Trolleybuses
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- Опубліковано 18 січ 2007
- Trolleybus routes 657 & 667 circa 1960 which operated from Shepherds Bush to Hounslow and Hampton Court. The soundtrack is of various radio programmes at the time which those of us of a certain age will remember vividly!
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Too young to remember this myself, but lovely to see those monsters roaming the old streets of where i live, free from congestion, bus lanes, traffic bumps and speed cameras! They must have been halcyon days indeed!
Thanks for sharing this. My late father drove the trolley bus on this route when he first came to England from Sri Lanka in 1957. The film gives a great insight into what his day must been like.
You could walk down the street feeling safe and not feeling like you were going to be attacked or harassed. So sad how times have changed for the worst
Loved this.Memories of childhood in England and the music took me back.England in the 50s . Never be the same again.
WHAT A SAFER PLACE SHEPHERDS BUSH WAS THEN , HAPPY MEMORIES . THANKS FOR POSTING .
Fantastic video! All that wonderful magic has disappeared and it saddens me to witness the decay our society has been and still is experiencing. Therefore it is with great fondness I am enjoying your videos.
I travelled to school from Perivale to Twickenham from 1959 -1962. Using the 65 bus to Brentford, then the 667 trolleybus to Twickenham and once a week to Hampton. I like to think that I may have been on one of the trolleybuses shown. Thanks for the memories
Thanks for posting this!! It's splendid! The buses are gracefully silent, and I finally get to see them in action. Still don't quite understand why London did not keep them, they are fast & swift, zero-emission and, cost less as compared to trams.
Those really were the days! This video is a real treasure and shows a wonderful assortment of cars, vans etc. it appears we have gone full circle with the introduction of the new Routemaster which is electric! Those Trolley buses could move - wow! I am going to watch this again as there must be loads of things I missed, like the shops. Please post more like these.
Ah absolutely brilliant. A trip down memory lane. I was 7 when this film was taken. I can just remember them!
Excellent video.....and very evocative music.....Two Way Family Favourites and Billy Cotton which will forever be associated with Sunday lunchtime. And The Adams Singers, how I hated them as a teenager.........
Yes, me too - never thought the day would come when Sing Something Simple would cause me real nostalgia!!
I LOVE your soundtrack especially WAKEY WAAAAAKE........HEY! Billy Cotton and the marvellous Sing Something Simple. I was only a child but my parents listened in every Sunday as we had dinner! I became a listener right up until the sad death of Cliff Adams in 2001 😪 We used to travel in our old Commer camper van and if it was a Sunday it accompanied our trips, to Swanage, or Devon! Sadly i never saw a trolley bus a great shame but I hear some may be preserved somewhere even running? If i can persuade my other half to endure the journey we shall go and find them. I know she sill be bored!! Thanks for sharing
I had no idea such good quality stuff was still in existence! Excellent work! Thoroughly enjoyed it and the music was most fitting too!
Beautiful Music and Beautiful Footage and west London Looking very nice. I grew up in the 80s and i loved how nice Hammersmith where i grew up and chiswick was back then even in the 90s i liked it. I think its all different now people arent nice to eachother anymore. Back then people would be nice to the transport workers and they would also be nice back now almost everyones got a chip on their shpulder
Wow this makes me feel so nostalgic thank you ❤ epscially this video!!
Great footage of these wonderful old Trolleys... electric buses eh, the future was right there if LT had only known it!
Bring back the Trolley buses.Far superior than the buses of today.Brings back fond memories of the past.Thanks for posting!!
Yes quite right, slapped wrists for me! The turnaround was at The Wellington. I grew up in Whitton and only really went to Hounslow on a Saturday morning for swimming lessons at Treaty Road baths!
I recall, on a 'special' in 1962, going under the Chiswick Flyover, Mr.J H Price shewing somebody the small aluminium slots just at the top of the stairs. In all my trips on trolleys, I had never noticed them. It enabled a conductor to test a bad coin by twisting it in the relevant slot. It was a hangover from tramway days.
Such lovely, nostalgic footage. I barely remember the last days of trolleybuses, but I can remember much of the excellent music - as played on the "Light Programme"(early Radio 2!). Magic, and much appreciated.
This is a knock-out!
Those of us who lived in this West London area in the 50's and 60's will be bowled over by this nostalgic film of our yesteryears in Brentfod and Chiswick!
Very many thanks for posting it...and for the music too!
I lived at The Farm Wellington Road North.
I remember the trolley stops outside The Grove Works with their big trees
and Soapers hardware opposite.
I expect all us locals went to the school in Martindale Road.
Did you know the pub "Flower Pot" just off Wellington Road North? Of course, it's now demolished?
Another brilliant piece of film, just to see the cars, bikes etc another trip back in time and as for the soundtrack, Billy Cotton Bandshow, Dick Barton, brilliant, thanks for posting.
Hah! At 4.50, - Kings Street, Hammersmith, N. Berg - bought a very smart navy gabardine raincoat there - in 1961 !!!
As a boy, I used to take the trolley bus from Hammersmith to Hounslow Heath to fly my model aeroplanes. Sundays were like a miniature air show - up to a hundred or so modellers flying.....and crashing!
Thanks for this video, Quarkman - took me back to teenage years and early married life, shopping in Hammersmith Market on Saturday morning, Poorer, but a better life.
not to mention twickenham i was born there in 1950 and i remember the trolley buses getting stuck under the dip in twickenham coming off the overhead cables and the sight of a trolley bus going past the green brings back a lot of great memories for me and the music is well placed to thank you for posting a great video
I love the music on this as well as the full-color film. Color is so wonderful in vintage films as it brings back the past as how it actually looked in real life. Black and white photography seems to create an exaggerated sense of antiquity to me. I would never say such a thing in my '20s. But now, as I'm pushing 60, I can appreciate that the past wasn't all that long ago. It's all in the perspective. I remember trolleybuses in NYC back in the '50s. Beautiful film. Thank you for posting this.
Thank you so much for this upload. You have made my husbands day
At 1min 20secs you can see the 657's at their Hounslow terminus doing a U-turn at Wellington Road,..across the road from the Wellington Pub.
Yes the old railway bridge at Brentford Town Station was a top nostalgic feature of the film...in addition to the 657 turning out of Goldhawk Road..into Chiswick High Road.
Friends have enjoyed seeing the 657 (again!) doing a rare U-turn outside The Raven Pub at Stamford brook Station>
The accompanying music is spot on. Pass the handkerchiefs Norman!!
Ah yes, The Wellington - now a Sainsburys Local. I lived at the south end of Wellington Road for some years by The Nelson - now a Tesco Express! Obviously not enough alcohol drinkers around there now.
This is a great piece of film of not only London Trolleybuses but period scenes including cars. Well done who put this together.
I see a stray Bristol Lodekka. In Reading the RTS would spin its fleet some Sundays so you could see a London trolleybus in action up to the mid 60s. Olde england-almost forgotten.
Oddly, yes! Used to be in the Royal Signals Band, then pro for a while but then went semi-pro for many years until arthritis hit! Still have a piano and full (electronic) organ which I play when somebody comes round and moves the rest of the furniture out of the way for me ! ! !
trolley buses are the only vehicle that I know that does 0 to 60 instantly!!!
Those things should never have been removed from the streets of London. They were clean.
I'm glad i spotted the AC 2 litre sports saloon at 0.26.
Electric public transport, the past and hopefully the future.
Like many others I can remember as a child riding on a Trolley bus. In my case it was usually around Walthamstow and East London. They were big, roomy (from memory) and very smooth. Shame they had to go, but things change.
I remember too.. the 623 from the Napier Arms, ( which was the end of the line to and fro from London.. was the bus my mother and I took ( I was about eight in 1954) to London , where we changed at Manor house.... Sitting on the upper deck, in the front of course, well, for me , it didn't get any better than that..
Brilliant. Agree with twoslices entirely. The 50's in my childhood - shopping with Mum, waiting for a trolley (no more than 3 minutes), evocative soundtrack. All in all 5 star!
absolutely amazing video! The sig tunes brought it all back as well - thanks!
These were fantastic...and very comfortable..with a great turn of speed...very sad when they went, but back then the lunatics were running the asylum...and still are...so many great things scrapped...all because of `progress`...ah well at least this video brings back a few good memories of better times,when we had a `normal` country to be proud of??
soundnicetome y
Love the expeditious movement along Chiswick High Road. It's practically one big cycle lane now, with hardly a cyclist in sight. The planet-savers and obesity-busters have a lot to answer for.
brings back loads of memories,i used to live by the white city stadium,the trolley buses ran along wood lane which was made of tarmac,when it rained it turned it into a skating rink,this was in the 1950s
Thanks for posting...very enjoyable!
A great video with perfect soundtrack. My granny used to take me to Beddington Park from Croydon on the 654. Happy days! You can ride on a London Transport trolleybus at the East Anglian Transport Museum near Lowestoft.
awesome music
Certainly nostalgic, not just the trolleybuses but the ads on the sides and the cars in the road too. There are some proposals in London to bring them back, not sure if it will happen or even if it's desirable.
But weren't they NARROW?!! Modern buses are much wider.
Marvellous! My earliest memories! Travelling with my mother on the 607 from West Ealing to Shepherds Bush - I was little more than three. I always wanted to go upstairs - my mother told me that 'bad people' (smokers') were up there, and that it was safest to sit on the bench seats (over the rear wheels), near the conductor, and near the exit! A lovely film, all shot on sunny days, which I recall as being rather rare! Google my blog (Grey Jumper'd Childhood) for more West London in the 1960s
Michael Dembinski o
From a distance the trolleybuses were exactly the same size and general shape as the RT buses in appearance...until they got close enough or clear of traffic enough to spot the radiator or the pantograph on the roof. I remember many times waiting for a number 25 bus when I was a young child and being disappointed to finally make out the flat front.
I went on a preserved trolley at the Black Country museum at Dudley, and it felt so similar to today’s electric taxis, if only we could get these back onto today’s traffic.
Bring back the electric Trolly bus. As a lad we would take the 142 Watford to Edgware to ride the fast clean electric bus the Marble Arch and beyound, stuff the underground..
What's that music starting at 6:55? - - it sounds familiar - - My God, it's the theme from CAPTAIN KANGAROO! Every American boy and girl in the 1950's and 60's watched that show! Thanks.
Wow, Hammersmith has changed beyond all recognition.....I don't recognise it at all in this footage. If it hadn't said 'Hammersmith' I wouldn't have known where it was! I assume this was before the flyover there was built - amazing! This explains it.
Highly nostalgic! some great things seen in passing too.
I don't remember the trolleybuses running off course but do remember the boom coming off the overhead wires, especially at busy junctions, and the driver getting out of the cab with a very long pole to hoist it back on. Ah, happy days!
love the vido takes you back to grate days iwas eght when thay finished in 1964 in hull have put some photose of hull ones on you tube thanks for puting on
yours nick cox hull
Housewife's Choice.
HTH
Thanks for some lovely footage, Quarkman0 !
@grahamwebb2000 No, that description was put there by iTunes because "By a sleepy lagoon" is later in the clip (the theme tune to Desert Island Discs). If you're referring to the opening music, it's called "In Party Mood" and was the music to Housewives' Choice.
I was born right next to the Hampton Court terminus in 1959. By the time I was allowed out on my own, the 267 bus route was operated by DMS Daimlers, but the route was almost exactly the same (unlike the trolleybuses, they came over the bridge to terminate on the forecourt of Hampton Court Station) and the locations pretty similar.
I was born in Chiswick in 1960.. sadly by the time i knew what a bus was the 667 had become the 267 routemaster bus! Itself now a lost icon of London
There are trolleybuses in San Francisco. Bodywork was a bit creaky, but they went well enough. Most UK trolleybuses could travel short distances on their batteries for manoeuvring at depots and when the poles came adrift from the wires.Although trams usually had a retrieving cord attached to their contact pole, trolleybuses rarely did and the conductor had to get a gigantic bamboo-type pole out from under the vehicle and lift it up to retrieve errant poles, needing strong muscles!
Fortunatlely I had to travel on Trolleybuses for times a day , and always used the top deck
I was born in Whitton in 1948 coincidentally. I remember the booms regularly coming off the cable outside Fulwell depot.
I used to go on the 607 from Southall Broadway to Hanwell in the 50's for piano lessons..
great video. Oh for a time machine!
Wonderful!!
@Quarkman0 I totally agree i wish i could go back to those times and the music fits so well as i remember all those radio shows. I grew up in Twickenham not far from the dip and i used to get the 601 everyday from Twickenham Green to Teddington for School until they sadly changed it to the Route-master Bus that was the end of an Era for the trolley bus there are some great memories here for me thank you for posting
This is great! And so is 'More Trolleybuses'. I rode trolley buses aged 7/8 from (I think I remember right) my school near/at Raynes Park to near home Wimbledon W20 (19?). They were so modern! Electric! Someone tell Red Ken: green means Back To The Future (they were on the right track back then),
Hi Rob! Sorry for the delay in replying. At the same time as "Captain Kangaroo", here in England we had a children's record request programme every Saturday morning entitled "Children's Favourites" which used the same signature tune called "Puffing Billy". All the Trolleybus videos on my channel use radio theme tunes from the 50's & 60's which, to my mind, fit in perfectly.
Iconic or what! and check out the period traffic,can recall the routes from Wimbledon to Kingston luved it when the conductor thing fell off the wires and the big bamboo pole was bought out from under the 'bus!
amazing stuff nice one
wow gr8 vid thanks for putting it on youtube
It's called "In party mood" and was the theme to a 1950's BBC radio programme called Housewives choice. Broadcast on the Light programme, as I recall.
I remember living in London in 1982, and saw the remaining trolley poles in Shepherds Bush and the other areas (I lived in Acton).
I loved this video! By the way, watch for a 1960 Buick convertible at 9:47!!!
@robertwmartens There actually were trolleybuses in Brooklyn when I was a kid in the '50s. I recall being in my uncle's car and following one down Church Ave. watching the trolley contact the electric wires with the sparks flashing. I was about 9 or so (1959).
I lived in Bournemouth as a kid. Trolley buses were wonderful but they always had a nice smell all of their own. Not sure if it was something to do with the electric motors. Buses always smelt of diesel fumes.
gawd again and again
I do agree with you about Poorer, but a better life.
Great to watch that i wish cameras were better any one of those busses he could be the driver
Whenever i heard that music i knew i was late for school.
I used to take the 667 from Hampton to Hampton Court, then the 216 to Esher.
Awesome! =D
Thanks for your comment, what bugs me if you look at all the other post war trams, the headlight covers were removed. So I'll keep the pea souper remark in mind.
Now I found out that these trolleybuses are very classic!
awesome!
I went to school on these in the 1950's.
I hope it wasn't 70 years ago. I used to go to school on the 667 and I'm not 69 yet.
Wonderful video - I have linked it to my stories about Isleworth, the trolleybuses, Hounslow and Highwaymen (!) - I can put the web address here but if you go to Facebook and look for Tales of London or London Tales, you should be able to find the address - I would be grateful to hear what you think of the series - they are under the title of 'The Odeon Isleworth'. Again, thanks for the video - great stuff as was the music.
All those British made cars....heh. If you see one nowadays you look twice.
It seems to me that we're doing a full circle with the rubbish buses we have, don't know why the trolley buses where scraped
wow shepherds bush actually looks nice
Remarkable footage..
I can understand why they went double deck motor buses were more versatile and the wires would look unsightly, cluttered on a quiet suburban road whereas a bus with an engine wouldn't.
Greetings from New York City - great old movies and excellent use of music! I've never seen an electrified bus in my country, but I can imagine that yours were pretty quiet. Just one question (please pardon my ignorance of trolley bus terminology) - did any of those busses ever run off course, disconnect from the overhead wires and lose all power?
Born at Busch Corner (WestMid!), lived on Hounslow Heath (the other side) and travelled from Twickenham to school in Hammersmith on the 667! A great film - thanks for posting. By the way, who was John Busch? Any relation to Anheuser Busch?
@Quarkman0 I'll have to do something about that chanel thingy - more like BORN 1930!!
Lived in Barnes, school in Addison Road, Kensington (72 bus via Shepherds Bush), first job at Palmers on Hammersmith Broadway, Sat. morning job in Hammersmith Market.
That raincoat took 3 weeks wages!
I remember when Hounslow had a High Street...Now paved over.
I used to drink in Hounslow. Most of the pubs have gone now...One has been turned into a Lebanese restaurant. Yep - Hounslow has seen better days.
Wonderful material. My friend and I used to ride the Trolleybuses every weekend thanks to the Red Rover passes. We rode every route and visited every depot. These films must have been made in the last months of Trolleybus operation as I remember Isleworth and Fulwell depots being the home of the Q1's. Do you have any films of the Tower Wagons, Albion and Leyland tenders, Pole Carriers and the Wire Lubricator ?
Thanks for reliving great memories.
@webrarian My pleasure! I think there should be a UA-cam for us of a certain age to invoke memories of our youth. Much of my youth I only remember in black & white - possibly due to the televisoin of the time! - this DVD, of which this clip is a snippet, is a revelation to me and brings back so many memories.
In short, I want a time machine and I want it now!!!
I meant to say...spot the LACK of a radiator...of course
I too can just about remember trolley buses in london, was`nt the headlight covers some thing to do with the pea-soupers? or was it just a legacy from the war, when buses and cars had to have hoods on headlights to stop aircraft spotting them from above? or something like that?
Great film, not just for the trolleys but the general road scene spotting period cars and so quiet! The use of contemporary music is inspired and the captions really useful. Ten minutes well spent. Brilliant. Mike
To those of us of a certain age, that's not sad at all believe me! We just wish for a return to those gentler times, hence the resurgence of childhood sweets and all things fifties and early sixties. Oh for a time machine!
gawd!