Comment by David Bradley

On seeing this poster from the London Transport Museum Collection I could not help wondering the catchment area that would apply for passengers wanting to travel Kingston, especially those changing at Wimbledon. But these were the first trolleybuses to run in London and it must be difficult to run an advertising campaign to generate extra passengers onto a new mode of transport.

From: "Ian McIver" <tibiarex@hotmail.com>

This poster captures the essence of that part of your site that deals with the Kingston routes I knew so well.

The next two posters are reproduced from the WEB site and are reproduced by the kind permission of the Webmaster Michael Neal who provides these interesting notes:

British Thomson-Houston Company. Manufacturers of electric traction equipment. "....The trolleybus is very popular with both operator and public...." says the advertisement which depicts a London trolleybus depot. Nevertheless, when this advertisement was published, London Transport had already planned the scrapping of its trolleybus fleet. In fact the first AEC Routemaster prototype [the intended replacement for the trolleybuses] had already officially joined the LT fleet by September 1954.

British Insulated Callender's Cables Ltd. [BICC] produced trolley wires amongst other types of cable. I remember as a child, sitting in the Lyons Teahouse with my brother, sister and mother, above the Lyons Bakery in Wembley High Road, north-west London, which was on the 662 trolleybus route. Looking out of the window, we would be at the same level as the trolley wires. Our eyes would be fixed on these, waiting for the slightest movement, in order to be the first to predict the imminent approach of a trolleybus. It didn't take much to keep us kids entertained!

I am fortunate in that I can surf the internet at work, there being a permanent connection there. I sometimes find myself going through the same pictures on your site time after time and finding a new detail which I hadn't noticed before. Not just the trolleybuses themselves, but the shops, buildings, cars, street furniture and people. I was only 10 years old when the last trolleybus ran in London in 1962, but I have memories of the 662 through Wembley. I remember in fact my very first day at school in 1957 and travelling to school on the 79 bus [then operated with RT's], and the days when you could walk down the middle of many High Streets on a Sunday morning with very little risk of being run over. The small details in your pictures bring back and reinforce many of these memories. Just as an aside, I actually worked with two of the conductors I remembered from my primary school days travelling to school on the 79 bus, when I started driving buses at Alperton garage in 1973.

I regret that, despite having had an interest in buses from a very early age, I didn't start photographing them until my mid 40's. Better late than never. I just hope that in another 40 years time, maybe after my time on this Earth, people will be able to look at them and get as much out of them as I get out of your pictures.

From: "trakless" <trakless@trolleybus.co.uk>

The BICC poster is interesting [the picture is of Ipswich]. Brecknell Willis in Chard, Somerset had reciprocal arrangements over tram/trolleybus overhead supplies and the monopoly on trolleybuses supplies after 1935.

These posters were computer generated and are presented on this site for your personal enjoyment.

From: "Dave Wilsher" <dwilsher@trolleybus.net>

If only we had funding for an advertising campaign ..... wishful thinking I know. Anyway, here's the sort of thing going through my mind.

The possibilities of trolleybuses returning to London's streets is becoming more of a probability. To learn more go to the Consultation Pages on the TfL WEB site.

Please feel free to use either of these images on your WEB site providing the only change made is to its size. [A full size image is obtained by clicking on the poster].