Title: Lombard-Gerin & Inventing the Trolleybus
Author: Ashley Bruce
Publisher: Trolleybooks
ISBN: 978-0-904235-25-8
Specification: 305mm x 215mm, 158pp, hardback
Price: £28
Like the Wythall book on Midland Red, this is a study of the early history of the powered bus, a story centred mainly in France and straying into other parts of continental Europe.
Around half the content is devoted to Louis Lombard-Gerin, who Ashley Bruce credits with producing the world’s first commercially operated trolleybus service in 1901 and whose early endeavours may well account for the city of Lyon today having the largest of three surviving systems in France.
Lyon was where Lombard-Gerin grew up, establishing a civil engineering business that helped mechanise the city’s weaving industry. The business became heavily involved with electric power generation.
He was among those who by the end of the 19th century could see potential for the trolleybus.
Having reached most concentrations of large populations, promoters of tramways were getting into the far more commercially risky business of putting them into smaller communities unlikely to justify the necessary return. But — and here may be parallels with today — battery techno…
