Toonerville Folks (sometimes known as Toonerville Trolley) was a comic strip by Fontaine Fox which ran from 1908 to 1955.
The single panel cartoon was a daily look at Toonerville, situated in what are now called the suburbs, inspired by Fox's childhood outside Louisville, Kentucky. The focus often was The Toonerville Trolley, driven in a frenzy by the grizzly old Skipper to meet each train arriving in town. Other characters included The Terrible-Tempered Mr. Bang, The Powerful Katrinka, Little Woo-Woo Wortle, Aunt Eppie Hogg, and Mickey (Himself) McGuire, the town bully.
A series of over 50 silent film shorts based on the strip featured Mickey Rooney as Mickey (Himself) McGuire. Rooney (who was born Joe Yule, Jr.) adopted the name Mickey McGuire for a time, until he took the last name Rooney.
The trolley was only about one-third the size of the regular streetcar and during the morning rush hour, when people were going to work or in the evening when they were homeward bound, there were more people standing in the aisle than those lucky enough to find a seat.
Passengers using the trolley were issued transfers which allowed them to board the main line streetcars, and, likewise, those passengers leaving the main line were given transfers which were honored by the trolley conductor.
He had to disconnect and secure the trolley at one end of the car before he released a trolley arm at the other end to get electricity to the motor.
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