Nottingham Trolleybuses (Again)

[firbeck 859]

Hi, I thought you might be interested in these two little gems that I've just uploaded from my old slides. They were taken the week before the trolleybuses finally stopped running, probably during our half term Spring Bank Holidays in 1966.

A very poignant picture, one of the last of the trolleys on the final route, taken outside Vic Station only a few months before that too was gone forever. No doubt Bilbraborn was standing next to me holding on to our then mode of transport, my dad's 1930's Sun tandem, we went everywhere together on that. Taken on my brother John's Hanimex camera using Ilford colour slide film.

Note left, the puff of smoke emerging from the tunnel, the fins of the Ford Zephyr taxi, also the damage to 507's front, I wonder what that was all about.

For those that know me, the advert on the side of the trolley is very ironic.

Taken probably just after, inside Parliament Street Depot, a bit dark, but it captures the atmosphere.

[Guest]

As a close neighbour to the Vic..thanks,a packet of beechnut and a platform ticket,job was a gud ' un!!

[terence12 725]

firbeck #1, brilliant & Vic Station, again brilliant

[colly0410 1,181]

When I stayed in a tent on a site next to the East Coast mine line, the night sky would be lit up by electric arcing on the overhead wires as the trains whizzed by, I remember trolley buses doing the same thing. Did they have to stop running in air raids in WW2 as the flashing would illuminate the City?

[Chulla 4,946]

Good question, Colley. I think the answer has to be 'yes'.

[TBI 2,351]

Is it the case that electrical arcing shows blue? If so, would intermittent sparking actually have been visible to bombers during the dark. I know that blue filters were often used on lighting during blackouts.

[Deepdene Boy 642]

No trolleybuses didn't have to stop, a change was made to carbon inserts to stop the arcing, also white circles were painted on to the road at wiring junctions, to indicate to drivers that they should come off of the power and coast through the junction to avoid arcing.

[ValuerJim 277]

Did that involve getting out the long pole with the hooked end?

[StephenFord 866]

No - provided you stopped drawing power (i.e. at the white spots) when you coasted over the pointwork there was no arcing. (You didn't need to disconnect from the wire.) You would hear the rattle of the poles as they went over the points, and when that stopped you could power up again (according to what I have read).

[Michael Booth 7,364]

You had me wondering how old you are StephenFord, until I got to the end of your post.

[Dave 48 847]

This was in today's Nottingham Post bygones page.

https://www.middletonpress.co.uk/books/trolleybuses/nottingham-trolleybuses.html

[Dave 48 847]

With reference to the above just noticed DaveN has already posted it in Photograph of a Trolley Bus at Trent Bridge.