Stories by Roni Moore
Steam Trains and Trolley Buses
Trolley Bus taken in Vale West London
As I sit here my mind goes back a little over 50 years ago, to when I
was a small child in London. I close my eyes and I can see it clearly -
the High Street. I see the trolley buses running up and down, very big
and red with long poles, which I think were called antennas, attached to
wires that looked like they were right up in the sky. The long poles,
called trolley poles, sometimes came off the wires and the bus would
suddenly come to a stop. The driver would have to jump out of the cabin
and go to the back of the bus, get an enormous pole out of a hole and
then hold the pole up to the antenna and hook it back on the wires in
the sky so the bus could move again. This would be very exciting for a
child. I used to feel it was a real treat to be taken on the trolley bus
to Shepherds Bush Market to see all the brightly coloured things; and
also there were animals, puppies, kittens, parrots, even chickens and
tiny yellow chicks. The trolley bus was finally taken out of service in
1962.
I also remember the steam train chugging along, steam pouring out of the
funnel. I used to love to go up on a bridge with my mother, we would
wait until a train came puffing along and the steam would come over the
bridge covering us; or going for a ride on little Ginny a small train
with one carriage which went from Acton Central Station to Richmond
Station and back, only a few stops but a great favourite with the
children from my town. It seemed a great loss when those lovely trains
were taken out of service. In those days the train ride was almost as
much pleasure as the place to which you were travelling. You could close
your eyes and the train would talk to you saying things like: ‘you’re
almost there, you’re almost there’ in time to the wheels going over the
lines, chugging along with the sound of the high whistle screeching as
you flew past the villages and fields making you drowsy so you could
feel your eyelids getting heavier and heavier as you chugged along.
Those days are now long gone and we will never get the steam trains back
but from what I have seen they might be bringing the trolley bus back
into service. This seems like a good idea to me. No nasty emissions like
diesel or petrol buses. So if you like things green with no pollution,
won’t it be so much better for the environment. What do you think?