I can remember being a little kid and riding with my parents on the trolley to my aunt's house in the west part of the city once a month for Sunday Dinner. Every time we went over a crossing in the wires the bus would slow down and the interior lights go out for a second or two.
From what I found on the internet Winnipeg Transit got rid of its last trolley bus at the end of October 1970 and sold all but one of them to Mexico City. They only had 6 trolley routes in service by 1968 and were down to the last one in 1970. The suburbs to downtown were already served by diesel buses starting back in the 1950's.
The Manitoba Hydro electrical museum has on display a 1950's era glass bulb mercury arc rectifier used to convert ac to dc for the operation of the transit trolley buses. I can still remember seeing the bright light coming out of the trolley substation buildings and wondering what was causing it.
I know that New Flyer here in Winnipeg still builds trolley buses as well as diesel buses.
According to the New Flyer web site in 2005 they delivered an order to Vancouver BC. These buses have a small UPS to allow them to go off the overhead grid for short periods to get around closed streets due to watermain breaks, fires, accidents, etc.
The lack of street flexibility was always a big knock against the trolleys according to my uncle who was a Winnipeg transit supervisor.
