Created 8-Jan-22
Modified 8-Mar-24
The largest block of trolleybuses in the 703-739 series had Park Royal UH30/26R bodies. However, despite being apparently identical they were fitted with different electrical equipment - in wartime you got what you were allocated which wasn't always what you wanted. The two groups were on Karrier W chassis and split as follows:
715-719 - Park Royal UH30/26R bodies, English Electric equipment, low voltage lighting
720-733 - Park Royal UH30/26R bodies, Metropolitan-Vickers equipment and traction voltage lighting
These entered service over a period from November 1945 to May 1946, the last one (733) being just after the last of the 734-739 batch. All were new with trolley wheels but these were replaced by carbon skids at the earliest possible opportunity, skids having already been adopted as standard although at this stage not quite universal. Being delivered a little later than 703-714 they featured upholstered seats from new. They saw little change whilst in their original form, apart from receiving a simplified livery without gold lining out and without the cream waistbands on each deck. However, bigger change was to come as the whole batch was rebuilt and rebodied.
715-720, 722, 723, 724 and 727 were the first to be rebodied, returning in late 1957/early 1958. When rebodied, these vehicles were 27'-0" long and 8"-0" wide compared to the original dimensions of 26'-0" long and 7'-6" wide. These ten vehicles all had East Lancs H35/28RD bodies which featured a single-piece sliding door instead of the two-piece one fitted to "Jo'burg" 702. 715-719 had steel-framed bodies but to meet current safety requirements the bodies on the others, which were vehicles fitted with traction voltage lighting, had to have composite bodies (timber-framed with steel reinforcement).
The remainder of the batch saw an even greater transformation during 1959 (with the last entering service at the beginning of 1960) as they were fitted with front-entrance East Lancs H37/28F bodies which were 27'-6" long and 8"-0" wide, the front-entrance arrangement now being adopted as standard by Bradford. By this date it was permitted to fit traction voltage lighting to steel-framed provided the interior light fittings met certain requirements and thus all the front-entrance vehicles had steel frames. A design improvement in the body led to fitting of an additional seat in the last examples, as a result 731 and 732 were H37/29F.
The batch played a very prominent role in the Bradford fleet in later years. Only one (720) was withdrawn in the 1960s, in May 1969. The last of the rear-entrance ones was withdrawn at the end of June 1971 with the abandonment of the Saltaire and Greengates routes. The front-entrance ones were withdrawn over quite a short period of time, the first (727) going at the end of May 1971 and only one (731) running in 1972, this being withdrawn on 10th February 1972 when services were temporarily suspended due to power cuts.
731 of the batch was bought for preservation but has not yet been restored.
© David Beilby
