This post offers a bit of whimsy for those who may enjoy such… the Americana at Brand and Grove malls in Glendale and Los Angeles each have a trolley system running within the mall. While they are built to look a bit Disney-like, they would qualify for real streetcars, as the Grove’s car was built on the frame of a Boston PCC and American’s was built by Gamoco.
Here’s the Americana at Brand trolley passing through the one pocket of sun that I could find. (As an aside, if the guards here catch on that you are photographing the trolley, and not shooting family pics, they will through you out - so bringing along the family is a good idea).
One might wonder how many of the riders realize that at one time such vehicles were a staple of urban transportation, not just a novel way to get around the mall…
The brickwork between and adjoining the rails of the Grove’s trolley is common enough - but are those really boards or planks between the flanges of the girder rails of the Americana’s trolley track ? With asphalt outside, that’s an unusual arrangement.
And your caption for the Grove’s trolley says that it is inductively powered. Are the induction wires not continuous for the entire length of its route ? Is that to recharge the batteries for just over the gaps, or is it fundamentally a battery system that happens to be recharged inductively ?
Both operations are a trolley without the ‘trolley’ itself, so to speak . . .
Those are wood planks at Americana… yes. And it’s the only time I have ever seen that.
As far as the battery and inductive powering, I am not clear how that works myself. I do know that both systems are supposedly inductive power, but I believe that both trolleys also go off to recharge. I’ve searched for more information myself and have come up empty.