Created 5-Aug-11
Modified 8-Mar-24
Two AEC trolleybuses were ordered for Moscow in November 1936. One was a double-decker under contract No. 486F 0230 and there was also a single-decker which may have been under the same contract number. They were large vehicles for the time, being 30 feet long and 8 feet wide. They are both believed to be model 664T chassis, the single-decker certainly has the 10.5 x 20 tyres usually only found on double-deckers. The chassis photographs show a change-over switch and contactor for battery operation on the single-deck chassis only but it isn't clear if that was how they were supplied.
The double-decker was numbered 1001 and began running on a part of route 1 (where the wires had been raised) from 1st September 1937 but in the following month it was towed to the Jaroslavl factory. Here it was used as the basis for ten copies, given model number JaTB-3 and numbered 1002-1011, there being just minor differences. These copies were rebuilt to dual-doorway layout from 1940 but the AEC remained original. The first double-deckers were withdrawn in 1946. 1001 ran until 1948 and the last of the Ja-TB-3s was withdrawn in 1953.
The single-decker became 18 and also ran until 1948, being used on the 6 route from Sokol Metro to Khimki Port.
The livery of both vehicles was a pale blue and cream with a silver roof.
© David Beilby
