The vehicles were highly reliable (lasting years, not the months that combustion-engined vehicles did then), silent and clean. They even had a mid-day battery swap-out taking minutes to enable vehicles to keep running all day with no downtime for charging.
I am a fan of Trolleybuses and electric traction in general and such news always amazes, delights and yet frustrates - for so long electric traction has been there, yet it did not move forward. Jay Leno has an electric car - the Baker Electric Brougham made in 1909 - 50 mile range then and now it has 110 mile range on modern lead-acid batteries, it still works and needs little maintenance beyond what a Kwik Fit could do on a modern equivalent (brakes, shocks and tyres). Full NYT article here. Toyota Pious is, by comparison, an over-complicated excuse to keep engine and transmission mafias in a job, if you ask me. I posted earlier about a neat Mini and Porsche's series hybrid 4x4 of 1904. Imagine this scaled up to buses. Imagine the reduction in noise, heat and diesel fumes. Have cabs the same way and the roads in central London will be quiet, and the desire to get noisy diesel trucks and vans out of our faces will grow once we realise what an infernal racket and pestilential fug these things make.
The Chin goes for a Spin.In a related incident in West London, the disastrous and inappropriate West London
The Uxbridge Road had trolleybuses running every 90 seconds in places. There is no reason for such a service to return apart from boneheaded ignorance, stubbornness or corruption. Some people in TfL think that double deck trolleybuses and trolleybuses themselves are "untried". This is what happens when organisations get staffed by no-nothings.
Picture of a 655 Trolleybus at Hanwell Broadway, feeder service for the 607(hat tip, Trolleybuses for West London).
§ note to Turpin for London: it was Wittington who became the great Mayor, OK?
5 comments:
But they must have gone out of fashion for a reason, what was the reason?
Two main reasons:
1. In the 1950's the overhead cabling needed replacement, as did many of the vehicles (who were about 30 years old by then, but handsome with it). The logic of having a long-life infrastructure and vehicles passed them by.
2. The oil lobby.
Passengers and drivers certainly did not want them replaced.
Europe, China still have trolleys. I rode on one in Shanghai when I was working there a year or so ago - so much more comfortable than a modern bus, even though it was 20+ years old. No smell, no vibration, smooth accelleration, quiet and no heat (a good thing in a steamy Shanghai summer). I also took a trip on one in Moscow, but that was Feb 1982 and we were dodging our tail.
Top man Roger. You are thinking and saying exactly what needs to be said. Trolleybuses were the best but, as you have written, the "oil lobby" (M.P.s who are well paid to represent oil suppliers) speaking as their puppets. Representing honesty, integrity and the bleeding obvious is not on the agenda. No M.P. should have ANY outside interest, (let alone employing their wives, sons, daughters, grandmothers, cats) e.t.c.
Sadly the Common Market,(we had a referendum on it once we had already joined, that's called Democracy)has now turned into a form of U.S.S.R.-E.U. and, due to it's cancerous nature, is now looking to Asia and North Africa to feed itself. A great job for them that has it, no use to blokes like me who have paid for it and have gained nothing. The Government are paid by us to do one thing: make our lives more enjoyable. On this score they are a complete failure and all should be sacked. None of them represent me. Maybe I'm the one in the wrong, I only worked for the Government 1963-1996. Lose the USSR-EU, gain sanity.
Remember, the only difference between the Victorian ear and now is we now have electric lights.
Saying any more would put me outside of the Official Secrets Act.
Top man Roger. You are thinking and saying exactly what needs to be said. Trolleybuses were the best but, as you have written, the "oil lobby" (M.P.s who are well paid to represent oil suppliers) speak up as their puppets. Representing honesty, integrity and the bleeding obvious is not on the agenda. No M.P. should have ANY outside interest, let alone employing their wives, sons, daughters, grandmothers, cats e.t.c.
Sadly the Common Market,(we had a referendum on it once we had already joined, that's called Democracy)has now turned into a form of U.S.S.R.E.U. and, due to it's cancerous nature, is now looking to Asia and North Africa to feed itself. A great job for them that has it, no use to blokes like me who have paid for it and have gained nothing. The Government are paid by us to do one thing: make our lives more enjoyable. On this score they are a complete failure and should all be sacked. None of them represent me. Maybe I'm the one in the wrong, I only worked for the Government 1963-1996. Lose the USSR-EU, gain sanity.
CS,
Maybe you would like to wander over to http://lpuk.org, where an alternative is being formed.
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