What a shame no detailed account exists of the full story of the purchase and subsequent movements of the 125 'Spanish' Q1s! The story has, up until now remained a postscript in the good trolleybus books. Unfortunately, a video of the story was to have been my next 'On-Line' project, but my life got in the way. If only all the 'experts'[!] could pool their resources - people like Terry Russell, A R Phillips, Hugh Taylor, [I, too, have some first-hand knowledge and material] among others - and compile some lasting document. You are to be congratulated on what you've done, of course, but a book [or a film - there must be HOURS of cine to be reviewed] would constitute a permanent memorial, don't you think?

The 'Vigo Nine' Picture from 'A Trolley Retrieved' by Trolleybooks. [Credit P.W. Price]

I'll never forget the thrill I felt when, in 1976 in Bilbao, I spied the unmistakable profile of a Q1's upper front windows across a sea of rush-hour traffic - my first 'exiled' London trolley! [it turned out to be Bilbao's 891 - ex-LT 1891 and London's last one!] I went on to see La Coruna and Pontevedra's Q1s still active and risked life and limb to get unusual cine angles!

I found the remains of the Santander fleet [1810 had become a beachside hamburger stand], two San Sebastian vehicles derelict but identifiable in a quarry outside the city, the Zaragoza fleet almost intact but withdrawn, several surviving Q1s in their silver Coruna-Carballo colours and, of course, the most thrilling of all in Vigo ..... nine Q1s in original livery, complete with 1961 advertisements for Wallace Heaton, Olivier cigarettes and the like - still parked as they had been delivered with just one gap in their ranks to show where 1790 have been procured by nearby Coruna-Carball to become their 'number 23']. In some of these vehicles it was possible to find old tickets tucked under the seats from their last LT passenger journeys! This exceptional find of vehicles where 'demolished' when the building they were housed in was likewise torn down.

The only system I saw no evidence of was the long-defunct Tarragona-Reus route [near Barcelona] - they had just two Q1s, and Hugh Taylor has film of them running. Pontevedra's vehicles still retained their LT moquette and were only slightly modified [the staircase and rear platform were reversed]; one could ride this lengthy and picturesque route while easily imagining oneself back in sylvan suburbs of Fulwell's operating area!

I made several trips to Spain, uncovering more derelict vehicles and shooting cine and slides of what I saw, and had a wonderful time doing it! It was on my last trip [in 1979] that I found the last surviving system had succumbed to diesel operation, and I believe I was the one to bring the sad news back to England first. I was moved to write the article for LBM [#34] 'Donde estan los trolleybuses?' which, I fear in retrospect, was overburdened with maudlin and flowery phrases like ".... no more will La Corunna's Puerto Real look like an Iberian 'Gardiner's Corner ...." Remorse is my only excuse!