Catching the trolley bus

The Ipswich Transport Museum has completed the restoration of one of our Ipswich trolleybuses and in March it was transported to the East Anglian Transport Museum (EATM) at Carlton Colville where it will run on their overhead wires over the summer. The Ipswich Society sponsored one of its seats and I was invited as our representative to the official launch of Trolleybus 105 (1948) at the EATM on May 10.Ipswich Society Carlton Colville trolleybus

At 11am we, the invited sponsors, plus four bus-loads of ITM members were given tea and cakes while Trolleybus 105 (with Norwich Road Bridge 9A on the destination blind) was driven round the circuit at Carlton Colville to 'dry out the motor' before we could ride on it. The copious overnight rain has caused problems with the earthing. A stroll around the Museum at this point revealed the much older Ipswich Trolleybus no. 2 (1923) on static display. Its I.B.C. lettering only just finished, it was towed up the A12 the day before on a low-loader. Then at 12.15 the event we had all been waiting for - we all piled onto 105 and were underway. Silent and clean, our ride on this vehicle was a delight to those of us who can remember travelling the Ipswich streets on its like fifty-plus years ago.

C Markham

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