FORTY YEARS gONe

Yesterday 26th March 2012 was the fortieth anniversary of the end of UK trolleybus operation

David Beilby has put together an archive to commemmorate this

I was far too young to be there - it must be someone else who contributed

Files on view at :- David Beilby photos | Bradford Trolleybuses

 

Remember the Rotherham ones well. Very plush interiors compared to their diesel cousins.

Travelled on a trolley bus last year at The Trolleybus Museum at Sandtoft

Guess what. they've a Bradford 40 gala coming up.

 

Travelled on the Bradford trollies during a family holiday to Wibsey in 1963. (How some people live. ) On the Saturday I was given the choice of a trip to Low Moor shed or to watch Bradford (Park Avenue) play football. I chose the football as I knew that guaranteed more trolleybus mileage. To this day I've no idea if a trip to Low Moor would have been by trolleybus but I wish now I'd gone there instead of the football.

 

Mrs C was taken on the Bradford trollies as a babe in arms. I have decided to dislike her for the fact she has travelled on a revenue earning trolley and I haven't ;-) Sadly she has no interest in going to Sandtoft over Easter...

 

You're not going to like me than when I tell you I also travelled on LT trollies too in the late 50s.

 

Ha Ha, with respect, I'm not married to you Ian... ;-) There's only two years between my wife and I and geography meant that she had that chance...albeit unintentionally. Had she not met me, the issue would never have been raised. I asked her Mum the other year if Kathryn had ever been taken on a Bradford trolley "Oh yes..." came the reply, and that was it!

 

I can remember seeing the Bournemouth trolley buses in the last days in the late 60s when I was a wee sproglet and we went to visit relatives there. Not sure if I ever rode on one, although there is a suspicion of a memory... Must ask my dad!

 

The Reading ones I remember very well, also worked on them for the first 3 years of my working life until they were withdrawn in Nov'68. Must of been the largest Trolleybus closure ceremony ever, you couldn't move in Mill Lane. There again Reading had a large Trolleybus following with a big local enthusiasts society, which is still going & one of the instigators of Sandtoft. Unbelievable they scrapped 7 year old trolleys new in 1961, although some were sold to Teesside. I attended the Bournmouth, Bradford & Cardiff closures as well as Reading of course.

 

I well remember the Glasgow trolly buses, you had to get a number 101 from the City Centre to get to St. Rollox shed! The end of that ride in '64 and 65 you were almost sure to cop a couple of A4's!

 

I think Glasgow was unique in operating both trams & trollies up until the early 60's. Apart from Blackpool, wasn't Glasgow the last old style tram system to close in 1962?

 

I thought that honour went to Sheffield but I could be wrong.

 

Didn't Doncaster try out a new experimental trolleybus system in the 80's? Somewhere near the racecourse. At least one new vehicle was built, based on a Dennis Dominator with an Alexander body?

 

I think Sheffield closed in 1960.
Edit, found this.
http://www.cyberpictures.net/sheffield/

 

I remember Bradford AND the 6 wheelers (3 axle) Huddersfield trolley buses.
There are moves afoot to introduce them in Leeds (after spending/wasting millions of pounds on groundworks for a new tramway system, government gave the thumbs down to that) If ever a city needed a tramway system badly, that city is Leeds.

 

I vividly remember chasing my first one to board in Huddersfield after coming out of school........could those things accelerate..........I stood no chance

 

Glasgow's tram system closed on the 12th September 1962.

Tony Wilson - "Travelens" has the rights to Geoff Lumb's and Vic Knutton's libraries of British bus and tram systems from the fifties and sixties, and my wallet takes a hammering every time I see him as more pictures come to light.

Last weekend he had some superb stuff from Huddersfield of trolleys in the hills well outside the urban centres - it makes you realise that although we have many more comforts in life today they have come at the price of a dramatic loss of variety, interest, and jobs, on which the country and its population depended in our formative years.

At the risk of Tony's ire - but also as an advert for his wares - here's a sample of some of the variety he offers in very low resolution

 

Top left is an absolute gem Frank. Lots of memories are stirring. Huddersfield Town football game on a Saturday afternoon, a long long line of those to get the crowds away. Happy days.

 

Agreed. I like that pic a lot. Mind you the one below of big and little Deltics ain't bad.

 

It's ascending the Ainleys from Elland well before it was made a dual carriageway and the M62 underpass. In the background is Elland power station, now no more, and the railway passing it towards Brighouse.

 

Blimey I know that road - sweeps down passed the the Harold Wilson mac factory - Gannex? That's a fair way from 'udderfield centre.