I have just noticed this post from a while ago, so throwing in my comments.
Battery trams were tried in UK. In July 1890 the reconstructed Bristol Road route to Bournbrook route, now, (the A38, in Birmingham), re-opened and double-deck open-top bogie battery electric cars (101-112) worked the route. The 'city fathers' ruled that no overhead lines were to be allowed near the recently completed town hall and council house, as it would spoil the look of the architecture around what is now Victoria square. These trams used lead acid batteries under the longitudinal lower deck seats. They were not as popular with passengers, as the councillors, due to the smell from the gases produced during charging under power lines once out off the city centre.
Just before we moved from the Midlands, they were experimenting with battery trams again, 130 years later, in the same city centre area, for the same reasons, but hopefully less smelly batteries.
David L
