Title: Around Bournemouth by Trolleybus
Author: Henry Conn
Publisher: Adam Gordon
ISBN: 978-1-910654-06-4
Specification: 300mm x 220mm, 224pp, hardback
Price: £47 (£50 from publisher at Kintradwell Farmhouse, Brora, Sutherland, KW9 6LU)
Bournemouth had a lovely trolleybus system with stately primrose double-deckers making their way silently around the genteel resort. Most had the undertaking’s standard twin staircase and rear exit/front entrance layout with comprehensive destination displays front and rear and a complete absence of external advertising until 1966.
This is probably the most impressive book devoted to them, a mighty tome weighing in at 1.3kg and packed full of high quality colour and black and white photographs.
Trolleybuses first ran in Bournemouth in 1933 with the hiring, and subsequent purchase, of four demonstrators to determine the feasibility of operations and which type was best. The Sunbeam MS2 won and over the next three years, the tram system was replaced by a hugely standardised fleet of 102 MS2s with Park Royal bodies, some of which served the town for over 25 years.
World War 2 saw several lent to other operators, including London Transport, Walsall and Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Twent…
