Image description
The image shows a large vehicle, viewed from side, facing left, used for public transport, called a trolleybus.
The exterior skeleton of the car, also called the body car, is represented embossed.
The two pairs of wheels at the bottom, the pair at the front and the rear one, are highlighted by embossed circles.
The trolleybus has three passenger doors, in the back, central, and front, the latter being attached to the driver’s door, all rendered with a shape of two united rectangles, placed vertically, outlined by blank lines.
Double doors open automatically to the inside.
The side window and the door windows are marked by blank rectangles.
Different from a bus, it is the presence of the pantograph, mounted on the roof, meaning two overhead contact lines, which provide electric current to the engine, when pulled on the electric cables.
These lines are long sticks, raised in an oblique position, located on the roof of the car.
Below the trolleybus, in the right bottom corner, is a man standing, thus positioned to facilitate the comparison of the dimensions of the vehicle to the height of an adult.
General data
The trolleybus is an electric public transport vehicle. This vehicle uses, in most cases, the same chassis (with some modifications) and a body similar to that of a bus; however, the trolleybus is not powered by a thermal engine, but by one or more electric motors. The electric current required for engine operation is provided by two overhead contact lines. The trolleybuses are thus linked to the route of the contact lines. The first trolleybus networks appeared at the beginning of the 20th century. Currently, there are approximately 310 trolleybus networks in 47 states [bibliography 1]. Most are found in Central and Eastern Europe (former socialist states), CIS states (former Soviet Union states), China, North Korea, Italy and Switzerland. The trolleybus dates from April 29, 1882, when Dr. Ernst Werner Siemens put into practice his project called “Elektromote” – in a suburb of Berlin, although more isolated experiments were happening simultaneously in the US [bibliography 2]
The trolleybus has similar transport capabilities as buses,while being less polluting. At the place of operation (in cities) the pollution is zero, but the electric current is often produced in the thermal power plants by polluting processes. If only coal or fuel oil is used for generating electric current, then the pollution as a whole, is similar to a diesel engine bus. The trolley bus is quieter than a bus, which increases the quality of the area through which it passes (but only if, on the same artery, buses do not circulate). On the other hand, a silent vehicle is more difficult to detect by cyclists and pedestrians. Due to the ecological aspects and the quieter engines, it is expected that more citizens will give up their personal car in favor of public transport in case of trolley bus travel, as compared to the bus usage.
There are also cities where the trolleybus has become an object of cultural heritage. In Chile, the trolleybuses in Valparaíso (the only network in this country) have been declared as part of the cultural heritage of the country. [bibliography 3]. Until 1997, there were also floor-mounted trolleybuses, most of them found on the streets of London and, sporadically, on the streets of Hamburg, Moscow or Barcelona. [bibliography 4]
Bibliography
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_trolleybus_systems
- Ashley Bruce, Lombard-Gerin and Inventing the Trolleybus (Trolleybooks, 2017, ISBN 978-0-904235-25-8), p. 88 et seq.
- https://www.trolleymotion.eu/
- Murray, Alan (2000). World Trolleybus Encyclopaedia. Yateley, Hampshire, UK: Trolleybooks. ISBN 0-904235-18-1.
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