Created 8-Jan-22
Modified 8-Mar-24
In September 1952 Bradford agreed to buy the entire Notts & Derby trolleybus fleet of thirty-two vehicles. This section concerns the seventeen AEC 661Ts.
The oldest vehicles in the fleet were seven AEC 661Ts with Weymann H30/26R bodies and English Electric equipment. In Bradford they were given fleet numbers previously used on the English Electric six-wheelers of 1929-1931, 580-586 (DRB 616-622) had been 300-305 and 332 when with Notts & Derby.
They were the last of the ex-Notts & Derby vehicles to enter service, probably requiring some work to bring them up to standard given that they were sixteen years old when they arrived in Bradford. They entered service from October 1954 to June 1955 and were always intended as a stopgap measure, creating a pool of vehicles to allow the rebodying programme to get under way. They were withdrawn in 1958 and 1959.
This second batch were similar in specification to 580-586 but were a few years newer and they also had longer and more interesting lives than the other vehicles from Notts & Derby.
587-596 (HNU 826-830, HNU 970-974) had been 333-342 in the Notts & Derby fleet and new in 1941 (587-591) or 1942 (592-596). They were again AEC 661Ts with Weymann H30/26R bodies and English Electric equipment. Despite being built well into the war they were to full peacetime standards.
They entered service in Bradford over a period from May 1953 to September 1954 but in 1958 went through a rebuilding and rebodying programme. The resultant vehicles were 27'-0" long and 8'-0" wide, having been fitted with new wider front axles (retaining the original rear axles). The new bodies were East Lancs H35/28RD and similar to the first rebodies of Bradford's own wartime fleet which were done immediately before, the only difference being a grille in the lower front panel as also fitted to the native AEC 661Ts that had been rebodied by East Lancs.
The first of the batch was withdrawn at the end of 1964 but three remained in service up to the end of July 1968, by which time they were the last AEC trolleybuses still in service in the UK.
© David Beilby
