Cable cars
I have been put in my place… Calling a cable car in San Francisco a “trolley” not only makes me a tourist, but apparently a stupid tourist to boot.
A trolley, while running on rails, uses electricity via overhead wires to power an electric motor which moves the trolley. The closest thing San Francisco has to a trolley are the electric buses.
A cable car, on the other hand, is powered by gripping an underground cable. Its akin to grabbing onto a tow rope at the ski hill. Cable cars have no motor, just two guys and a pair of levers.
Also, I was talking to the conductor, not the grip man, btw.