid to bribe a cop using counterfeit bills." I was reading a novel this afternoon in which the author uses the word "snide" in this way (counterfeit), a usage I was unfamiliar with. It's a great phrase!
B Smith posted:I wondered about that, too, and figured out it means (approximately) "It's really stupid to bribe a cop using counterfeit bills." I was reading a novel this afternoon in which the author uses the word "snide" in this way (counterfeit), a usage I was unfamiliar with. It's a great phrase!
Quite right! It's taken from MAD Magazine back in the 1950s.
Mitch
