1950 St Louis Car Company 48 Pax Trolleybus
In a post several months ago we mentioned how Marmon-Herrington dominated the trolleybus market in the post-war period in North America. But the manufacturers in that market prior to the war were still around and provided another option for transit operators – let’s look at these three.
1950 GM TDH 4509 Trolleybus. Photo courtesy Motor Bus Society.
But first we should mention that General Motors did dabble in trolleybuses with its Old Look design, though only fifty-three were built. In the early 1940s, two operators requested then Yellow Coach (later acquired by GM in 1943) for a dual-engined bus to run both on and off its electric wire grid. GM took a regular urban transit bus, and added an electric motor and overhead poles. This wasn’t a hybrid design where the diesel ran a generator that powered the electric motor – it was two separate power modules. A pneumatic clutch was used to switch from one system to the other. However there were no follow-up orders. Then in 1950, New Jersey Transit requested a similar model – GM took a TDH 4509 bus and added electric-drive components – it operated like the earlier models; on one engine or the other. After a series of comprehensive tests, New Jersey Transit concluded maintenance costs would be prohibitive. No other orders were received, and as GM was selling every gas and diesel coach it could make, it focused solely on the ICE market.
J.G./ACF-Brill
America’s oldest and longest-operating manufacturer of trolleys, streetcars, buses, interurbans, and railroad cars opened its doors in 1868 – first making horse-drawn carts. By the early 1920’s, it was the largest rail-car manufacturer in the US. As the Depression and increased popularity of ICE-engined buses took its toll on their streetcar business, the company introduced an urban transit coach in the mid-1930’s – in both ICE and electric-trolley form.
1937 Brill T40s in Chicago. Photo courtesy of The Trolley Dodger.
1950 ACF-Brill T46 in Los Angeles.
Vancouver 1954 CCF-Brill T48 restored and owned by the Transit Museum Society of British Columbia. They also have a restored 1947 CCF-Brill T44.
Brill had a hard time competing with GM’s diesel models and M-H’s trolleybuses – and ended production in 1954. Canadian Car and Foundry (CCF) remained in operation until 1962.
Pullman-Standard
Mention Pullman and most folks will think of the company’s opulent passenger railroad cars. Indeed, like Brill, Pullman was a major manufacturer of railroad rolling stock. Its lightweight aluminum passenger railcars were so successful that the Justice Dept filed an antitrust suit in 1944 – which it won and the company was subsequently split. Pullman introduced its first trolleybus in 1931.
1944 Pullman 44CX preserved by Seattle Metro Employees Heritage Vehicle Association.
1948 Pullman in Boston.
1952 Pullman built for Valparaiso Chile still operating in 2014.
By 1952 sales had decreased and the bus division was closed. The last buses built were for Valparaiso Chile – where fifteen remained in service until 2015 – and the last one retired in 2023.
St Louis Car Company
Another major producer of railway vehicles, at one point during the period between 1936 and 1952, SLCC held the title of the largest manufacturer of Presidential Conference Committee (PCC) cars in the US, with 75% of the market and over 3400 leaving the factory. It started building trolleybuses earlier than the other manufacturers, in 1921.
1939 SLCC trolleybus climbing Union Hill in San Francisco.
1950 SLCC trolleybus in Detroit. Photo courtesy Detroit Transit History.
1951 SLCC trolleybuses lined up at the yard in New Orleans.
SLCC quit the trolleybus business in 1952. It remained in operation building subway cars and trams until 1968 and was officially closed in 1974.
From outside, it looks like the passenger side front windshield would present a massive blindspot, curved off like that in the corner.
When I was a bus driver, I would open the front door for better visibility on some intersections with a stop sign. Others did that too. Solves the problem easily.
Why is the window shaped like that anywy – is that where the entry door open/ closer mechanism resides?
It would intrude on the passenger entry way. Here’s a picture of the driver’s side, that doesn’t have that angle to it. Imagine that in the open entry way; folks could easily bump against it. So it’s angled to minimize that impact.
That Chilean city’s run with the Pullmans is truly remarkable!
I can still hear the hum of the Graf und Stift trolley buses in Innsbruck when I was a little kid. I was very fascinated by them, especially when the driver had to get out and put the pickup arm back in its groove if it had popped out.
Having driven 40′ old style GM buses, I have muscle memory of how hard the steering was in a slow, tight turn. I feel for these drivers in crowded cities that did this for years and decades.
Regarding GM’s D900, the company that bought it was Public Service Coordinated Transport. It was bought with the idea of having a fleet of them for use in the Newark City Subway, where they would have used the overhead wires. There were some teething pains, but the main stumbling point was a political one, not a vehicle issue. D900 would have its electrical propulsion system removed, and ran for Public Service until 1967, primarily in Hudson County. New Jersey Transit was the public entity that took over Transport of New Jersey (a 1971 rebranding of Public Service) and its subsidiary Maplewood Equipment Co in 1980-that was created to take over three operations that had been owned by Theodore H. (Teddy) Richmond, who, through financial shenanigans, had gone bankrupt by August, 1967.
It is always interesting to see a piece about trolley busses. Here in Vancouver, British Columbia, we never stopped using them. The electric wires are not an eyesore as some say. I think they make Vancouver look unique.
Said electric wires promptly end at the Burnaby border.
I often wonder when Vancouver will do away with trolley buses. Mainly because in Edmonton years ago they complained about the cost of maintaining the overhead wires.
Calgary Transit did away with their trolleys years before Edmonton.
Vancouver just recently signed a contract to receive new trolleybuses, built in Poland by Solaris Bus & Coach. All told, including options they could receive up to 405 buses, replacing all 262 of the older New Flyer units.
https://buzzer.translink.ca/2025/03/coming-soon-the-first-of-metro-vancouvers-next-generation-trolley-buses/