MISC | Trolleybuses

This group of images come from a trip I made to Riga, which is the capital city of Latvia.

Since its liberation from the Germans in WW2 Latvia was (an unwilling) part of the Soviet Union. These images come from April 1998, which is just a few years after Latvia had become free again, but before it had replaced / modernised all its transports.

Most of these images show trolleybuses operating in "multiple-unit", which was commonplace in the Soviet Union before the days of articulated buses. Indeed the primary reason for visiting in cold wintry weather was to see MU operation whilst it still existed. Nowdays all these images are history, and Riga has modern articulated trolleybuses.

Note how the front vehicle does not use its trolleypoles and is both physically and electrically connected to the rear vehicle. If I remember correctly these are trolleybuses of the type "9tr".











close up view of the ointer-bus connection and flxible barrier to stop pedestrians from walking between the two buses (for their safety)











The only non-MU trolleybus I photographed. I also saw some trams, but they will be shown another time.

These photos come from the transport museum in Liege, Belgium.

Firstly there are two images of a reversible trolleybus. For this vehicle I have a lot of information, as I wrote it down when there!


Many trams (and trains) are 'double-ended' which means that they can be driven from either end. At the terminus all the driver has to do is walk to what had been the back and start driving again.

As a contrast rubber-tyred road vehicles will need to physically turn around to change directions. These reversible trolleybuses got around that limitation by having driving controls at both ends too.

In all the fleet consisted of just four vehicles (Nos 401 - 404) and they featured 2 sets of trolley poles, 2 pairs of doors per side and 3 axles (the centre axle has 2 tyres per side).

They were built in 1936 to replace the trams that served the La Banque terminus by Brossel Frères (Bros) - D'Heur and are 10.09m long, 2.43m wide and weigh 10,200kg tare. Power was supplied by 2x 52.2hp ACEC motors.

Total capacity was 60 passengers (28 seated and 32 standing).

They were withdrawn from service in 1963, and whilst the fate of the other vehicles is uncertain this example (No.402) is now an exhibit at the transport museum in Liège, which is the city in which they saw service.





Also in the transport museum is this trolleybus, which has a different way of fixing the trolleypoles to the vehicle's roof. It might be very remiss of me but I do not have any information about this vehicle.

The 'Smiley Face' Trolleybus

It was only a paint job - but it would bring a smile to the face of those who saw it!
Seen laying over at the Vevey Funicular terminus on the Vevey - Montreux trolleybus line in Switzerland. In the background one of the red funicular trains can be seen arriving at its lower terminus.

Being a busy inter-urban route some of these vehicles used to tow trailers, however in the mid 1990's the entire fleet was replaced with new luxury low floor articulated trolleybuses.




One of the old Vetras on Line 6, in Lyon, France.

Right,

Now the holidays are over its time for some more.

These come from two of the three living museums in Britain which operate trolleybuses. Pics from the third location will come soon.

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The East Anglia Transport Museum near Lowestoft operates both trolleybuses and trams, with examples from Britain and overseas. These two came from London.
http://www.eatm.org.uk

For some obscure reason I can only find the one image from the EATM. So guess where I plan to go later this year!!!

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The Black Country Living Museum in Dudley (near Birmingham) is another place where the trolleybus lives on. As this is a large museum covering an extensive area the trolleybuses (and tram) provide a useful service linking various sections of the complex with the main entrance. As such this is the world's only double-deck trolleybus route (at present - but it would like many companions!).



Ex-Wallsall trolleybus at the Black Country Living Museum.




Trolley and motor buses at the Black Country Living Museum. The rear (dark green and cream) vehicle is from Derby and the front (light green and yellow) vehicle is from Wolverhampton



The Ex-Wolverhampton trolleybus.




The Ex-Wallsall trolleybus crosses the tramline at the level crossing.




The former Derby trolleybus runs alongside the tramline near the "far" end of the route.
http://www.bclm.co.uk

http://dnbc2k.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/im000281.jpg

Septa Trackless Trolley Photo Collection: http://www.phillytrolley.org/trackless_index.html

Septa in Philadelphia, PA. Retired in 2002. Made by AMG in 1979. Boston currently still uses them, we are waiting for replacements to be delievered in 2007:



More Pictures of even older ones: http://www.phillytrolley.org/trackles.html

Pictures old to new from http://www.phillytrolley.org/trackles.html:

Built in1923


Built 1947-1949






Built in 1979, now retired. This coach was on of only two to be retrofitted with a ThermoKing air conditioner:

"Oldies" from Milan

Alfa Romeo AR 1000 F/Pd




Alfa Romeo AR 140 AF




Fiat 2405




Fiat 2472 / CGE / Viberti - I serie




Fiat 2472 / CGE / Viberti - II serie



Thanks to http://milanotrasporti.ferrovie.ch
http://milanotrasporti.ferrovie.ch/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=3

Now we have some outside scenes. Sorry but I dont remember from where they all came - but sometimes clues can be found by looking on their sides or at the destination blinds!

If / when I find out more I will come back and re-edit these posts, adding the extra info.








(I feel sure this one came from Glasgow, Scotland)