London Trolleybus on Route 654 with boom problems

Click on picture [64] for an enlarge version

From: "Chris Cook" <C.Cook@btinternet.com>

Picture 64 was taken from outside no.76 Penge Road, between Norwood Junction and the 'Robin Hood' near the junction with Cambridge Road - just the Anerley side of the bridge carrying the Birkbeck-Crystal Palace railway. I suspect that passage under the bridge had been a shade too enthusiastic - the wires dipped and rose again at this point - leading to the need for the bamboo pole to fish in the sky. There is a Zebra crossing immediately to your left now. that wasn't there in 1959.

The splendid set of chimney pots on the building opposite is now capped like this ^^^^; but the distinctive set of four chimneys on the building beyond, appearing just above the trolleybus, is just the same.

The tobacconists "Parry's" behind the bus is now the "Golden Clouds Solarium" offering "Turbo Sun beds" [what would the shoppers of 1959 make of that?] but the shop to its left, status uncertain in the picture, is currently a newsagent's/tobacconists.

The trees have grown much bigger and you can no longer make out the then-new flats in the left-hand distance of the 1959 view. The lamp standard behind the bus appears to be exactly the same; must have been new in the late 50's.

Click on picture for an enlarged version	Click on picture [63] for an enlarged version
	All that can be done at first is to wait for the repair crew, who are soon on the scene from Carshalton Depot to tackle straightening the badly damaged booms using the "Jim Crow". Insulating tape was then applied to each tubular pole and the trolleybus was soon back in service.

Comment by David Bradley:

From memory a running repair was completed in under half an hour. I wonder how they contacted the garage as there was no nearby public phone [mass mobile phone ownership started 30 years later]; and, who paid the 4d [unlimited time] call to the garage?

From: "Irvine Bell" <ibell@trolleybus.net>

Many British trolleybus systems 'floated' their trolleybus overhead i.e there was no ground connection and, theoretically, one could not get a shock by touching either conductor and 'ground' at the same time. In these situations, the wire nearest the kerb [on the left in Britain] was held at about -300 Volts and the other wire at about +300 Volts, giving a potential difference between the wires of about 600 Volts.