The Last British Trolley Bus Systems

[@davefrench3608]

Fantastic footage, all those systems thrown away for cheap oil. And still the powers that be won’t consider the trolleybus as urban public transport. Madness

[@johnbristow8099]

I suppose that in time the plug-in electric bus will become the equivalent.

[@dasy2k1]

But the plug in battery bus has to carry tons of batteries and spend half the day on charge! The best solution is still wires but as used in Switzerland where they have significant off wire battery range. That way only the key bus corridors (which probabbly have bus lanes already) need wires with the busses operating on battery round the estates. But being charged whenever they are on the wires

[@SaxonSuccess]

@sMansGuitars Yes, me too. No pleasure in driving anymore. I didn't renew my licence when I was seventy, nearly eight years ago now.

[@edwinturner1149]

my town is getting more snarled up most days,even on sundays,15 mins to do a 5min journey in very busy times

[@PaulioBee]

Feels like this should be the future, and not the past.

[@justwilliam6871]

I remember these in Bradford, West Yorkshire, when I was a kid. They were quite fascinating, bring back the trolley buses!

[@alasdairblack393]

Me too. I took one of the last trolleys with my dad in Bradford.

[@kristinajendesen7111]

I'm lucky enough, and old enough nearly 63, to have travelled on the Bournemouth trolleybuses, I remember the turntable in use at Christchurch too. Still there of course in an office car park under a preservation order. Coincidentally I took some pictures today of the remains of the posts in Beresford Road Southbourne that held the overhead wires. There are 4 visible on one side of the road only where they were cut off at the base. Four iron rings poking up through the tarmac of the paving. I also saw, but didn't travel on, the Reading ones while visiting relatives in the 60s, my uncle worked in Heals department store where they went past. Such a wonderful 'green' means of transport and much missed.

[@glenaetitmus2106]

It has to be said that if some of these systems had survived until the 70's fuel crisis, they would probably still be with us. This is the case of several trolleybus systems in France which at the time were threatened with closure. Lyon, St Etienne and Lomoges for example; Grenoble kept them until the introduction of new trams in late 80's but gradually lost them by the end of the 90's as their trams expanded.

[@annoyingbstard9407]

Better yet…why get rid of horse drawn vehicles?

[@glenaetitmus2106]

Well, are you going to follow them with a bucket and shovel, there's many a good thing grown in 'hors d’œuvres'...!@@annoyingbstard9407

[@Mark.Andrew.Pardoe]

Sad pictures of what we have lost. Not only the trolleybuses but also the municipal liveries. A shame there was nothing here of Nottingham.

[@johnbristow8099]

Yes I did visit Nottingham but did not have a cine’ camera at the time. They had great trolleys!

[@kristinajendesen7111]

There's a couple on KZbin. Nottingham Trolleybuses - Martin Miller and at the end of Nottingham - B/W - No sound - British Movietone

[@Mark.Andrew.Pardoe]

@@kristinajendesen7111 Thank you.

[@richardstuart325]

Mum used to take us on "the trolley" in Nottingham. Abiding memories are the rapid acceleration and distinctive noise. The trolleys seemed a permanent feature when we moved overseas in '63. On return in '66, they were gone.

[@grahamcheshire9787]

I used to use the Huddersfield trolleybuses to go to work in the 1960s. In the early 70s, when a student radiographer I used the Bradford trolleybuses to go to the Infirmary including their last day operating a public service. On one occasion I assisted X-raying casualties from what was probably the last trolleybus accident in the UK, after one was turned over with passengers aboard.

[@nicktheroyalturner3370]

Really good to see the trolley buses again - Thank you 👍

[@robertheywood5523]

I wonder if it would be better reintroducing Trolley Buses instead of Trams? After all, you just need to run the matrix of overhead power cables. As opposed to digging up the road network to lay rails. Just a thought 🤔

[@johnbristow8099]

I tend to agree.

[@dasy2k1]

In some places yes in other places no. Modern trams have a much higher capacity and loading speed so are better for very heavily used routes. Trolly busses especially the modern hybrid ones with in motion charging are ideal for smaller cities and larger towns. And for secondary routes linked with trams.... The first route in the UK I would wire is the Cambridge-st Ives guided busway as that is an absolutely perfect example of where wiring the guideway and running on battery in the historic bits would be super appropriate

[@johnwalkley6746]

I remember the trolleys in Cardiff and yes every so often I think this is just about the perfect system and with modern tech advances so much better. Then I think of the yoofs constantly throwing things onto the wires for fun! All of which cause delay and danger so sadly in this green and septic land of ours it’s not going to happen.

[@gainsbourg66]

Yes, but trams give councils so much more to virtue signal about. It's trams or nothing as far as they are concerned. They are just party political career people who don't really care about efficiency, logic etc. I learned this when the Ealing tram scheme was rejected as unfeasible - they could have been substituted by tolley buses but that just didn't have enough Brownie points.

[@TheRandCrews]

For Trolleybuses for routes you would’ve had to loop around to restart the journey like unidirectional trams. For Bidirectional trams or light rail you can use crossovers to just reverse back to go to the other terminus. Less wires to put up though a bit more land space to put stations and crossing rails. Usually trams are seen to be used in good dense corridors, and that might not need metro style service

[@WOLFIE-96B-UK]

I remember riding Newcastle Corporation 6 wheel Sunbeams as a child. Happy Days!

[@johnbristow8099]

Yes, I saw the Newcastle trolleys in the ‘60s but unfortunately didn’t manage any video.

[@leeharwood9624]

Iv Watched a few newcastle trolley bus vids. I get more shocked at how much nicer newcastle was back then

[@lavrentizapadni747]

Glasgow ran trolley buses from 1949 till 1967. Its network ran both single and double decker vehicles.

[@johnbristow8099]

I remember seeing the Glasgow trolleys in 1962. Unfortunately I didn’t own a movie camera at the time.

[@davidwedlock2622]

I remember them as a kid running through Wembley in the '50s and 'early '60s

[@swanvictor887]

Fascinating film footage. I had never seen a turntable for trolley-busses before! Thanks for uploads. Cheers from Brunei.

[@johnbristow8099]

No, I wasn’t aware of another one in the UK.

[@geofffletcher840]

I remember my dad taking on the last trolly bus in Brixton, South London must have been about 5. Great memories.

[@johnminshell6532]

I remember riding on the Trolley Buses from Uxbridge Bus going towards Ealing that Beauty looks like an AEC who were base in South Hall near Hayes

[@ianhelps3749]

Great filming. I remember the Reading trolley buses well. I think Reading was one of the last places to have them, with Bradford the very last iirc. Arnhem in Netherlands still has trolley buses.

[@johnbristow8099]

Yes, I remember seeing trolleys in Switzerland and Poland.

[@jimcrawford5039]

Fantastic video! I rode the Belfast ones a lot and others sometimes. They were very quiet & efficient, except when the trolleys came off! Lol. They should have been retained!

[@trevorhart545]

I remember seeing Teesside Trolleybus network actually EXPAND during the late 60s buying in new vehicles. Suddenly cut. Started as TRTB, then TMT then suddenly dropped. There were 2 shades of Turquoise used. Briefly a Greener version then quickly, within 12 months, going to the Teesside Municipal Transport Turquoise. Why, TRTB, Green, Stockton Corporation a different Green and Middlesbrough Corporation Blue. Politics, miss how quickly they accelerated, smooth and quiet and as a child fascinated at the difficult turnaround at North Ormesby, often resulting in a cane needed to put the pick up back onto the overhead line. Short term panic decision and I look at how well they are used in Zurich and Geneva.

[@johnbristow8099]

Yes, I was interested to see the ex - Reading vehicle, which I had previously photographed in Reading.

[@tooleyheadbang4239]

Sickeningly, our 'Last Teesside Trolleybus' was one of the ex-Reading ones, rather than a Teesside original.@@johnbristow8099

[@franktuckwell196]

Rode on the trolley buses to go to cubs (2d fare) 1962 . Should have retained them, no tracks in the roads like the trams, but electric and silent, non-polluting. They still have a few in the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley.

[@robtyman4281]

Crazy rhat that they got rid of them all. If we'd kept them, then we probably wouldn't have ULEZ in London.

[@johnbristow8099]

Plug-electric buses are likely to be the future trolley bus equivalent. It could be that road improvement schemes spelt the demise of the tb in some areas.

[@nickgower8681]

Electric cars are ridiculous, but trolleybuses were and are a very good way to transport the public. Big mistake to dismantle the systems

[@icdgyixify]

If you are missing them, they still have 2 routes in Bratislava.

[@peterrimmer-wj7qh]

I remember going through wallsall as a kid and seeing the trolley buses

[@johnbristow8099]

I loved visiting Walsall as their whole fleet (trolleys and diesels) were interesting.

[@michaelwestbrook5288]

I can remember travelling with my mother on the "Lit-up" bus in Portsmouth & Southsea during Coronation year in the early 50s. If my memory serves me right, you paid twice the normal price to travel on it. Can't remember which route it was on: maybe the 5/6 or the 19/20. Having got on @ the Canoe Lake we would have alighted at the Prison or Copnor Bridge for the former or Fratton Bridge/Bradford Junction on the latter. My primary school at the time was served by the 14/15 which terminated @ the Circle via Victoria Road South - the old school site is now a Safeway's multi storey car park! No posh closing doors on our trolleys.

[@alantunbridge8919]

I recall travelling on trolleybuses in London in the late 1950’s/early 1960’s,but visiting Spain in 1970 ,driving into Bilbao seeing what appeared to be ex-London trolleybuses ,but fitted with smoke belching diesesl engines,surprising. When I first came to South Africa in 1972 threr were still some running in Johannesburg,but soon disappeared. I was in Vancouver recently & pleased to see that they have an extensive system around the city centre obviously cuts down noise & emissions. Never understood the rationale in the U.K. to dispose of trams & trolleybuses ,as most European cities I visited had them & they worked well. I live in Cape Town now,here trolleybuses were called “trackless trams”.

[@tedthesailor172]

People today who never experienced a Trolley Bus have a huge gap in their education !

[@TX200AA]

I remember travelling to school on London routes 601 and 667 in the late 1950's early 60's. The trolley buses were sold to somewhere overseas (Spain?) and for the last few months of the system before the Routemaster buses appeared some very old, rattly, but much lighter and faster trolley buses were used. They were great fun and we schoolboys were sorry to see them go. When the Routemasters appeared it seems that nobody taught the drivers how to drive them, with the result that every gearchange was accompanied by a violent jerk. Trolley buses will not make a comeback, because battery electric buses require no overhead wires and can drive on any road.

[@EpicThe112]

Throwback to the Days of UK having OHLE Electric bus. What would have been done was keeping them up to the oil crisis and then modernizing those systems with the new batch being capable of OHLE/Battery operation. Under OHLE mode Electric battery is recharged via OHLE once off OHLE run like a normal Battery electric bus and recharge using two methods Plug in like an EV or OHLE charge like a German/Austrian Flirt Akku

[@tooleyheadbang4239]

Here in Tees-side we had a petrol-electric trolleybus, based on a Tilling-Stevens chassis, but able to run from either the overhead, or from its own petrol engine/generator combination. This was for the un-wired extension to Eston from Normanby, in 1924.

[@robertcampbell8955]

I remember the yellow Bournemouth trolleys. A lot of OHD cables needed. Unsightly? Perhaps, but a lot cleaner than diesel buses. But I don't think we will see them back in numbers. The best way to remove cars / congestion / pollution from our cities is a clean, frequent, affordable and extensive network of a variety of public transport solutions. Including tram and trolley routes.

[@v8pilot]

I was a student in Bournemouth in 1962. The trolley buses were silent and with great acceleration.

[@juliesmith5567]

I like the look of those can't beileve how they work on wires around so long el electrical so long moving well so many places to how long were they around for 😮then all to change for others

[@michaelscales5996]

The downside of the trolley bus was their lack of flexibility.For example if the road needed repairing they couldn't drive down another road where all the traffic was being diverted. I recall as a child,enjoying a ride on them from The Orange Tree in Friern Barnet to Wood Green to go shopping.Unfortunately journeys could be delayed if for example a car crash happened and they were unable to manoeuvre around the cars involved.

[@alasdairblack393]

I beg to differ, they had batteries too and could travel some distance away from the overhead.

[@michaelscales5996]

@@alasdairblack393 I recall my mum going on about the trolley bus being delayed,making her late for work, because of roadworks.The driver and conductor were unable to use the diversion.Also the "poles" could come off the overhead cables in high winds.

[@laurenceskinnerton73]

It’s all down to cost.

[@barcooter8248]

still all over the place in eastern europe

[@kevanhubbard9673]

A world already choked by cars even then!

[@chrisfrost8456]

What year did they finish?? I remember travelling on them around Derby and Nottinghamshire in about 1967ish

[@johnbristow8099]

They were removing the overhead wiring in Cardiff in the Summer of 1970, although Teesside might have been the last British system.

[@chrisfrost8456]

Idiot people who got rid of this system was clean practical and could have helped us out in the 70s oil crisis, and left in place could he developed further .

[@annoyingbstard9407]

So many people have no idea how expensive it is keeping overhead cables permanently charged throughout a city like London. There is a reason these have been gradually withdrawn around the world.

[@soutteruk1]

... and the reason is ...?

[@caroleast9636]

Nothing like the cost to the planet of stripping out rare earth resources to run huge expensive batteries. Power wherever you use it will also need to be generated. Of course wire systems need maintenance but the only argument against them is that they’re seen to be an old technology?

[@annoyingbstard9407]

@@caroleast9636 How sweet. You’re one of those people who think the “lectric” is free because it just sits waiting in the wires until you need it.

[@robwilde855]

Many places in the world still use them.

[@soutteruk1]

@@annoyingbstard9407 Why do you treat people who disagree with you like children? We are all Thatcher's children, for whom, unless we are, at least, millionaires, nothing is free - even water.

[@thecritic81]

Silent, efficient and cheap to run. Get rid of them. Lol

[@tonto716]

I have 150scale model trolly buses when people come to m

[@peterbussh]

Electric in times gone by, Now they bringing back Electric busses ,, The world is bonkers

[@johnbristow8099]

Hence the old expression, “There is nothing new under the sun”.

[@pierremainstone-mitchell8290]

Interesting but a commentary would improve it enormously!

[@DeanJuvenal]

Cardiff +/ Bradford - the last to get rid of them.

[@rikkilamb]

Bradfords lasted 2 years longer.

[@zymoan]

Why is it silent? Would be a miles more interesting video with commentary.

[@johnbristow8099]

I tend to agree with you. Unfortunately the footage was shot on 8mm cine’ film, so no sound. I tried to make up for this with the titles.

[@abagatelle]

Could they reverse?

[@tooleyheadbang4239]

Certainly. Some routes required it, for turning.

[@abagatelle]

@@tooleyheadbang4239 Thanks. I'd love to see them back again.

[@jimmywilson4322]

Its cheap and simple to change a bus to electric on regular roots .cuts polution Perhaps when we get a decent moyer inlondon he may consider it .Howard cox .is the guy we need . I use to get a trolly bus to go From woolwich to Greenwich . The acceleration was fantasic if the driver was running late he soon made time up .sd kide it was good fun . To think we had it all our way back then but cheap diesel. Mest it up . The only thing was they run very quiet. One of thr reasons they git rid of them .but ss my old dad said. A bell on the bus Just to draw peoples attention. Would have sorted it . But as allways it was to easy .

[@allsystemsdownagain9553]

How ridiculous was that. Glad they got rid of it. What an eye sore.