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Ahh, they are PCCs! The PCC was a big breakthrough in the US when it came out, and as I said, they're still used in a few places. Modern requirements for low floor boarding and all have put them out of favor. Boston still has a line with them, San Francisco and Kenosha do too. Philly has a line of rebuilt ones that have AC inverter drive.
The US had electrics early on, and naturally every railroad used its own system. Sadly, the massive 3,000 volt system out west to Seattle was torn down in the 70's - ironically, the RR tore it down to sell the copper to buy diesels. Then the fuel crunch hit and they went bankrupt. Whoops. There was a lot of electric freight in the east, but Amtrak decided to charge Conrail a lot for electricity, so Conrail shut the lines down.
Railroading in the US is basically a total disaster, especially passenger...
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