Trolleybuses Newcastle UK 1960s

[@chrisbanks5925]

I remember travelling on the trolley buses in Newcastle with my mother when I was a small boy and they would have been the perfect mode of transport for today . . . they never should have got rid of them.

[@Jeffybonbon]

what a time machine this is loved every sec thank you for posting

[@Queensburyheights]

What an absolutely terrific video. I was born in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire in 1946 and I travelled on both the Bradford and Huddersfield systems many times. But very sadly by the time I made my first visit to Newcastle all the trolleybuses had gone. And that fabulous yellow livery was so distinctive. I live in London and I see nothing but red. Oh dear.

[@andrewtaylor5984]

Newcastle had twenty trolleybuses diverted from London Transport, nos 479-498, with matching LTN registrations.

[@Billrobster]

I think the way London has gone, most BRITISH people see red.

[@kangaroogroundboy]

in winter when it snowed the sparks from the overhead made the snow flakes look green....they were pretty cold and I'd wait for a diesel bus as in the early sixties they'd started cutting heaters under the second row of seats upstairs.

[@martinro8127]

I lived in Wideopen as a child in the 1950s. To get into town we would walk down to the Trolley terminal at Gosforth Park where there was a big turning circle.

[@andrewtaylor5984]

The Gosforth Park route was opened in 1948 and lasted just under 16 years. The route was basically an extension of the Gosforth tram route, but there was nowhere to turn a trolleybus in the Gosforth High Street area.

[@mickylad59]

It seems strange today to think that we scrapped the clean, quiet, efficient trolley bus for dirty, noisy, gas guzzling diesel buses..

[@reggiesmith3866]

The same is happening on the railways. 40 years ago most of the freight on the West Coast main line was hauled by clean efficient electric locos. Then many were either sold abroad or scrapped and now that same freight is mostly hauled by polluting diesel locos. I know of no other country so stupid as to do this.

[@johno4521]

No, they have been replaced with clean, quiet, efficient euro 6 diesel vehicles...

[@reggiesmith3866]

@@johno4521 And it took decades of pollution from the dirty trolleybus replacements before we reached this point.

[@canardeur8390]

We?? Who?? Not me!! I was not born at that time... That stupid old generation, maybe?

[@reggiesmith3866]

@@canardeur8390 You will be one yourself one day, unless someone sorts you out before then.

[@ma6579]

My Dad is almost certainly driving one of those trolley buses and my Mam is almost certainly a clippie on one as well. They were on a few of those routes, based out of Slatyford depot. My Dad drove for Newcastle Corporation then the PTE between 1959 and 1975. As much as my eyes strain I can’t make out any driver’s face and I knew quite a few of them!

[@davidhoward5392]

Remember them going along Elswick Road through Benwell and turning at Deleval Road when I was a lad.

[@colinwhite144]

God that make me shiver these busses were quite nippy in speed yes in winter sparks from the booms overhead cable sparks bouncing of the road. The conductor would get a long pole from back of bus underneath and Chang the connection in overhead wires. I'm 75yrs old it seems like a few weeks ago. In them days life was great people great food great even in devties and eighties and so on before mobile I phones and computers great stuff

[@Billrobster]

Brings back happy memories.

[@trevorashworth7307]

The days when Newcastle had a REAL public transport system.

[@dwiggi3rd504]

Actually I found the Trolleybuses to be cold and dingy in the wintertime. I remember me and my pal were overjoyed when a new warm, bright Atlantean bus showed up on our trip along the West Road back in the 60's... Yet nowadays everyone is switching back to electric vehicles.

[@canardeur8390]

Ok boomer!

[@Billrobster]

@@canardeur8390 r sole

[@alangardner6689]

Real people movers with silence. I so wanted to drive one of these when I was younger. Every Saturday New bridge street to Potts Street to visit Grandma & Granda. Very sad to see them go!!

[@jean2740]

I was a wee bairn when we had the trolly buses , open back freezing in winter, and people could run for the bus when it was moving and it was fine ,but today the bus drivers see u in rear view mirror and take off 😉

[@walterwright836]

That's first lesson in bus drivers training school looking in the mirror and seeing nothing

And the bus drivers are no longer British.

[@brianmorgan8825]

What a joy. Remember them well predominantly on routes 31, 33,39/40. While glad to see the back of them at the time, logging the arrival of every batch of Atlanteans with keen interest, have tried to catch up with one or other of I believe only two surviving but have only managed a glimpse of one in a shed at Beamish and later likewise at Lowestoft

[@williamnethercott4364]

Ditching the trolley buses was short-sighted, even at the time. I bet they wish they had them now!

[@andrewtaylor5984]

This was a trend which started as early as 1946. I have explained the facts in greater detail elsewhere.

[@iandennis1]

Brilliant film

[@madmeister407]

As a bairn I jumped off one of these trolley busses on Byker bridge, i got on at the bus stop at the bottom of Shields road but my mum didn't, I panicked and jumped off, good job it was going slow🤣 the cliippy was not impressed. Got a right telling off by my mum. Good old days me thinks.

[@monkwhitley]

I would like to ask the current city council chief's what someone once asked the great George Best - "where did it all go wrong"?

[@Jeffybonbon]

how right you are

[@leeharwood9624]

Tell me about it. All the amazing architecture gone, the whole place got bulldozed the walls towers gates and all the spectacular architecture. The council needs hung for doing it

[@Ian-lx1iz]

I'd like to ask the current city council chief what someone once asked the great George Best: 'What's Miss World like in bed?'

I could answer but my reply would be deleted.

[@leeharwood9624]

All the beautiful architecture thats gone 😢😢 great video tho ❤🖤 ⚪

[@davidarmstrong1559]

It says Newcastle Trollybuses. Which other operators did you expect.

[@christinehales4222]

I just sbout remember them ,certainly yellow buses in general .I also recsll the overhead cables

[@lauradavison4044]

I know they had to go but I loved the trolley buses

[@johno4521]

They sometimes would over heat going up Westgate Road...

Anyone notice how in those days all women and girls wore skirts and dresses? It was completely unheard of for them to wear pants. I remember the first time women dared to wear pants it created an enormous controversy.

[@cs0rpc]

Do you have any footage from Heaton Road. Also, how did you digitise the footage?

[@alistairwood80]

I'll ask my father. He had them digitised.

[@cs0rpc]

@@alistairwood80 awesome, thank you

A rare Nash Metropolitan zooms by 7:34

[@frasermitchell9183]

Title seems wrong. All the footage is of Newcastle trolleys. Nothing wrong with that, but if you were expecting to see other operators you'll be disappointed

[@alistairwood80]

I'll amend the title.

[@frasermitchell9183]

@@alistairwood80 Very nice footage ! Newcastle was a big system in its day, yet you never hear much about it.

[@andrewtaylor5984]

@@frasermitchell9183 There is a publication "The Trolleybuses of Newcastle upon Tyne" by Hanson and Canneaux. In terms of vehicles owned, only London, Belfast, and Glasgow had larger fleets, and they are all larger cities. The Newcastle system could even have been the largest outside London, if it had been extended to Gateshead to replace the trams there. There were several attempts to do so, but the Gateshead trams were not municipally owned. The Gateshead company was part of the British Electric Traction group, and, despite its title, had been abolishing its trams over the years. Gateshead was the last, being closed down in 1950/51. A fleet of 68 motorbuses replaced the trams. Newcastle had 186 trolleys after the war. If Gateshead had converted, the combined fleet would have totalled 254, about the size of the Belfast fleet at its peak. One of the stumbling blocks in Gateshead was the inability to turn trolleys at the south end of the Tyne and High Level Bridges; the trams could be driven from either end.

[@TonyFox-so9qv]

Good footage, Alastair! The first ten minutes are duplicated. Do you have other video that could be slotted in?

[@alistairwood80]

This is my father's footage. I'm simply uploading it for him.

[@TonyFox-so9qv]

@@alistairwood80 Thanks, Alastair. There are some really interesting snippets throughout the film. Well done.

[@TonyFox-so9qv]

Sorry Alistair. That's twice I got your name wrong...

More than duplicated, shown multiple times and often spliced out of sequence.

[@kopynd1]

penny half to Potts Street Byker please, value for money, 3 old pennies equal 1 new pence jump on jump off class. mint cine

[@jean2740]

That must have been way back

[@philschulkins2241]

The bravest pedestrians come from Newcastle O T

I'm not sure it's bravery.

[@wordup1944]

Not very diverse.! Probably low crime too .

[@philgray1023]

In your stupidest dreams. Crime was well organised back then.

[@brianupton2520]

They were the best ride, so smooth no gear changing, why they got rid of them I’ll never no, I doubt they do either, some lobbying arse hole I expect.

[@jean2740]

Very trus

[@hanniffydinn6019]

The oil companies on purpose ruined electric trams.

[@andrewtaylor5984]

In those days, the maxim was, "What London Transport says today, the rest of Britain says tomorrow." London Transport decided to replace the South London trams with diesel buses in 1946, and conversion started four years later. Meanwhile, the number of trolleybus manufacturers was now down to two, BUT and Sunbeam. The former was the merger of Leyland and AEC, whilst Sunbeam had merged with Karrier and Guy, although the real position is rather more complex. Crossley was taken over by AEC in 1948, and Daimler pulled out because hardly anyone bought their trolleys after the war. Then, in 1954, London Transport decided to abandon its system, except for Fulwell and Isleworth, although they were subsequently added. At this point, there was going to be little demand for new trolleys, and most municipalities had decided to abandon them by 1960. Newcastle was, I think, the third last operator to announce abandonment, making the fateful decision at the end of 1962. At this time, trolleys were costing 6d a mile more than diesel buses. The system was to be abandoned in four stages, the first two in 1963/4, and the others in 1967/8. In the end, the third and fourth stages were both brought forward by two years. The City had planned new roads, and one-way streets in or near the City Centre, and the Corporation was not going to have the city rewired. Another factor in Newcastle was that the Gosforth Park route ran well beyond the City boundary. In 1957/8, when the A1 was being widened, Newcastle Corporation had to obtain a grant from Northumberland County Council to rewire the section from the Three Mile Inn to Gosforth Park. Sadly, this rewiring only lasted just over five years. In the absence of a grant, this section could have been abandoned in 1958; it actually lasted until February 1964. I lived in Newcastle between 1957 and 1975, and I could not believe it when told that the trolleys were to be replaced. (I was ten when abandonment was announced.) Another factor which led to the death knell of the trolleybus was that wire later became unobtainable. The only manufacturer of trolleybus wire was BICC, who said that they would cease making it at the end of 1966, so orders received after the cut-off date would not be honoured. By this time trolleybus abandonment was well under way, and not just in Newcastle. The huge London system had finished in 1962.

[@andrewtaylor5984]

@@hanniffydinn6019 The electricity industry was nationalised in, I think, 1947, and there was a hefty increase in costs practically everywhere. Meanwhile there was, at the time, plenty of diesel fuel available. Once upon a time, electricity was owned by local authorities.