page_title: Trolleybuses in Seattle
section_title: 1940–1978
hierarchical_section_title: Trolleybuses in Seattle / Fleet / Former / 1940–1978
caption_attribution_description: Preserved and restored 1940 Seattle trolleybus 798, a PCF-Brill (built by Pacific Car &amp; Foundry under license from the Brill Company), carrying passengers on a special excursion on April 28, 1990, the 50th anniversary of the Seattle trolleybus system. It is pictured eastbound on East John Street (at 21st Avenue E.), which has been served by trolleybuses since 1981, with the conversion of route 43 to trolleybuses. Route 43's predecessor (before 1978) was route 4-Montlake, which used trolleybuses until 1970, so No. 798 was displaying signage for route 4, although route 4 did not actually follow East John Street but followed East Madison Street between 14th &amp; Pike and 23rd Avenue. Trolleybus 798 has been designated a Seattle landmark by city's Landmarks Preservation Board (listed as the Brill Trolley, as "trolley" is the common local term for trolleybuses in Seattle). It wears the distinctive paint scheme that was worn by all trolleybuses of the Seattle Transit System from the trolleybus system's opening in 1940 until about 1943.
context_page_description: The Seattle trolleybus system forms part of the public transportation network in the city of Seattle, Washington, operated by King County Metro. Originally opened on April 28, 1940, the network consists of 15 routes, with 174 trolleybuses operating on 68 miles of two-way overhead wires. As of spring 2016, the system carries riders on an average of 73,200 trips per weekday, comprising about 18 percent of King County Metro’s total daily ridership. At present in Seattle, a very common alternative term for trolleybus is trolley.
  Of the five trolleybus systems currently operating in the U.S., the Seattle system is the second largest, after the San Francisco system.
context_section_description: For the opening of the system in 1940, the Seattle Transit System purchased trolleybuses from two different manufacturers. The Twin Coach Company provided 135 vehicles, while the J. G. Brill Company provided 100. All but the first Brill vehicles were built, under license, by Pacific Car and Foundry (PCF), in the nearby city of  Renton, and are commonly referred to as PCF-Brill vehicles or simply Brills. Strong ridership growth during World War II, when the city's economy was booming, brought a need for additional vehicles. Forty-two more Twin Coach trolleybuses were bought in 1942–1943, followed by 30 Pullman-Standard vehicles in 1944. These were the last new trolleybuses acquired until the late 1970s. The fleet's size peaked at that time, at 307, making Seattle's trolleybus fleet the 12th-largest in the United States.
  With the abandonment of several trolleybus routes in 1963, the remaining Brill trolleybuses were retired.  The system was reduced to only about half its former size.  Additional route closures in 1965 (route 11-East Madison) and 1970 (routes 3-North Queen Anne–Jefferson Park and 4-East Queen Anne–Montlake) reduced the active fleet to only 53 coaches by 1971.  In 1974, when a few Twin Coaches returned to service, the entire remaining fleet of 57 was renumbered into the series 600–656, comprising 34 of the 1940 Twins (600–633), eight of the slightly larger 1943 Twins (634–641) and all 15 of the 1944 Pullmans (642–656).  Not long afterward, a shortage of serviceable vehicles prompted Metro Transit to re-acquire four trolleybuses that previously had been donated to museums. These included two Twins, one Pullman and, most notably, a PCF-Brill—a type of trolleybus that had not been in the fleet in more than a decade. Brill #798 returned from the by-then-defunct Trolleyland Museum (Centralia, Washington) in April 1975. Metro immediately repainted it into its original Seattle Transit System paint scheme only used during the 1940s, and it returned to regular service in November 1975. In 1978, Brill 798 was officially designated a Seattle Landmark by the city's Landmarks Preservation Board.
  Metro's decision in 1974 to rebuild and expand the entire trolleybus system included the replacement of the entire trolleybus fleet. All remaining 1940s vehicles were permanently retired when the system shut down for rebuilding at the end of the service day on January 20, 1978. Most were kept in storage until late 1981, and following the formation of the Metro Employees Historic Vehicle Association in that year, Metro agreed to preserve examples of all four types – including the single Brill, #798 – for eventual restoration and operation by MEHVA. The preserved vehicles were No. 798, the 1940 PCF-Brill; No. 622 (originally No. 905, and given an earlier number, 643, after restoration), a 1940 Twin Coach 41GWFT; No. 636, a 1943 Twin Coach 44GTT; and No. 655 (restored to its original number, 1005, after restoration), a 1944 Pullman-Standard. To this day, each of the coaches remain in Metro's historic fleet. No. 643's original number, 905, was restored in 2018.
caption: Preserved PCF-Brill No. 798, one of Seattle first trolleybuses, wearing the system's first paint scheme
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