Finally Got To Ride Some Trolleybuses
When London Transport killed off their Trolleybus Network on 8th May of 1962 they destroyed the largest and most greenest public transport system in the world. The last trolleybuses ran just after I was born but I had been fortunate to witness them running in Bournemouth just before they closed down their system in 1969. The East Anglia Transport Museum in Carlton Colville near Lowestoft is one of only two museums in the UK that have live running wires for Trolleybuses and Trams. http://eatransportmuseum.co.uk/ The other is in Sandtoft. Two of my to do things on my "Bucket List" [I don't have a real one] were to ride a London tram and Trolleybus.. Whilst I rode all of Tramlink on Wednesday the 20th September 2017 it isn't quite the same as riding on one of the original trams. So I had made plans to visit the EATM earlier in the year and managed to get two others to come along for the day.
I got to finally ride on one of the Bournemouth Trolleybuses that I had seen as a child and saw more public transport than I could shake a stick at. For me the highlights of the visit were riding the LTE vehicles and fulfilling a little dream of mine plus finally getting to ride on one of the Bournemouth Primrose coloured Trolleybuses.
I even got to talk to a very surprised vintage taxi owner about his London Taxi. He was amazed when I told him about the one I used to see running around Croydon as a child and how it was often parked outside East Croydon Station. What made him even happier was the fact I was the first person to come up and acknowledge his vehicle as being different. It was one of the very rare Winchester Taxis and it was in fact the very same vehicle that used to run in Croydon. http://www.forgottenfiberglass.com/fiberglass-car-marques/foreign-fiberglass/forgotten-fiberglass_pond-winchester-taxicab-bill-munro/
So without further ado here are the pictures from today in order of taking. If you are ever in the area of Lowestoft check the museum's website out to find out when they are open and make the effort to visit. We arrived there just after Noon and left at 3.30pm but we could have stayed longer as the museum closed at 9pm to allow for nighttime running on the special running weekend but we felt that having experienced the main event that we had to leave as its a three hour drive each way.
