Like Grandfather's axe?

Image: © Alan Murray-Rust Taken: 27 Sep 1976

In the late 1950s, Doncaster Corporation decided to get new life out of a number of its older trolleybuses, and embarked on a program of fitting new bodies. Soon after, the decision was taken to abandon the trolleybus system, which finally closed at the end of 1963. Rather than scrap the relatively new bodies, a number were re-used and mounted on new diesel bus chassis, of Leyland and Daimler manufacture. This is one of the latter, delivered in 1962, and was one of the last to survive. The tell-tale indication that this is indeed a former trolleybus body is the presence of an unusually thick pillar between the first and second windows of the upper deck. This is where the cables carrying the traction current from the trolley poles would have been located. The final twist in the 'Grandfather's axe' tale is that although still wearing Doncaster Corporation livery, the presence of a four-digit fleet number and a route number show that this was taken when the bus had passed into the ownership of the South Yorkshire PTE (Passenger Transport Executive). As far as I am aware, none of the former trolleybus bodies were ever painted in the tan and cream livery of the PTE. This is one of a series of views featuring buses in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. http://www.geograph.org.uk/search.php?i=2114547&displayclass=slide

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