Please continue using any paintings I have done in your excellent videos. There are a number on Trampainter's Fickr pages and Graham Lees Facebook pages. But, as a courtesy, could you consider giving me a credit and notifying me. You will find many trolleybus, diesel bus, tram and railway train paintings. All the best. Graham Lees
Used to catch them all the time as a kid, between Mt Lawley and Perth CBD. Sometimes on the intersection of Beaufort & Wellington, the overhead booms would detach from the power lines and come crashing down on the bus roof. The driver would have to get out, grab a long pole-mounted tool from the side of the bus and use it to reattach the booms.
thats for this presentation My Father drive trolley buses and I remember them well,...I was recently trying to explain these to someone who could understand the difference with Trams!
I remember taking the #77 to and from the Perth train station from and to Bennet St, East Perth in 1965 for 3 years. The conductor jumped off the trolley at the corner to reconnect the jig to the power line. I guess thats how he got called the "conductor". !!?
The trolley buses had just finished when we came to Perth. I have been on trolley buses before as a kid and i did like. Felt smoother, less jerky than the Diesel.
Excellent video. Great seeing the Perth trolley buses. The only Australian trolley buses that I have ridden on were in Sydney, running from Kogarah and Rockdale, south of the city. These trolley buses were all double deck and the system closed in 1959. I have also been on single deck trolley buses in later years while on holiday in Auckland and Wellington New Zealand. Unfortunately, both these systems have since closed as well.
I dimly remember at least one trip with a trolley bus from the Barrack street Jetty through to the Perth Train station. It would have been the early '60s, as I would have been around 6 or 8 years old at that time. They were amazing, but showing their age at that time. I remember they were very quiet as they accelerated, but there was a lot of rattles from loose seats etc from within.
What you actually meant to say was those in charge loved the kickbacks for ditching the Trams. Which is why we have almost everything. Corruption, pure corruption
After ww2 my grandfather moved to Perth from Westonia, he worked as a trolley bus conductor/driver up to his retirement in 1963. All memories from many moons ago and a more non rat race Perth.
I used to regularly catch trolley buses going to and coming home from school along Beaufort St from Barrack St in the city to the terminus for that route in Bedford, where the road changed from Beaufort St to Broun Ave. Pretty sure the route no. was 77, which was shown in one of your photos. Personally, I really liked the trolleys and preferred them to the petrol buses of the day. I found them to be a smoother ride and MUCH quieter. There was a LOT of controversy about the cessation of the trams and ultimately the trolleys. For trolleys, believe it or not the opponents to them cited their being quiet as one of the reasons for getting rid of them! They said people couldn't hear them and would try to step out in front of them. The photo of the depot [Near the Perth Police Headquarters, near the Causeway bridge and WACA grounds] appears in one of the photos you showed. That is where all the trams and trolleys ended up being stored while the arguments raged about their future. In the end, a fire [which had, apparently, 6 ignition points] destroyed all the rolling stock so the question of whether to bring them back became moot.
My grandma, growing up in the 40s and 50s, fondly remembers the trolley buses. Funny enough i was recently in Almaty, where they still run trolley buses.
Thanks for your video. Some fantastic old pictures from around Perth. Let a West Aussie know if you need some help with pronouncing those street and suburb names though please.. 😉
You will never find organised crime in Western Australia, because they work for the government or the judicial system or law enforcement agencies.... it's True. As for the closing of the trolley buses they stopped because too much of the general public's money wasn't paying for the intake of the Government's booze and party pie's....and the Brothel's they attend
