London Trolley Buses Trip 1950's The Good Old Days

[@nashleysk8er]

Lovely video. Thanks for posting.

[@johnaron9819]

Spectacular color (!) footage of the post War trolleybuses - very nostalgic for me living in East Finchley in the fifties. The very last shot looked like Finchley Road and Golders Green Road. Loved riding on the single decker Number 210 from Highgate, Kenwood, Bishops Ave., The Spaniards, Jack Straw's Castle and then down the hill to Golders Green.

[@tattyshoesshigure5731]

Wonderfully evocative footage, thanks for posting! The tram stop canopy at Golders Green station is still there, it may even have listed status now, but sadly the access aisle to the ticket hall & trains has been closed for many years.

[@JustinG1962]

Liked the music you chose for this.

[@trevordance5181]

I was born in 1955, but I vividly remember regularly going as a small boy from West Croydon to Earlsfield with my mum to visit an Aunt on the route 630 London Transport Trolleybus.

[@rogermanley955]

I used to ride the London trams every Sunday morning, my father and I travelled through the KIngsway Subway.

[@bruceperkins4601]

The opening sequence is surely Woolwich Common, trams 46 and 72; then Yorkshire Grey. Great memories. Thank you.

[@robertmatthews8302]

Love the video Jack ! 😊

[@edwinleslie1330]

I don't have a memory of the London Trams but do of the Edinburgh Trams. As a little boy in the 50s from Edinburgh then mum & dad moved to London so we went back to Edinburgh for our summer holidays. And with no car everywhere was by transport..... "HAPPY DAYS". 😎

[@Caskchap]

England in 1952 before all the shit landed how wonderful and refreshing to see our wonderful country now sadly lost forever.

[@johnhooper7040]

I missed the trams in London. Living in Milford, East Londo, the trams had long gone by the time I was born in 1950. We did have trolleybuses though. We had the type ordered for South African cities but diverted to LT to replace wartime losses. So quiet compared to the noisy RT buses and excellent acceleration too. Great fun when the trolleybuses dewired crossing the complex wiring at Milford Broadway. If they had been retained and modernised London could have had quiet, clean transport on the city's streets and much less deadly diesel fumes. Why were we so short sighted?

[@juliansadler6263]

The world I was born into. And I thought it would all be there for me when I grew up. But it wasn't was it. Bast...ds.

[@robertmatthews8302]

I do sympathise with you ! Constant change ! Not my favourite subject either ! 😢

[@jimward8095]

Strange...know all these locations...brings it all home..thanks for these memories of better times?

[@richardspencer9452]

Thanks for posting this. Like some of the other correspondents I too especially enjoyed the shots of trolleybuses on Barnet Hill, coming under the railway bridge at the bottom of the hill, a 609 coming up Kingsway at North Finchley and at Golders Green. Other nostalgic touches are the other road vehicles - a motor cycle combination, an army lorry and a green Post Office Telephones van. I see that several other people are from the Finchley and Barnet area like myself and probably also rode on the trolleybuses on their last day there which I think was 2nd January 1962. Perhaps we should persuade Carlton Colville to get all their London vehicles showing North Finchley and Barnet destinations for some pictures!

[@alanmccormick3583]

As a boy, Mum sometimes took me for Croydon on the 654 route. Very smooth and silent, due to this they were often known as "Silent Killers."

[@althejazz]

I was only at Colindale for four months as a condcutor at the ripe old age of 18 but I did the 645 more than a few times. Mostly though, my duties were on the 666 to Hammsersmith. When Colindale depot closed after New Year 1962, I transferred to Edgware and my bus carer lasted 49 years as I worked until I was 66. Always loved the trolleybuses when I was a kid and when the Red Rover ticket came on the scene, we kids would travel all over London for half-a-crown (12.5 pence in today's money).

[@robertmatthews8302]

I, like you, as a young boy used to buy red (and green) Rover Tickets. I loved travelling passionately, on my own or with Mum. Wonderful days 😊 [born in 1952].

[@frasermitchell9183]

from Fraser, husband of Leslie A trolley ride was part of our journey to visit Grandma in the 50s from Tadley in Hampshire. First a No 9 bus to Reading, then the "B" which was from Reading to Victoria Coach Station, but we (my brother and me), got off at Hammersmith, just after Shepherds Bush Road, then walked back and round the corner into this road to get the trolleybus to Putney, getting off just after Putney Bridge. They had a very rapid acceleration, and you really struggled to get to your seat ! I loved them ! You never needed to run for one, there was about one trolleybus every 2 or 3 minutes.

[@antonbrum5492]

thank you for sharing a moment in time. As a child, I would travel on these trolley buses with my mum. Happier childhood moments.

[@Hammondfreak]

Thank you for this very nostalgic video. The tram sequences were obviously filmed during the last week of London trams, the final tram running into New Cross depot in the early morning of the 6th July 1952. At 9:18 on the video the 660 and 645 trolleybuses shared the same route for a while along the Finchley Road and Ballard's Lane , the 660 terminating at North Finchley with the 645 continuing to Barnet. The last Trolleybus ran on 8th May 1962 into Fulwell depot which also ran the very first Trolleybus, number 1 in 1931. You can still ride on a London tram and Trolleybuses at the East Anglia Transport Museum in Carlton Colville near Lowestoft and, hopefully, I shall be doing just that next year when the threat of Covid 19 is over.

[@johnjephcote7636]

Yes. There was another tram that was determined to complete its journey despite all the hold ups and that one was the last car, even well after the official 'last tram'.

[@Hammondfreak]

@@johnjephcote7636 Thank you for that interesting info. You learn something everyday even 68 years after the event !!!

[@johannesfeigl5309]

I remember AS a childbeing taken in a journeyontherout645 along THW great north roadheadin towards Barnetfrom whetstone😊

[@johannesfeigl5309]

Fanta stic footage which getsthe heart oft this old fart racing again!😅

[@sgwinnett9665]

Many thanks belfast jack. The Trolleys from 5.53 onwards especially meaningful as they're at (High) Barnet Church, Barnet Hill (with bridge under the Northern Line), Whetstone, on the way to and at North Finchley, and the crossroads close to Golders Green UndergrounD station.

[@johnjephcote7636]

The small curved bit of road in front of the church at Barnet and the curved roadway at East Finchley station were built for the trolleys to turn round.

[@johnjephcote7636]

Although I vividly remember the trams in Woolwich and on the Embankment (at age four!), it was the trolleybuses for another ten years that made my school friends' days out (with our Ian Allen bus spotting books).

[@denisxx61]

Me too. My friend and I used to buy the Red Rover passes and spend a full day riding the Trolleybus routes with, as you mentioned, our Ian Allen bus spotter books. We especially liked spotting the service vehicles. Fond memories.

[@jackharrison6771]

Great video, thanks for posting. I never went on one in the UK, but did in Moscow. On one visit, I was getting around with one crutch. An old lady insisted on my taking her seat. When I said no thanks, her and other passengers really insisted that I sit down. Another time on the Vienna trams, I couldn't see how we paid. But an old man said to me "you don't pay on our trams - you're a guest in Vienna so you don't pay. Different times and people. eh?

[@oc2phish07]

I used to take the 645 Trolleybus from Golders Green to Finchley when I was at school in the late 1950s. Lovely video.

[@gearheadted9210]

very cool,took my Dad to a restaraunt for his Birthday that had seating in a dbl decker bus in Spokane,Washington,very cool experience!

[@JarayChatree]

I have read several 'disagreements' on here about whether the majority of the shown vehicles were Trams or Trolleybuses. I can categorically state that most of the featured buses in this feature were TRAMS. Trams ran on rails embedded in the road and took their electrical power from overhead wires. Conversely, Trolleybuses did NOT run on embedded rails but had pneumatic tyres. Their power source was also taken from overhead wiring. Living in Paddington I daily rode on the 662 and 664 routes up until that very cold winter of '61/62 when I visited Stonebridge Trolleybus Depot to see in the last few of 'our' Trolleybuses on 2nd January 1962. A sad day for me and a few other 'Bus Spotters who were there.

[@jupieterr]

Wow, haven't seen these in colour before

[@hancecrawford]

Hi its me again I remember trolley buses used to turn at Dundonald beside cemetery they turned where the Elk Inn is today long before the Ulster Hospital was built it was green fields then

[@barriegilbert1315]

As usual thanks to the great and the good..Scrap them both!!..madness..

[@the231Pacific]

Fascinating, particularly (for me) the Barnet shots with the trolleybuses passing beneath the Northern tube line bridge. It was so low, the trolley booms descended almost to the horizontal. Quite often a trolley head would come off the wire, causing major disruption to traffic.

[@edwinleslie1330]

I loved the Trolly Buses.... I have no idea why I just did. They seemed wider and where definitely quieter. Miss them! 😢

[@RGC198]

Great video. Love all the London tram scenes there, which would have been prior to their closure in July 1952. I also notice that you have some scenes from the last tram week. Thanks for sharing.

[@johannesfeigl5309]

Lov Y film.had me yearning to time travel😊!

[@votpav]

Thanks for this nice old movie

[@michaelscott9475]

Love the old adverts on the buses.

[@hancecrawford]

Hi I remember Trolley buses had bus dep on Mountpotencher road close to Hippadrome picture house and remember Trolley buses used to turn at roundabout juncation Ravenhill and Ormour Road

[@johannesfeigl5309]

Lots of lovely tramswhere are the trolely busses???????

[@markknight1011]

When did trolley bus operation end in London?

[@surreygoldprospector576]

1962

[@RobertSigmund1]

Last Tram week. What a pity. And perhaps not a simple coincidence that 1952 was the year of the Great Smog.

[@regd.2263]

Ha Ha the old Nelson Tipped cigarettes adverts on the trolley bus, only three shillings & ten pence for twenty at pre-decimal prices. For those that don't know less than twenty pence decimal those were the days when everything was fairly priced. Let's have it back again 😊

[@colingymer]

Born in '49 the trams and trolleybuses had gone where I lived by the time I was able to take notice. Trolleybuses were still operating in Stratford E London though. Of interest was trams running in Eltham and around the Yorkshire Grey roundabout, the first time I've seen footage of them in motion.

[@edwinleslie1330]

In an age of thinking about the environment....... Surely this would be a big help..... Trolley Buses. 🤔

[@johnjephcote7636]

One had to fight one's way up the stairs as the acceleration was so rapid. Also, at the top of the stairs were a series of slots in a piece of metal, just by the stair mirror. I was told that this was a hangover from the tramcars and a conductor could insert the correct-sized coin and give it a twist to check whether it was a dud.

[@barrythedieselelectricstea5217]

excellent video pity they stopped running them they should bring them back i remember them well in willesden

[@neilbain8736]

There's more trams to start with, of both types: the overhead +ve and centre slot +ve. I think only London used centre slot but they had the overhead too so trams had to be a universal fit I guess. 2:21 For some reason, they're pushing the tram by hand. What happened? It's hard to see if it's overhead or centre slot. It moves forward a bit from some points on to one track and stops. The film jump cuts to a couple of blokes pushing it back a few feet then it trundles off quite happily under power on the other track. Its hard to see what happened or which +ve collection it had, but if two blokes can push a loaded tram by hand, it nicely proves the coefficient of friction of steel on steel anyway: why they were so darn good in the first place ( They didn't have much inertia so whatever they did, they couldn't half shift while doing it ).

[@paulnolan1352]

Could be he stopped at a neutral section.

[@richardspencer9452]

@@paulnolan1352

[@nigelperyer9354]

I remember the trolley buses in my hometown bournemouth as a child and i think they finished in 1969 A big mistake from just over 50 years ago

[@martincook318]

I'm 67 in December and I went on one in My Home Town in Walsall in the West Midlands in the West Midlands in the early 1960's and they were terrible as the Steps were two high and the Bus Conducterus had to change the wires over in the winter and it was Freezing more so in the Winter of 1962-63 when everything came too a Stand Stll and the Big Freeze started on My Birthday and lasted till the Spring and then we had the big flooding

[@edwinturner1149]

huddersfield and bradford had quite extensive systems,bradford being the very last one-1972

[@wulla2]

Interesting video. Both trams and trolleys were actually quite ‘green’ - no CO2 or NOX emissions. And trolleys were almost silent. The problem with both was unreliability and inflexibility eg when there were roadworks or other obstacles.

[@rolandharmer6402]

I don’t think that inflexibility was a problem, though the excuse was always trotted out as a justification for getting rid of electric traction. The real problem was a management that had no incentive to provide pollution free - at point of use at least - transport. So much simpler to run diesel buses. And think of the scrap value of all those copper wires!

[@gainsbourg66]

li was really just a fashion thing. The real reason they got rid of trams and trolley buses was because they were considered to be an old fashoned embarrassment. A mistake not made by other countries.

[@dartskipper3170]

As the suburbs expanded post WWII, London Transport couldn't afford the cost of expansion of the trolley bus routes that required the extra hundreds of miles of catenary. So diesel RT's established the connections to the new suburbs.

[@garethbramley1]

Going by the advert on the Trolleybus at 6:15 advertising the Motor Show at Earls Court this footage is either 1950 or 1961 - those years it was staged 18th-28th October. The next show with these dates was 1967. Bus at 9:40 advertises ICI Du-Lite paint which was made in the 50s though still being advertised in 1960. Too many old cars around for it to be 1961 so i guess this would be 1950 then? Great footage Belfast!

[@nickmendes5458]

Trolleybus footage must have been 1961 as the vehicles seen were transferred from the East End in 1959

[@michaelkenny8540]

Film advertised on bus at 6:49 is 'A Taste Of Honey' which ran Sept 14-Oct 4th 1961 at Leicester Square Theatre. Bus at 9:31 has adverts for the 'new' Sunday Newspaper ' The Sunday Telegraph' which was launched in Feb 1961.

[@garethbramley1]

Bingo! These old cars are misleading - so it was 1961, after all.

[@flunkyminion]

This was the era when everything had to get out of the way for cars and trucks. Mass car ownership was booming. No going back.

[@jamesadlam9875]

More than half of it is trams not trolleybuses, but Thanks, great film

[@davidfrost481]

I went to school at B&T C of C in 1952 last tram week I got on a tram just to get the ticket printed last tram week kept it for years then it vanished?

[@stuartralls5813]

Not Trolleybuses! Trams with a few odd trolleys.

[@walterch]

It's a pity. Why tramway in London was demolished?

[@julianshepherd2038]

Germans have a project to have trolley lorries on motorways. The prototype seems to work well.

[@eiruggriffiths8491]

Getting rid of the trolleybuses was a big mistake by London Transport

[@michaels640]

For future ref: Trolleybus is one word, not two…

[@c2757]

Why is the first half of a video billed as 'London trolleybuses' actually nothing but trams? Are you not able to tell the difference?

[@tonyves]

Think it's you who can't tell the difference. These are trolleybuses. Give away: overhead wires.

[@martincook318]

Why is these Programs always about London Transport more so about the Trolley Bus's?Speaking as a Walsall Man who is 67 next Month I Well Remember the Trolley Bus's in My town and I and 95ps off the towns People hated them and the last one's Ran from Walsall to Wolverhampton from the top of the Town in 1967 Because of the Motorway>Big Mistake as the Motorways were Sopesed to Relieved the traffic Conjeston and did Nothing of the kind:and the rest off the Trolley Bus's were decomissond on October 31st 1971

[@mikew1756]

Looks great but when i went on trolly buses's they were just like normal buses's , these are trams. i lived in LONDON in the 1950's

[@PreNeanderthal]

You obviously didn't watch the whole video. The first half featured trams, the second half showed trolleybuses. I'm old enough to remember and to have travelled on both - though my experiences were mostly in the Tolworth, Kingston, Twickenham area (601, 602, 603) and trams in the Wimbledon area, as well as through the Kingsway tunnel a few times.

[@chrismccartney8668]

Trams not trolley buses or am i blind

[@petetongue6561]

They are not trolly buses, they are trams

[@tonyves]

Nope. trolley buses.

[@nigelfarley814]

Working on those wires while they’re live. Nah mate it’s ok as long as we don’t touch the ground. Excuse me member of the public would you mind helping me push this 20 ton tram backwards. What about ‘elfin saftee’?Don’t worry mate that’s not invented for another fifty years. Please feel free to jump on or off wherever you like. Go under the wheels that’s your fault Yes mate please feel free to sit beside me I’m only the driver after all. Nelson tipped,?weren’t they supposed to be good for you? Trams and Trolley buses. Don’t they run on electricity so they are non-polluting, quiet and more efficient? Nah mate we’re going to replace them with diesels. Much more fun and the smell is fantastic. My Grandparents lived through that age and both lived into their nineties but we have a better life don’t we? Oh you where’s yer face mask?

[@ronfisher2-railwaytravelvideos]

✔😢👍

[@mediacityavid]

I suggest you remove the deliverance music & add atmosphere of towns & cities.

[@nocturn791]

What deliverance music was this?

[@2mikelim]

The atrocious quality of 8mm film!

[@paulnolan1352]

What ya belly aching about?, you can still see it can’t you?.

[@2mikelim]

@@paulnolan1352 all I can see are smudges of color on a woolly backdrop. Details are all gone. Had it been 16mm it would had been near cinema quality.

[@philsimpson3556]

@@2mikelim Better than nothing

[@lenholloway4390]

Most of this was trams, not trolley busses and never insult me with your made up god