I well remember vehicles like that working in Nottingham. Also I regretted the loss of trolley buses and their flexibility, and cannot understand the modern mania for the return of trams. One breakdown, accident or burst main and the network comes to a stop. The disruption over years in my former home town of Beeston, Nottingham was extensive to people and busineses alike and, on brief return visits, I never met one person in favour. The nearest example of trolleybuses is Limoges and, although I have never used them, I appreciate seeing them on whenever I pass through
Youâre right there Spardo. I remember the Nottingham trolleybuses well. If there was a problem, the crew simply pulled out the long pole from underneath the chassis and used it to unhook the booms, which they could either swing onto another set of overhead wires; or step the boom altogether and tow the bus away out of trouble.
Not only with breakdowns to the bus, they had apparently enough battery power to travel a certain distance without the booms in contact, thus enabling them to make a short detour round a blockage. Try doing that with a tram. My mate Peteâs Dad said that as a young man he wore very long what we would call winkle pickers, and he was standing in the gutter at Canning Circus waiting to cross the road. The 6 wheeler trolley turned into Ilkeston road and ran over the tips of his shoes, totally flattening them. Happily his toes were untouched and unharmed, didnât do his street cred any good on the way home though.
I well remember vehicles like that working in Nottingham. Also I regretted the loss of trolley buses and their flexibility, and cannot understand the modern mania for the return of trams. One breakdown, accident or burst main and the network comes to a stop. The disruption over years in my former home town of Beeston, Nottingham was extensive to people and busineses alike and, on brief return visits, I never met one person in favour. The nearest example of trolleybuses is Limoges and, although I have never used them, I appreciate seeing them on whenever I pass through
Youâre right there Spardo. I remember the Nottingham trolleybuses well. If there was a problem, the crew simply pulled out the long pole from underneath the chassis and used it to unhook the booms, which they could either swing onto another set of overhead wires; or step the boom altogether and tow the bus away out of trouble.
Not only with breakdowns to the bus, they had apparently enough battery power to travel a certain distance without the booms in contact, thus enabling them to make a short detour round a blockage. Try doing that with a tram. My mate Peteâs Dad said that as a young man he wore very long what we would call winkle pickers, and he was standing in the gutter at Canning Circus waiting to cross the road. The 6 wheeler trolley turned into Ilkeston road and ran over the tips of his shoes, totally flattening them. Happily his toes were untouched and unharmed, didnât do his street cred any good on the way home though.
Always learning summat new on here! I didnât know they could shunt under their own steam. I do remember a salutary lesson at school given by the visiting road safety officer who told a grim story about a boy who was run over by the rear wheels of a 6-legger trolleybus in Nottingham. I took great care with my kerb drill after that. This was in the '50s and pre-Green Cross Code so the drill was: look right; look left; all clear, over we go. You wouldnât last two minutes with that drill today.
Always learning summat new on here! I didnât know they could shunt under their own steam. I do remember a salutary lesson at school given by the visiting road safety officer who told a grim story about a boy who was run over by the rear wheels of a 6-legger trolleybus in Nottingham. I took great care with my kerb drill after that. This was in the '50s and pre-Green Cross Code so the drill was: look right; look left; all clear, over we go. You wouldnât last two minutes with that drill today.
I donât know why they were 6 wheelers, perhaps that is where the batteries, or the motor sat, or both?
Reading Corporation Transport had a large fleet of trolleybusâs when I was growing up, we actually had a bus stop in our front garden when they widened the A329 and had nowhere else to site it! Four and six wheelers, Sunbeams mostly, and they replaced the trams in 1939. I travelled to work on them for a few years, the system was abandoned in 1968 and some of the last batch of front entry ones were sold to Teeside. My neighbour was involved in setting up the Trolleybus Museum at Sandtoft, he is manager there now. They could move under battery power for a short distance, in the garage etc. There was a large power station at the garage on Mill Lane that provided the power, not quite as environmentally friendly as folk like to imagine.
Always learning summat new on here! I didnât know they could shunt under their own steam. I do remember a salutary lesson at school given by the visiting road safety officer who told a grim story about a boy who was run over by the rear wheels of a 6-legger trolleybus in Nottingham. I took great care with my kerb drill after that. This was in the '50s and pre-Green Cross Code so the drill was: look right; look left; all clear, over we go. You wouldnât last two minutes with that drill today.
I donât know why they were 6 wheelers, perhaps that is where the batteries, or the motor sat, or both?
Same number of tyres required, but if one of the two rear axles was not driven, and weight was not a great consideration on buses (is it?), perhaps it gave extra width within the bus for passengers, walkways?
Simple really, six wheelers carried more passengers although in Reading they were later replaced with front entry four wheelers probably due to the turnarounds at both ends of route 17 being quite tight.
Dennis Javelin:
Do you have any additional info on the first pic? Looks like the army was brought in to deliver the fuel as the trucks are all non-military. Iâm guessing that this was in response to the tanker drivers strike in October 1953.
Well somebody should tell the armyâŚNo Splash Loading. Get the loading arm fully in to the bottom of the tank .
Different nowadays, no climbing on top, everything is bottom load/ discharge.
Always learning summat new on here! I didnât know they could shunt under their own steam. I do remember a salutary lesson at school given by the visiting road safety officer who told a grim story about a boy who was run over by the rear wheels of a 6-legger trolleybus in Nottingham. I took great care with my kerb drill after that. This was in the '50s and pre-Green Cross Code so the drill was: look right; look left; all clear, over we go. You wouldnât last two minutes with that drill today.
I donât know why they were 6 wheelers, perhaps that is where the batteries, or the motor sat, or both?
Same number of tyres required, but if one of the two rear axles was not driven, and weight was not a great consideration on buses (is it?), perhaps it gave extra width within the bus for passengers, walkways?
Didnât think about that Dipster, in fact didnât know they were singles.
Simple really, six wheelers carried more passengers although in Reading they were later replaced with front entry four wheelers probably due to the turnarounds at both ends of route 17 being quite tight.
Pete.
Well that one seems to have duals on the rear, and with the single 2nd axle inboard, that wouldnât help with passenger numbers, but if that is the case why were the diesels not 6 wheelers too? Or were they, some of them?
BTW, I can see with that driven axle set so far back why they had problems with a tight turning circle.
Hello Larry, I saw this photo on another site some time ago. As I wasnât sure if it was one of your original pictures I thought that I would reshow it for you.
Simple really, six wheelers carried more passengers although in Reading they were later replaced with front entry four wheelers probably due to the turnarounds at both ends of route 17 being quite tight.
Pete.
Well that one seems to have duals on the rear, and with the single 2nd axle inboard, that wouldnât help with passenger numbers, but if that is the case why were the diesels not 6 wheelers too? Or were they, some of them?
BTW, I can see with that driven axle set so far back why they had problems with a tight turning circle.
I can remember trolley buses in London when I was a youngster. Those were all, I was sure, singles. Somebody, somewhere, has an answer!
Simple really, six wheelers carried more passengers although in Reading they were later replaced with front entry four wheelers probably due to the turnarounds at both ends of route 17 being quite tight.
Pete.
Well that one seems to have duals on the rear, and with the single 2nd axle inboard, that wouldnât help with passenger numbers, but if that is the case why were the diesels not 6 wheelers too? Or were they, some of them?
BTW, I can see with that driven axle set so far back why they had problems with a tight turning circle.
I can remember trolley buses in London when I was a youngster. Those were all, I was sure, singles. Somebody, somewhere, has an answer!
I remember them in London too. I think that apart from more width inside, they might have had the extra axle because of the weight of the batteries.
Happily his toes were untouched and unharmed, didnât do his street cred any good on the way home though. 
thatâll be some prop shaft on that thing. 
NMP
