Toonerville trolley

[ too-ner-vil ]

noun

1. a dilapidated, outmoded trolley line or railway.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Toonerville trolley¹

After the train in the comic strip Toonerville Trolley by U.S. cartoonist Fontaine T. Fox (1884–1964)

Example Sentences

This is a street of memories: The Highline Heritage Museum on the corner once was a soda shop, and that corner once was near the end of the line for the Toonerville Trolley, aka the Highland Park and Lake Burien Railway, an aboveground trolley built in 1912 that began at Spokane Street in Seattle, ran past the Feed Store and ended a few blocks from Olde Burien in Seahurst.

From Seattle Times

We called it the Toonerville Trolley.

From Los Angeles Times

The three foreign partners bear no risk and will be made whole when passenger revenue for this two-track “Toonerville Trolley” fails to materialize.

From Washington Post

We need another bridge over the Potomac, well north of the Beltway, not a Toonerville trolley.

From Washington Post

I like to sneak off, say, between Dries and Dior, and take the RER to Rueil-Malmaison where a ridiculous Toonerville trolley transports you, after a terrifying if mercifully short ride on a vicious French highway, to the Île de Chatou.

From New York Times