British Trolleybus Systems

London and South-East England: An Historic Overview

Although there had been experiments with the use of a new form of transport - the 'trackless tram' (better known as the trolleybus) - during the first decade of the 20th century, it was in June 1911 that Bradford and Leeds became the country's pioneering operators of trolleybuses.

Whilst, in Leeds, the trolleybus was destined to have a fairly peripheral role (and finally disappeared in 1928), in Bradford, perhaps as a consequence of the hills surrounding the city centre which represented ideal territory for the trolleybus, the 'trackless' was destined to have a long and illustrious career stretching for more than 60 years until - on 26 March 1972 - the final first-generation trolleybus system finally succumbed to the all-conquering motorbus.

This is the first of two volumes to cover the history of all of the trolleybus operators of the British Isles and focuses on those systems in the North of England and Scotland as well as the only network in Northern Ireland - Belfast. The book includes comprehensive fleet and route histories allied to some 250 illustrations, both colour and mono, including a map of each network featured.