Abstract: An overhead metal trolley rail has a head for supporting it, separated by a vertical web from a foot that projects from opposite sides of the web and has flat upper contact surfaces. Slidable along the rail is a trolley shoe formed from a block of electrical conducting material, the upper portion of which has a longitudinal trough in it receiving the foot of the rail. The lower portion of the trough is spaced from the rail, but the upper portion of the trough has longitudinal flanges projecting inwardly toward each other above the foot of the rail. The flanges have flat lower contact surfaces engaging flat against the flat contact surfaces of the rail and supporting the shoe, from which a power take-off wire extends.

Abstract: A trolley rail section is formed from a tubular housing that has a front side provided with laterally spaced slots extending lengthwise of the rail, and a partition wall extending across the inside of the housing and closing the inner sides of the slots, the side walls of which are provided with grooves receiving electrical conductor bars. The partition wall and the back of the housing have opposed openings therethrough, with each pair of openings communicating with a different one of the slots. Disposed in each partition wall opening and straddling the adjoining conductor bar is a U-shape metal clip with inturned free front edges overlapping the front of the bar. Disposed in the clip behind the bar is a metal plate that is pressed against the bar by set screws threaded in the back of the clip. A rigid metal conductor connection extends loosely through an opening in the back of the clip and is rigidly secured to the plate and provided with an abutment spaced rearwardly from the clip.

Abstract: Apparatus is supported by one end of a line of rails for feeding metal bars from a coil lengthwise into parallel longitudinal slots in the rails to form continuous straight electrical conductors. The feeding apparatus includes a plurality of staggered straightening rolls for straightening the conductor bar as it is pulled from the reel for feeding it into the slot in line with the apparatus, the apparatus being adjustable transversely of the rails to locate it in line with the different slots.

Abstract: An extruded plastic housing of indefinite length contains an electrical conductor bar in a slot extending lengthwise of the housing. The bar is retained in the slot by a pair of ribs integral with the side walls of the slot and extending lengthwise thereof and projecting toward each other. The width of the bar is greater than the space between the ribs, but the housing is so formed that in assembling it and the bar the distance between the ribs can be increased temporarily by pressure of the bar against them to permit it to be moved rearwardly past the ribs, whereby the bar can be inserted from the front or outer side of the slot, thus permitting the use of a single conductor bar regardless of the number of housing units that may be disposed end to end to form the housing.