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Brighton trolleybuses

Photo:Trolleybus FUF 37 outside Lewes Road Depot in 1959

Trolleybus FUF 37 outside Lewes Road Depot in 1959

From the private collection of Gordon Dinnage

In praise of trolleybuses
By Gordon Dinnage

This picture was used to support an article by Adam Trimmingham in the 'Weekend Argus' of 14th August, 1999.  Adam wrote: 'Times when trolleybus ruled. Fast and frequent buses, almost silent and producing no pollution, sound an ideal solution to Brighton's transport problems.' This was a description of the electrically-propelled buses drawing the current from two overhead wires that ran above Brighton's streets. The current was conducted through two booms down to the roof of the bus and was then transfered down to the chassis motor. These were similar to the previous  'Dick Kerr' tram motors,  only upgraded to 80hp and built at the Allen West factory at Hollingbury.

Swift and silent
These trolleybuses were almost silent (similar to the remaining electric milk floats we see on the road today) with very fast pulling speeds up gradients like Braybon Avenue. Later, fuel-driven buses like the Leyland PD3, nicknamed 'Queen Mary' buses, were far slower with a full load when operating the same gradients for Southdown Motor Services. I would have loved to have remembered travelling on the trolleybuses and have always been fascinated by this method of apparently clean propulsion. In 1975 I wrote a project about this for one of my final years at the old Knoll School for Boys in Old Shoreham Road just before I left, including original photographs. Sadly the school insisted it was kept by them and it has never been seen since. I think my teacher at that time was Mr Harman.

This particular bus was sold on to Staplefield School for use as a playbus in 1960, then scrapped by March of 1968. All the other trolleybuses were sent to J. Lightyard of Lewes where they were scrapped and broken up. Andrew Henbest has recently made great strides in bringing together many previously unseen and notable memories in a new book on Brighton trolleybuses, and we were pleased to have supplied three views to assist in this and in order to provoke pleasant memories for the readers.

Added to the site on 26-02-06
This page was added on 26/06/2006.

Comments:

The article kindles many memories which we will put into writing in a forthcoming book 'Trolleybus Memories' published by Ian Allan in 2007. Whilst never recorded trolley number 12 went to the same scrapyard as the BH&D trolleys, I have the fleet number and at the time the front reg. plate which Malcolm Keeping has now. I could go on about this wonderful efficient system and will one day - not too soon. Keep up the good work.
By John Bishop (28/02/2006)
Bob Green again. My stepfather, Charles Barnard, was a Brighton tram conductor in 1927 and then was taught to drive a tram which he did on the Elm Grove route until the trolley buses were introduced in the mid-thirties I believe (I was 14 years old then). My main memory was of riding a bicycle along Lewes Road to the Technical College and being totally unaware of a trolley bus following me until it passed with a tremendous whoosh of air, otherwise almost totally silent, frightening me to death. Fortunately, I survived. A very interesting page.
By Robert Green (attended St Luke's Senior Boys School 1933 to 1936) (02/03/2006)
Quiet a few years ago I did a couple of interviews on BBC Radio Brighton, that shows how long ago it was, about the trolleybuses of Brighton and actually did one by the side of number 19 (FUF 19) at Southerham Farm. Following the interview I had a chance to talk to Mick Light, Joe's son, who now runs the yard and he told me that if I wanted one of those b***** things to take one and never come back. Well, I thought about it and contacted Richard Clark, the then General Manager of Brighton Corporation Transport, and he told me that if I could get it to the depot he would get Manpower Services, a government backed scheme for training the un-employed, to help with the restoration. I then went to the Army Barrocks and saw a person who was the spitting image of Captain Mainwaring who advised me it would be a great exercise for the TA and, having given him all the details of 19's location, including drawing a map, I felt assured that we would have a fully restored A.E.C. trolleybus back in the town. After a few weeks I contacted 'Captain Mainwaring' who told me the exercise was to be held 'shortly'. A few more weeks went by and on a visit to Eastbourne I thought I would stop at Southerham and have a look at the yard from the top of the field bordering the A27. Imagine my horror when all I could see was a freshly cleared scrap-yard with nothing in sight except chalk. I immediatly contacted Captain Mainwaring who was very gruff with me saying that he hadn't realised the job would be so difficult and withdrew his men and left. Our foolish Army man hadn't followed my drawing at all and having arrived at the yard saw the first line of trolleys all pushed into one another to form a barrier and decided that was it lads, off we go home. If he had followed my drawing he would have found 19 standing on her own ready to be winched down a small ledge (three tyres were still inflated even after twenty odd years there) to be put on a low-loader and brought back to Brighton. Mick Light, having got fed up with having these old buses cluttering up the place decided to clear the yard and start a recycling plant. That is my tale of woe. By the way, Gordon, Allen West didn't make the trolley motors in Hollingbury. They were made in a factory which stood where the Mithras House, Brighton University, car park is today.
By Alan J Piatt (13/03/2006)
I wanted to know if anyone in Brighton today is interested in bringing back the trolley buses/trams that were here before? Are there any people here interested in this?
By Jonathan (08/06/2006)
In ideal conditions the trolley buses climbed Braybon Avenue well. But in less than ideal conditions there was a severe problems. I remember one winter in the 50s, when I was a child living at the bottom end of Braybon, there was a queue of several buses stuck outside our house. The lines had a thick layer of ice on them and the buses were unable to pick up power. I remember my mother and some of the neighbours taking out cups of tea to the stranded crews. I believe the buses had to be towed into Brighton. On any frosty night the pick-up arms flashed and crackled causing dreadful interference on our radio and later television set.
By Roy Langley (13/06/2006)
In my page above, I stated the article was written by Adam Trimingham, who would need to be corrected. I supplied the photograph, from our vast negative libary. Of course there is always someone who will know the right facts, hence why I leave that to others. As time permits, I will add a selection of other views of Brighton scenes and its transport for the pleasure of visitors to this site. If uncredited/unauthorised pictures from our library are seen elsewhere on the internet, they are an infringement!
By Gordon (27/07/2006)

I lived in Bennett Road in Brighton from 1945 until about 1965. My dad had a stall in the London Road market. He used to go by trolley bus number 44 to the Level. I used to go to school in Woodingdean - St John the Baptist secondary modern, later to become Fitzherbert. The first part of my journey was from Arundel Road to the top of Elm Grove on a number 44 trolley bus, where I caught a diesel number 2 or 2a to Woodingdean. The trolley buses were silent and swift, having no trouble going up Elm Grove when loaded. I remember when they changed the number 44 to a diesel, going up Elm Grove one winter evening with a full load. The bus was just taking off from the bottom of Elm Grove by St. Joseph's church. The gearbox from 1st gear to 2nd gear was a snatch, and I remember the halfshaft snapping with such a full load. The trolley buses were just right and were missed when they went. What memories of Brighton I have.

By Mick Peirson (14/10/2006)

The photo of trolley bus FUF 37 shows a Brighton Corporation trolley bus outside the Brighton Corporation depot in Lewes Road. Brighton Hove and district bus company also had a fleet of trolley buses that lived at the Whitehawk Road depot, which was earlier Tilling Stevens bus company.

By Mick Peirson (14/10/2006)

Trolley buses certainly were fast - my father briefly had a tiny MG sports car in the mid 1950s and he told me a trolley bus could easily overtake him going up Ditchling Road. Why - in a hilly town like Brighton - we do not have this system back (but with all the modern technology seen in similar systems on the continent) beats me. It would be almost silent, pollution free and very eco-friendly as busses descending hills use their electric motors in reverse (" regenerative braking" for the technical) to slow them down and this feeds power back to the overhead which ascending busses can use. Instead I hear that a system of glorified bus lanes (using polluting diesel busses that use imported fuel) is being backed by the city authorities. Go to any European city to see how it should be done - and once was, here too.

By Adrian Baron (25/08/2007)

I also have memories of one night in the 1950s (probably around 1956) when it was so cold the lines froze and a trolley bus was stuck just below the bus-stop at Fiveways. We lived at 264 Ditchling Road and I remember Mum supplying cups of tea to all the passengers and crew.
They weren't so quiet either, I can still hear the noise of the arms going across the points and see the brilliant blue sparks when they arced at night or when it was cold.

By Ruth Mitchell (nee Rickards) (19/10/2007)

I worked in the general office of the trasport dept on Lewes Rd from the time I left school until I joined the RAF for national service 1949/51. I went back to the transport dept until I joined the Met police in 1953. My main job was working out the wages for the bus drivers and conductors. When I started in 1946, drivers recieved 5 pounds one shilling and conductors 4 pounds 19 shilling for a normal working week, but of course most worked overtime. I also calculated the wages for the corporation car park attendents and went out and paid them at various car parks. When I left, they bought me a pair of cufflinks. The wages for c/p attendents was one shilling and 15/16ths of a penny an hour, a bit different to today.

By Terry (16/02/2008)

Most of the coastal towns had trolleys. Bournemouth, Portsmouth, Brighton and Hastings. Further inland you had Maidstone. What a stupid move to get rid of these buses and the system. The trolleybus is alive and well on the Continent; trust us to be different. They even have them in San Francisco. I remember them well in Brighton.

By Bob Hex (18/03/2008)

What's remained in my mind is a distinctive "hissing" sound the trolley-buses used to make. At least this is my memory of those pulling away from the stop at the bottom of Elm Grove, as they began the ascent.

By John Gower (28/03/2008)

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