Photographs 373, 374, 375 and 174 are of what might be termed the Maidstone Standard Car. They were Sunbeam Ws with Northern Counties 56 seat bodies. South Shields and Newcastle Corporation had some almost identical vehicles. Maidstone had three Daimler motor buses with the same bodywork [bit with half-cabs of course]. Further comment.

The arrival in 1946 of nose 62-73 permitted the [eventual] withdrawal of the 17 original six-wheeled trolleys dating from 1928 [Ransomes, Simms & Jeffries] and 1930 [English Electric].

No's 83/84, ex-South Wales Transport, while the same as 62-73 were inferior from the date of arrival. Despite much effort, they left the fleet early with the Hastings arrivals.

The Hastings system was announced for closure on one day, and being local to Maidstone & District Head Office, two of the Corporation staff were in Hastings the next day to chose the best of the fleet. Other buyers came a few days later and were disappointed to find the best had gone. It always seemed strange seeing the green trolleys in the Corporation [brown] garage. They never ran in service until they were re-painted. More on bringing the Hastings trolleybuses to Maidstone.

Maidstone Corporation paid for new trolleybuses up front, with no finance involved, as they did for every vehicle, motor or trolley, until the trolleys were replaced in 1967.

The Sutton Road trolleybus service was extended in stages as follows:-

• 1954 - from Grove Road to Nottingham Avenue
• 1959 - from Nottingham Avenue to Park Wood [running in a terminal loop via Wallis Avenue, Brishing Lane and Bell Road back to Wallis Avenue].
• 1963 - extended in Park Wood via Wallis Avenue to its junction with Bell Road [the new terminus being Park Wood Parade]. This remained the terminus until the system was dismantled.
• There was a 1950s MCTD internal proposal to extend the Sutton Road route out to Langley Cross Roads, turn right along the hills to Coxheath Cross Roads, returning to town via the Loose route. Maidstone and District took an understandably dim view of that idea and it came to naught.

Other extensions:-

• 1947 - Barming [Fountain Inn] to Barming [Bull Inn]. This extension took the trolleybus line beyond the Borough Boundary - by all of 600 yards!

The two Brighton British United Traction Ltd [BUT] trolleybuses [51 and 52] which were sold to Maidstone Corporation, most unusually kept their Brighton fleet numbers because they fitted neatly into the Maidstone series. When they entered service, they were regarded with some awe, the quality was some way ahead of Maidstone's own workaday vehicles. The ceilings, downstairs at least, were covered in some decorative material [was it called Alhambrinol?], much better than Maidstone's own painted metal. No bare bulbs for lighting either!

The chassis of these two BUT trolleybuses were delivered to Brighton Corporation late in1948 but it was not until early 1951 that the chassis were sent to Weymann for a body for each to be constructed; they were delivered to Brighton in September 1951 but not brought into revenue earning service until 25th March 1953. Just five years later they were withdrawn from service in December 1958 being eventually sold to Maidstone Corporation in February 1959 where they entered service in June 1959.

#51 and #52 proved to be a lot faster than the indigenous Maidstone trolleybuses and were always catching them up. Consequently, their top two power notches were removed to combat the problem - 13 notches reduced to eleven. Their last day in service was Saturday 15th April 1967. A few days earlier it had been purchased by Hugh Taylor; therefore Maidstone were operating it when it had already been sold. HT bought it because it had a very short life in Brighton and was not in regular use in Maidstone and too good to be scrapped. Removed from the depot on 28th April 1967 and towed to Pluckley for short term storage. The trolley arms were put on the now 'dead wires' between the depot and Barming Fountain Inn.

#52 is now part of the operating fleet of vehicles at the East Anglia Transport Museum, saved from scrapping for just £127, which in today's [2025] money is equivalent in purchasing power to about £3,000.

Notes on vehicle #52 supplied by;
"Tony Hocking" <tonyhocking@ukonline.co.uk> and
"Hugh Taylor" <isleworthdepot@trolleybus.net>
Picture by;
"David Lawerence" <davelawrence1@hotmail.co.uk>