Twickenham to Teddington by trolleybus.
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- čas přidán 4. 05. 2008
- Twickenham to Teddington by trolleybus on the first day of operation May 16th 1931.
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There are chunks of the journey missing but I have put what film clips there are into the right order.
Note the trams still in service. The driver had to drive these trams from a position completely open to the elements.
Along with the trolleybus a new tram was also entering service with a completely enclosed cab..This was the "Feltham" type tram.
The half cab trolleybus design, seen in the video, was soon to be superseded by the well known flat fronted design. The half cab trolleybuses known as "Diddlers" were retired in 1948. The last London trolleybus ran in May 1962 along the route shown in the video. Today the London bus route 281 follows the same route.
Check out these links...
LONDON TROLLEYBUSES:
www.trolleybus.net/
ONLINE VIDEO:
www.onlinevideo.me.uk - Auta a dopravní prostředky
I lived in Whitton, and my Mum was a bus conductor out of Fulwell Garage. I remember the end of the trolley bus--around 1962. I used to have to go to work with her sometimes. As a child we always went to Twickenham open air swimming pool in the summer and the Twickenham Odeon to see the pictures and also the Saturday morning pictures. Good memories. This is AMAZING footage ! :)
Same here--but in a different city and time.
My dad was a driver at Fulwell Depot for many years, route 667. He was a guest on the very last trolleybus trip in 1962. After retiring, he died of a heart attack, in 1972, while a passenger on route 267, outside of Fulwell Depot.
As a small boy my bedroom faced the junction of Hampton Road and Stanley Road. The overhead cables would flash and spark at night like lightning.
I have driven that route thousands of times being a bus driver on the 281and 267 for many years.
Unfortunately those days are long gone.
Fantastic.
I get the 267 from Isleworth to Hammersmith quite often.. god, the lack of traffic in this video really is the dream!
Fascinating film.The streets and the people included all look so much neater than today.I am very glad you used actual "pop" music from the exact period.I have been a fan of this time in music since being a boy,and it always annoys me that this period is often overlooked and forgotten today,with modern music often used for such clips as this.Ps the full title of the first tune is "Fancy You Falling For Me".
If only London retained the trolley bus and tram network to this day. Clean green transport and the trolleys had a good turn of speed.
A turning circle almost as impressive as a Black cab's! ...can you imagine modern day Double Deckers trying to turn around at this junction! lol ....they take about six manoeuvres before heading on their way. Sometimes I really do think we've gone backwards in 90 years! Maybe by 2031 we'll see a trolley bus network return to Twickenham and Teddington. Here's hoping.......
It's slower than walking...
How relaxing was that..... :) I live in Twickenham and have walked/driven that route thousands of times. So nice to see all those people going about their business 77 years ago. Makes you think. Great choice of music too. Thanks.
Great footage, I used to ride the trolleys on a Red Rover in the 60s as they were being withdrawn. Now we are looking back with nostalgia at the Routemasters which replaced them!
Fantastic thanks more please ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
just seen this brilliant video, brings back so many memorys .Having lived in the area from 1946 till 1998.Once again brilliant.
Marvelous film, so nostalgic, and a visit to a world long gone.. I just love this era's music, so jovial, in a time of great depression. Many thanks for listing the music, i shall be buying . I had one trip on a Trolley bus, just before they were withdrawn--very impressive.
Thanks so much for uploading that! I have lived in Teddington since 1963.
Lovely bit of film. I used to travel along that road many times when I was growing up.
One thing I like about 'those days' is (although it's black and white so I could be wrong but...) the lack of visual chaos. Not too many shops, no neon, no plastic, just a wooden shop window with a simple sign.
wow. my best friend from germany mark schmitt alerted me to this wonderful film. thanks for posting it. reminds me of the times i used to get the tram from nuneaton to goodison park every saturday when i were a lad
This is an amazing video...I was almost in tears...I'm mid 40s and live in Thailand now but grew up in Twickenham in the 70's- lived on the Green (the off licence at 24)- walked to St James School, my best friend lived in the Red Lion, know this rtoute SO well! Thank you for uploading!
This video is fantastic, the music that goes with it is superb!
Amazing Stuff Mate!
I actually saw my house (when the bus turns towards Twickenham Green) things look fairly unchanged.
Thanks for this.
fantastic trip down memory lane. thanks
This is Great in the 1950's My Mum and Dad Had a cafe dead opposite J Alsford's brings back a lot of memories Thanks for that
Stunning piece of film, a step back in time!
What a wonderfull use of CZcams. Thanks so much for posting this and for the comprehensive description of the buses.
I have a still image of a trolley bus coming over the railway bridge, with young children standing around waiting to cross the road. It came from a postcard of that era. I imagine the turning circle was where Waldegrave Road, Station Road and the High Street meet.
I forgot to mention, what a superb film and thank you for putting it on here.
my gradad Joe Brandford drove the last trolley on this route ,there's a plaque in the the bus depot...gawd bless..xx
And what was his feelings about driving the last one?
its so amazing to watch, i live in stanley road and know the route well, it is all built up and congested now, it is wonderful to see an area i know so well before i was around, a long time before lol
I lived in Teddington and remember the trolley buses when I was young ..... and the turn around. Later on 'my' bus was the No 27!!
Oh wow. I live in Twickenham. This is amazing to see!
That’s crazy. You can see the flat I used to live in at 0.40
Amazing , live in OZ but came from Twickenham , left in the 70's am 61 now ..
Great teenage years there..
Great footage and in remarkably good condition - not too grainy given that it's over 70 yrs old.. Love the way the trolleybus does a tight turn! at the junction with London Rd (opp the HSBC bank).Sadly the Red Lion Pub seen at 2:02 is no more.......buidling is still there, but it's now a Tesco metro!
I remember the trams from my youth, great to see the bank and the Odeon Cinema and the road to the Green. How it has changed! I remember T eddington with fond memories. The ticket machine was out of a round ticket machine that had a little handle to wind the tickets out.
...very lovely :)
Love the old footage! Even the music
wonderful time capsule
What a fun trip back in time this was, and great music to go with it.
Fantastic, thank you very much for making this available.
beautiful journey through the streets of old London and interesting scenario with that road traffic accident at the end :)
The Trolleybuses in this vid were known as "Diddlers". They gained that name because of the diddle,diddle, diddle noise the traction motors made when accelerating. It's very interesting to note that the cyclists could and did keep up with the speed of these buses.. something that suggests a whole different pace of life to the manic mayhem we have pushed ourselves into within such a short space of time.
Amazing. This is where I live 😀
I love this video.
Oh Twickenham and Teddington how I will miss you when I move away.
It's nice to see this fleet of 60 t/buses as originally built, since they lasted only a few weeks/months like this. The bodies were strengthened by replacing the two rounded windows either side at the top front by two flat windows panes. Unbelievably, they had no headlamps, so one large one was fitted in the centre of the 'radiator' grill, making them look more like trams than buses! And the offside windscreen pillar went right through the driver's field of vision! It was altered.
Ironically this part of London which was the first part of London to operate trolleybuses in September 1931 eventually became the last part of London to operate trolleybuses in May 1962.
Wonderful.Just found this.Hope all is good with you and family.Love Ray xxx
This is gold... thanks.
I live in the area. Last week we had the Olympics cycling road race and time trials. This is great perspective.
The Hogarth Pub (Teddington)...used to work there ;)
Nothing has changed.
Grat job!
Absolutely brilliant. The only thing that is slightly frustrating is it missed out the bit between Twickenham Green and turning into Stanley Road because that is where I live. I'd love to see what it looked like 21 years before this place was built. Many thanks once again.
TUBORG lager even way back then! I'm stunned!
This was 1931, but I've seen a 1903 photo of an LCC London tram with a Tuborg Lager advert on the side! Yet my memory of first drinking lager was drinking Tennents in Scotland in 1958. I think that was the beginning of its popularity , with a big expansion in the '60's.
i lived in Twickenham until a year ago and i remember walking down that highstreet many many times....
Looks like Barclay's was still a bank, even in the old days. :)
well there you go! someone old enough to remember exactly why they "diddled" ... I was not a twinkle in my fathers eye when these traversed the streets of London but my version of why they "diddled" was from a person who used to drive one who sadly is no longer with us.
Thanks so much for putting this video together. Brilliant ! The music is spot on for the period too. It was criminal that they were scrapped when they were. Even more so in this so-called green/eco era ! Other countries modernise, we just scrap things. Will we never learn ?
The problem for trolleybusses (and trams) was the modern day tinkering with road networks that goes on. Cycleways, pedestrian precincts, sleeping policemen, etc. No way would it have been viable to reset the trolleybus infrastructure everytime a new fangled safety/eco initiative came along. It was much easier to use diesel-fuelled busses which could be rerouted.
I adore this video!! I was talking to some of my dad's friends about it the other day as they remembered them. I grew up in the Red Lion on Stanley Road and sadly it's missing from the video but still amazing to see the rest of Twickenham and Teddington. Thank you :)
I lived in the Red Lion on Stanley Road from 2014 to 2018, good times.
I can remember that, but where did I put me teeth??? For vehicles with such under-engineered bodywork, they had long lives, the last few (on learner duties) lasting until about 1951, although they were a nightmare to keep in one piece at the end and looked very sad with their faded paintwork. I often travelled on them on the 604 from Raynes Park to Kingston. Fortunately, one is preserved.
Metadyne - there's a name from the past, rendered almost unknown by solid state electronics!
Amazing, Alsford timber merchants are still there, as is Barclays bank.
Brilliant piece of film - I remember the area well even though I lived in North West London until 1967. We were always out and about on Red Rover tickets and got to the most far flung outposts of the LT Central area like Dartford and Waltham Cross and Leatherhead. Twickers has changed a bit down the years. It was about this time that we used to go to Eel Pie Island. Anyone who is interested in 1950s radio & TV nostalgia should try the Whirligig website and keep up to date with Mr Turnip.
@JollyRodders oohhh I see :) thanks for the history lesson! :)
Interesting! I've only ever seen aerial photos of the Stanley Road end of the high street - a lot changed when it was bombed during WW11. There used to be a large church there and more similar styled buildings that are now the small council estate.
Interesting to see this old video; that cyclist in the early scenes seemed to be taking a risk getting as close as that; I thought he was hitching a lift at one stage. Also, I was interested in the closing shot by the apparent contretemps between the car and the traction engine!
Maybe he hold one the hand on the trolleybus, so he could save some physicall efort.
Yes it does, but the film cuts to inside the bus, upstairs (with two Stan & Ollie lookalikes at the front right). You do see it turn into Stanley Road, at the (now blocked off end) top, then it comes out just in front of the old 267 ATC hut. Then suddenly it is at the junction with Broad Street.
The days were you could buy a house on a single wage and pay it off in 10 years.
If you look carefully, you can see the guy outside of Superdrug playing the violin. I think he's a Highlander.
Will be reshooting the route in HD to commemorate 50 years since the last one at Fulwell. It will be shown at an open day at Fulwell Garage 12th May 2012. Alongside the original footage.
The 'diddle' was actually after these t/buses had stopped and the pump made the noise while restoring the vacuum for the brakes. (No compressed air brakes, then!).
I live in twickenham
@nightfury1996 I think it was originally built as a Barclays bank. Also the Halifax across the road has HB, [B for building society], built into the brick work. HSBC on the other corner was a Midland Bank.
At 1:20 the trolleybus should have turned left along Cross Deep......whoops he's gone wrong there! If you were going to Teddington (from Twickenham) now, you'd turn left at this junction.
That splendidly imposing building at that junction was the former cinema - long since gone and replaced by an unremarkable building. Think the cinema lasted until about 1980, before being demolished a couple of years after that.
veryrare footage. very based
Fantastic and a perfect choice of music! You might like my video response which features some of the same route thirty years later!
does anyone know if the trolleys used the whole length of stanley school past st james and such as i have been tryin to route it
@Butchuk2007 I help run a local Family History society that would love to see this footage! Would it be possible for us to use it on our social media? Many thanks
-----> trolleybus
Dog
This film was taken in the 1930s.
@Butchuk2007 Doing the reshoot 25th March.
Can you help me here. There used to be a school on Stanley road. What happened to that?
@Bertstaz235 Should be shooting it 25th March
4:46 Song
@AlanBenns Sorry for asking mate but when about are you conducting the film, I'd love to know.
AEC Diddler
@chanctonbury63 Stanley School? It's still there...
30 years later and they get scarped...
But al least they kept one "Diddler" (or 2).
@kevinpkavanagh
The Red Lion has been taken over by Tescos now its a shame although the building is still the same
Wonderful! What bands are playing, please?
+theuofc - The music is from the following:
Fancy you falling for me - Jack Hylton& His Orchestra {1930}.
Happy Go Lucky Lane - Arnold Johnson & His Paramount Hotel Orchestra {1928}.
Rainbow Man - Fred Rich & His Orchestra {1929}.
Why can't people back in day ride bikes!
Bring back trolleybuses......and also conductors! - they'd discourage the anti-social behaviour that you sometimes see on buses now.
Saddam Hussein at 3:22?
whiteymcqueen I don't know if he time traveled