What do americans call trolleys

The trolley referred to in that song is the streetcar that Judy Garland is riding in. I don't think I've ever heard the term "tipper lorry". I've not done dump trucks yet, but I have done JCBs here. Itinerantlondoner - I grew up in England familiar with the words 'dustcart' and 'dustmen', although 'binmen' was common too. I realised quite what a euphemism 'dust' was when I came across the 'dustheaps' in Dickens' 'Our Mutual Friend'- huge waste-dumps on the fringes of Victorian London.

I'd call a dump truck a dump truck myself, but that might be from my American parents. You don't see them very often here. I disagree with your interpretation "a kind of pulley system" of the OED entry for trolley in AmE: "an electric car driven by means of a trolley". In the early days of "electric cars" -- whether trolleybuses or trams AmE streetcars -- which drew their power from overhead energized lines, they did so by dragging a little wheeled cart or "trolley" along the aerial "track" from which they picked up the electrical current.

Later this arrangement was simplified by substituting a spring-loaded rigid pole still called a "trolley pole" however with a wheel or groove which pressed against the underside of the overhead wire.

Trams running on steel rails use the rail to return the current, so needed only a single pole. Rubber-tired trolleybuses, however, require two wires and a pair of trolley poles to complete the citcuit. Nowadays, most trams use pantograph collectors rather than poles although trolley poles remain in use in some places e. What the OED was drawing attention to by "AmE: an electric car driven by means of a trolley" is the fact that in BrE the word "trolley" in this context refers to the wheeled or grooved device at the top of the trolley pole that runs along the overead line, whereas in the USA it can mean the whole vehicle powered by trolley collection.

I would be very surprised to hear a San Francisco cable car referred to as a trolley, since they have never been powered from an overhead electrical wire, which is the essence of a streetcar called a "trolley. There are newer systems in Santa Clara County and the Sacramento area, both "trolleys" using overhead electric wires, even though some may use pantograph or bow collectors instead of poles. The poles have used sliding shoes instead of rotating wheels for many years now.

The trolley bus is in use in at least two American cities - San Francisco and Boston - but is usually just called an electric bus. I used to ride one often in San Francisco and remember the driver having to stop and get out a pole to push the mechanism back onto the power line. The use of gondola for what some are calling a cable car is common in ski areas, at least in New England. I often see them advertise how many chair lifts and how many gondolas they operate.

Kevin, I'll bow to your better understanding of the matter. Here's the relevant OED definition of 'trolley': "A grooved metallic pulley which travels along, and receives current from, an overhead electric wire, the current being then conveyed by a trolley-pole or other conductor to a motor, usually that of a car on a street railroad; also called trolley-wheel see 4.

Also applied to any pulley running along an overhead track, as in a trolley-scale see 4. Looking it up on the interweb, I was reminded of the character Trolley from Mr Rogers' Neighborhood--a program me that meant a lot to me as a child. It saddens me a bit that I live in a place where no one else here joins in when I sing "It's a beautiful day in the neighbo u rhood, a beautiful day for a neighbo ur , would you be mine?

Could you be mine? This kind of activity increases hundredfold when there's a baby around Lynne, you can hear the Mr Rogers song on this YouTube video. Don't forget to watch out for the trolley poles!

One raised, one lowered, on each car OK, that's enough tram buffery for one day, Kevin. Where on the mainland of Europe are trolley buses common? I've travelled a fair bit especially in central Europe, and I have never in my life seen one.

Depends on your definition of Europe, but there are lots in St Petersburg. I assume Moscow has them as well, but I don't recall seeing anyway I was too busy checking out the awesome Metro stations. Where on the mainland of Europe are there trolleybuses? In the north we had "bin lorries", staffed by "binmen". Joke: Teacher in northern school: Where's the bin? Child: I've been home for me lunch, of course. In America, a go-cart -kart?

Without an engine, it's a soapbox racer or soapbox derby car. Bit late I know but here in Devon the they do say dustcart whereas I from the Midlands say dustbin lorry. Another local word I had never heard until I came here was Scavenger, as in "I've got to put the bin out for the Scavenger". The company put out a leaflet hyping it, which promised passengers an enhanced 'in-seat experience'. It's fun to live in an older American city like Boston, where we have at least one of every single type of vehicle mentioned so far.

The subways all of which travel aboveground for at least part of their journey The Green Line the oldest line has trolley cars - they run on overhead electrical lines.

We also have the "electric buses" again, overhead lines along with regular diesel buses and newer LP gas hybrid buses. For me, "trams" are inextricably linked with Disney World - the trams are the gasoline-powered chains of little golfcart-like vehicles that take you from the massive parking lot to the entrance gates trams may also be part of an amusement park ride, or a tour through a "natural habitat"-style park. Ooh, don't forget "pantechnicon" for a removal van.

Possibly a little out of usage these days? My gran used it last week and I had completely forgotten about it. Loving this blog, as a Yank living in Ireland. NB we call them "bin lorries" here :. If there had been plastic then, dustbins couldn't have been made of it because folks would put such ash in them while it was still hot. Some of the few surviving dustbins and wheely-bins have warnings on them not to put-in hot ash. Communal metal dustbins were used in the second world war to collect food-waste for feeding to pigs.

They would get quite rank in summer. Mischievous boys would lean them against people's front doors, bang on the knocker, hide behind the hedge, and then watch what happened when the householder opened the door and the bin fell in. A "tram" is used to refer exclusively to an enclosed gondola carriage?

To wit, "the tram. That would be a trolley, or more commonly, streetcar ala these. These were, I imagine, the basis of the Mr. Rogers' trolley. There are also funitels, distinguished from trams by having cables on both edges of the gondola. Some places, usually ski resorts it seems, refer to trams as gondolas.

This confuses the issue as gondolas are also attached to hot-air balloons. Funiculars have the cable underneath, and usually follow tracks, which I suppose makes them similar to trolleys. I wouldn't refer to a streetgoing vehicle as a funicular though, just as I wouldn't refer to something going up the side of a mountain as a trolley.

Americans use a wide variety of terms to describe the many different types of roads that are part of the national and state highway systems in the U. In only a few cases are there direct British equivalents for the American terms. The following is a list of examples in which the American and British English use different terms to indicate essentially the same type of road.

Sometimes, however, there are no exact British equivalents for the American terms, as is the case with the following:. The word highway is the most general term for a road in American English.

It is used to refer to any road built for fast travel between towns and cities: We drove along the Pacific Coast Highway. An interstate highway is a wide road with several lines of traffic going in each direction and built for travel from state to state as part of the U. A freeway is a large divided highway that is usually in or near a big city and does not cost anything to use: The Santa Monica Freeway passes through business and residential areas.

A parkway is a wide road with an area of trees and grass on both sides and sometimes along the middle of the road: The hotel is located near the Grand Central Parkway. A tollway is a long wide highway that you have to pay to drive on: Take the North Dallas Tollway north and exit at West Park Boulevard. A turnpike is a highway in the eastern part of the U. Things on or near a road. There are a few things found on or near a road that have the same names in American and British English.

For example, the terms parking meter , pedestrian and traffic are shared by both varieties of English. However, there are a number of other things that have different names in American and British English.

A final note. Next in the series. Search titles only. Search Advanced search…. Members Current visitors. Interface Language. Log in. Install the app. Forums English Only English Only. JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly. You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.

Thread starter takiakos76 Start date Jun 9, Somehow this expression sounds mildly offensive to my ears. Is there a nicer name for this thing? I mean in everyday speech, not some super-technical or official term. I'm uploading a photo just to make sure we're talking about the same thing. Copyright Senior Member Penang. Trolley bag.