Busman's Holiday (1968)

Reading, Berkshire and Great Bookham, Surrey.
Various shots show a 1961 Sunbeam F4A with Burlingham body trolley bus driver Peter Lepine-Smith setting off from a depot and driving a trolley bus on one of the few remaining trolley circuits in Britain at the time, although it was due to close shortly. He picks up his wife and two little daughters from a bus stop and takes them for a spin around the town.
As Peter changes lines with a pole above the trolley bus, we cut to a shot of him doing the same for a model trolley bus in his back garden in Great Bookham, Surrey. This amazing model stands at about five foot and runs on lines around the garden.
Peter stops at a little bus stop to pick up his two daughters who clamber in the back; it does look rather cramped for the driver, but commentator informs us the bus can carry four adults or six children!
Note: on file is a magazine article about Peter and his model trolley bus plus correspondence.
FILM ID:429.03
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[@neiloflongbeck5705]

Time to bring back the trolley bus. Fitted with batteries to allow short distance runs off the wires.

[@owilliams1031]

Trolley trucks, too.

[@fetchstixRHD]

If you need a large range off-wire, at least you have a way to charge those batteries on the move! If not, then you save the weight and cost (financial and environmental) of the batteries, those can be put to better use or across more vehicles.

[@oscarmanzanoserna3115]

How bout dusting some of those bad boys off and refitting them to work with modern electric systems? Would be nice to see those relics plowing the streets again (assuming there are some left in museums...)

[@neiloflongbeck5705]

@@oscarmanzanoserna3115 there are some in the UK, but no systems to run the on that I'm aware of.

[@LickMyMusketBallsYankee]

All over the place in the US

[@robharding5345]

What a resourceful chap ! great old time capsule.

[@532bluepeter1]

I hadn't realised how late Reading's trolleybuses finished. I lived in Reading for 9 months in the mid 80s and they still had the maintenance tower lorry for the trolley wires sitting in the garage then.

[@NickRatnieks]

Peter's small trolleybus was built on the chassis of a Job's milk float. I was brought up in Reading and in August 1968, I was given with two friends a tour of the Mill Lane bus depot and we travelled a fair bit on the last remaining trolleybus route that passed by their home in Wokingham Road.

[@LolLol-xy4rh]

Do u know what happened to his bus?

[@Sterlingjob]

@@LolLol-xy4rh I live in Bookham and go past his house every day. From the alley way you can see the wires and poles in the garden. I assume the bus is inside the shed still. I’d love to knock on the door!

[@voodoopenguin]

@@LolLol-xy4rh I have been told that it has been donated to the National Trolleybus Museum.

[@voodoopenguin]

Sandtoft DN8 5SX

[@andynixon2820]

I bet his kids loved it .

[@johannkrammer4069]

I think, it looks like, they are loving it.

[@notgadot]

Absobloodylutely

[@leytonexile]

I want one!

[@Dragon-Slay3r]

We have a variety of roofs take a pick

[@CavesAreIrrelevant]

The extents British men will go to, to placate a hobby. We truly are the hobby nation.

[@notgadot]

Be proud.

[@CavesAreIrrelevant]

That I am@@notgadot

[@monkeyintensity1]

I want a ride in the little trolley bus !!

[@user-wf8py7xi3g]

As they say in Russia: “For boys, the first 40 years of childhood are the most difficult.”😂

[@moskva_channel]

Нет. Первые сорок лет детства мужчины самые увлекательные

[@notgadot]

@@moskva_channel viva ukraine

[@nondompom]

I wonder where in Great Bookham this guy lived. I lived there in the 70's.

[@juliesmith5567]

I want that one he has just got into models and toy busses to keep as a hobby

[@Goldi3loxrox]

What ever happened to this home Trolly Bus How amazing !!

[@moskva_channel]

I love it😍

[@jokercokerboy]

Эти двухэтажные троллейбусы классные в XX веке списали уже давно 1911 году britain был старым а сейчас новый и троллейбусов больше нет только автобусы Питер Лапин Смит Родился несколько лет назад

[@johnmills7716]

He might have put in a road for it!

[@Mavid274]

1:21 Пивко!

[@Dragon-Slay3r]

Keg 🤜🤛? 😂

[@trainsimulatordriver]

Human short sighted outlook and the lobbying power of the oil industry still astounds me

[@laurenceskinnerton73]

Interesting.

[@BeavKsam]

👍

[@NFAQ1]

Does it still exist?

[@grassytramtracks]

I don't think there are any trolleybuses left in the UK

[@dasy2k1]

​@@grassytramtracks there are a handful of museums with them. The black Country museum, beamish. Santoft and carton colleville spring to mind

[@Dragon-Slay3r]

Diagonal roof on the sad mccoys it drains on the dry ice trolley im here to find the holiday inn hotel roof so it falls back on them thats why they want the sisqo drive situation at the lights traffic

[@Deqoid_123]

''an adults toy' '

[@Trollebas1]

на Адмирале токоприёмники так же устанавливаются с помощью палочек

[@user-fd6dt2jr8i]

А раньше и в Венгрии на ЗиУ

[@moskva_channel]

Штангоухват

[@playgt326]

Electric buses existed a long time ago, those ones are the best example of electric vehicles. The future isn't the electricity, the ecology yes is.

[@ziu682]

тролза

[@moskva_channel]

Нет, это Burlingham на шасси Sunbeam

[@nickgower8681]

They should not have removed trolleybuses. Total lack of foresight. Typical of Britain

[@nicksterl.2133]

0:01 mandem must realise that everything is by design, not by accident.

[@TheMusicalElitist]

Oh shut up

[@LickMyMusketBallsYankee]

The cooking properties of microwave radiation was discovered by accident. As was the antibacterial properties of penicillin.