Created 23-Aug-20
Modified 9-Jun-24
London Transport took a keen interest in different forms of construction for the pre-war trolleybus fleet, the concern being largely around a chassis's tendency to twist and flex when running with a body that does not take so well to those sorts of movements. The idea was to stiffen up the body structure in a way that would not increase vehicle weight. There were two approaches to this. One was unit construction whereby the chassis construction was different and incorporated outriggers for the body, an approach that required close collaboration between chassis and bodybuilder. London tried this with the M1 class which comprised prototype 953 and a batch of twenty-five (1530-1554).
The other approach was the chassisless construction where a much stiffer body with framework built to support the running units was used, eliminating the conventional chassis - what we would today refer to as an integral vehicle. London Transport bought significant numbers of these based, with the exception of Chiswick-produced X4 754, on a Metro-Cammell structure which formed experimental vehicle X5 (1379) and classes L1 to L3 (1355-1378 and 1380-1529) a total of 176.
The final chassisless vehicles were from other manufacturers, presumably wishing to maintain access to the London trolleybus market (although in practice the orders had already been placed for the remainder of the pre-war fleet and the post-war situation was very different). Leyland produced an unusual twin-steer vehicle of class X7 (1671) but the last one to be built, in December 1939, was the subject of this gallery - 1670 (FXH 670) which was an English Electric (EE) chassisless vehicle using AEC running units and designated Class X6.
What may seem surprising is that this English Electric vehicle had a Metropolitan-Vickers (MV) MV206A3 motor, but electrical equipment on later pre-war London trolleybuses was supplied through the Associated Manufacturers of Electric Traction Equipment Limited, a joint marketing organisation of British Thomson-Houston, Crompton Parkinson, EE, GEC and MV. In practice it was always either from EE or MV.
The body was recorded in London as being H40/28R, the reduction in capacity of two in the lower deck being attributed to the front bulkhead being a little further back. It is of note that on the rear view of the finished vehicle (P5567) it is lettered as seating 30 in the Lower Saloon. Whilst English Electric are known to have got that wrong, it may be that London Transport decided that the bench seats over the rear wheels were only long enough for four passengers, despite having been built as five. The seat upholstery does not mark out individual seats (see P5569) so it is not defined any other way.
1670 operated mainly from West Ham depot with some time from Poplar. A "Doodlebug" flying bomb hit West Ham depot on the evening of July 30th 1944 and caused extensive damage to 1370. The body was rebuilt by Weymann with a new roof and new window pans, resulting in a marked change of appearance. It was withdrawn in 1955 when London Transport decided to withdraw all remaining experimental trolleybuses.
© David Beilby
