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Old January 17th 20, 08:04 PM posted to uk.transport.london
Bryan Morris Bryan Morris is offline
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First recorded activity at LondonBanter: Jun 2015
Posts: 79
Default Front-boarding only for BBs

In message , Recliner
writes
On Thu, 16 Jan 2020 19:52:13 +0000, Bryan Morris
wrote:

In message , Robin
writes
On 16/01/2020 11:43, wrote:
On 16 Jan 2020 11:05:52 GMT
Marland wrote:
wrote:
On 15 Jan 2020 20:17:18 GMT
Marland wrote:

I wonder if it was Twickenham I saw some tram lines on my last London
Trolleybus ride.
My Grandad took me out for a last day of rides on the Trolleys
just before
they ceased and we went to the end of the route 667 from Chiswick to

I do sometimes wonder what - if anything - was going through the minds of
the people who authorised the destruction of tram and trolleybus systems
around the UK back then to replace them with diesel buses that in
those days
were utterly filthy with thick blue-grey and even black smoke
coming out of
the exhaust being the norm. I can't help thinking some brown
envelopes were
involved at some point.




There were several factors that intermingled and this far away from the
And they all sound plausible - but the same could equally be said
about
germany or eastern europe after WW2 but in general the systems there were
kept and expanded.


Many cities in France removed their trams after WW2. Some of them have
reinstated them since but it was a lot easier to do so with wide
boulevards. London is mostly different.

Problem with trams/trolley busses is they can't overtake each other and
go at the speed of the one in front. With narrow streets they cause
congestion.

We used to have a trolley bus route outside our flat, there was a
junction so the conductor had to get out to pull a chain switching the
poles in a form of overhead points.


You might be interested in how contemporary trams switch routes with
points in the overhead wires:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/reclin...57657326035738


From memory the default was straight ahead, if the bus had to use the
outside pair of wires the conductor got off, pulled this chain down and
held it, the driver then drove the bus forward till it was on the
outside pair when the conductor let go of the chain, ran after the bus
and (I think) thumped the back so the driver knew he was back on board.
I can't see from the photos how the points work or who (if anyone)
operates them.
I also recall at, I think Shoreditch, where the buses had to make a
right hand turn , more often than not, the trolley poles flew off the
wires.

Then of course trolleybuses didn't cross the Thames.
--
Bryan Morris