Toonerville Trolley

plural Toonerville Trolleys

1. informalAn old-fashioned single-car trolley.

   The trolley on that route was referred to as “Old Dolly” and the “Toonerville Trolley” (from the comic strip)

   2002, Dale E. Shaffer, Salem, OH: A Quaker City History, Arcadia Publishing, page 93

   5 more examples

   Such a car was the feature of a comic strip of those days, "The Toonerville Trolley that Meets All the Trains", and the Farm cars were affectionately known as "The Toonerville Trolley".

   1945, J. H. Hodgson, The Heavens Above and the Earth Beneath: A History of the Dominion Observatories, Geological Survey of Canada, page 66

   [T]he two modes of transportation available were taxicab and the “Toonerville Trolley.” ... The name “Toonerville Trolley” was taken from a popular cartoon of the time because we thought the rock and roll of the streetcar and the uphill and downhill route seemed to be lifted from the cartoon.

   1995, Charity Adams Earley, One Woman's Army: A Black Officer Remembers the WAC, Texas A&M University Press, page 118

   The trolley, affectionately nicknamed the “Toonerville Trolley” after a popular cartoon strip that ran until 1947.

   2007, “Vermont: Toonerville Trail”, in Rail-Trails: New England, Wilderness Press, page 205

   During the period, the area became known as the Toonerville after a local factory. The Pacific electric red car tracks ran through the area, and the local trolley became known as the Toonerville trolley.

   2007, John H. Davis, What Do White Americans Want to Know about Black Americans But Are Afraid to Ask, Xlibris, page 86

   To travel that mile there was an honest-to-god Toonerville Trolley. A Toonerville Trolley was a very small, one railroad car, featured in a comic strip popular at the time, with one cartoon-type fellow who did all the driving; ...

   2008, Thomas L. Hamm, Jr., A Lifetime Spent Doing What I Loved to Do!: An Autobiography, iUniverse, page 15

2. A noticeably inexpensive trip.

   Our airline must be something out of the Toonerville Trolley.

   1969 October 10, American Flyers Airline, advertisement, Life, volume 67, number 175, page 124

   1 more example

   At that point Louis had gone into the dispensary and taken a Tuinal—what his first med school roommate had called Tooners. “Hop up on the Toonerville Trolley, Louis,” he'd say, “and I'll put on some Credence.”

   1983, Stephen King, Pet Sematary, Doubleday