Monday, August 18, 2014
Sunny with cloudy periods and cooler
Sunny with cloudy periods and cooler
Charles Rossignol Trolleys
Charles Rossignol (Paris, France) was a highly successful toy company that existed from 1868-1962. The company produced painted and lithographed tin clockwork toys such as cars, trolleys, and busses. The logo of the company has the letters C and R entwined around each other. There is a lot detail in these toys.
With the invention of electricity, many new applications would be developed. One of these naturally was the replacement of horse-drawn trolleys with electrical ones. The electricity was provided through a grid of overhead electrical wires. Each trolley had a long pole at the end of which was a grooved wheel. The electrical overhead wires would be be oriented with the groove of the metallic wheel and the wheel would stay on the lines through strong springs at the roof of the trolley. The trolleys would have steel wheels that rode on a rail-like track system.
Of course, just as the horse drawn trolleys were replaced by electrically-driven trolleys, the electrically-driven trolleys were replaced by gas-driven busses. I remember around 1957-59, when wooden trolleys (called "streetcars" in Montreal) started to be replaced buy busses. Slowly the streetcars were replaced and the steel rails were removed. There are still some steel rails buried in Montreal streets, and occasionally, they will show up in the spring time, when potholes cause the asphalt to break down.
The Rossignol busses are highly-prized collectables because of their intricate detail.
Of course, if you could afford other means of transportation, the taxi was available!
Thanks for dropping by to visit,
and as always,
have a great part of the day or night,
wherever you may be,
Stacey
toysearcher@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment