IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Runswick Road, MIDDLESBROUGH, TS6 8HJ

An unidentified trolleybus makes its way up Birchington Avenue with a panorama of the South Bank iron and steel works as backdrop. The trolleybus system here was initiated by what was then the Bolckow Vaughan (later Dorman Long) company, before being sold to a combination of Middlesbrough Corporation and Eston UDC who formed the Teesside Railless Traction Board which commenced operation in 1919. This picture was taken on the final day of operation in April 1971. 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

Heading west.

Looking south.

31 March 1968 saw the opening of the very last trolleybus route to be built in Britain. It involved what was then the smallest system in the country, the Teesside Railless Traction Board, to the east of Middlesbrough. The new route linked the existing termini at Grangetown (Fabian Road) and Normanby via what had been the rural village of Eston, now swallowed up by the extension of housing development which was the reason for the route extension. In the distance can be seen chimneys of the Dorman Long steelworks, which was the original raison d'etre for a trolleybus system. Here we see the very first official run over the system, breaking the tape at Fabian Road. It's attracted a small crowd of local residents - with a style of dress very redolent of the era. For a slide show of British Trolleybuses in the late 60s http://www.geograph.org.uk/search.php?i=1773236&displayclass=slide

Behind it can be seen continuing construction of the Whale Hill housing estate. A few months later, the route would be extended to the right along Birchington Avenue to Eston and on to the other terminus at Normanby, this being the very last new trolleybus route to be constructed in the UK.