Trolley’s more fun than stuffy streetcar

Clang, clang, clang went the … streetcar?

“Streetcar” it is, according to Bill Adcock, director of operations for Central Arkansas Transit Authority, and he ought to know. The state’s largest transit system numbers five River Rail streetcars along with 59 city buses and 23 LINKS vans for disabled riders.

“Everybody calls it a trolley,” Adcock says. “But actually, it’s a streetcar.”

Sure enough, by strictest dictionary definition, a streetcar “is a public transportation coach that runs on a rail.” A “trolley” is the pole on top a streetcar. The pole connects with the power line, carrying about 600 volts of electric current to the streetcar’s motor.

But who wants to say a mouthful of “streetcar”? Practically nobody, Adcock says. People want to ride the much more fun-sounding “trolley.”

This has been true at least since Judy Garland sang “The Trolley Song” in Meet Me in St. Louis in 1944:

Clang, clang, clang went the trolley,

Ding, ding, ding went the bell,

Zing, zing, zing went my heartstrings …

The song’s lesser-known verses specify that a trolley’s motor goes “chug, chug, chug.” No, it doesn’t; it’s electric. And the brakes go “thump, thump, thump.” No, they don’t; they whine. And the wheels go “plop, plop, plop.” Oh, for the! —

But there’s still time to catch the streetcar.