Mystery Location #883
Do you know the location of this picture and a little more about the trolleybus?
[Probable route number, class, etc.]

From: "Steve Annells" <steve.annells@busstation.net>

Here is a screen capture from 'Danger Man' with Patrick MacGoohan. It's from an episode broadcast in January 1961, episode 20, 'Vacation'.

I'm no trolleybus expert; is it possible to id the type from this? I'm guessing the bus must only be in shot a second or two; the episode also includes a somewhat closer shot of RTW242 on route 74.

4 researchers have so far offered their opinion.

From: "Colin Rosenstiel" <rosenstiel@cix.co.uk>

Grabbing the picture and enlarging it I think the route number is 662. Maybe it was taken in Harrow Road? The street lights are distinctive but my memory of which boroughs used which types then has gone.

1960/1 was during the height of the conversion programme. The trolleybus looks like one of the earlier pre-war types [from the straight line across the upper deck front windows].

From: "Colin Vaughan" <niloc99@btinternet.com>

My first re-action was that this was Acton Vale looking East from the Kings Arms junction with East Acton Lane. If that Trolleybus is a 662 then it could be coming back from the Bromyard Avenue turn, as some 662s did this I seem to recall.

Street lighting, fluorescent type that replaced the London Supervia high pressure gas lamps were used along The Vale, but proved useless, and were replaced by standard sodium lamps. The style of the Traffic Lights were of a type fitted at the fore mentioned junction. The flats on the left are of a style that was built on the allotment site on the North side of The Vale. The trees farther along look similar to those near to Bromyard Avenue.

What about the 74 bus though? If it was a fleeting glimpse, could have been a different location, or 'licence' on the producers part. One thing isn't quite right is the style of buildings on the right, and part of a crane sticking out. Not aware or any development on that side of the Vale.

Trolleybus might be an F1, its got two suppressor boxes on the roof. Stonebridge Depot might have had one or two near the end of the system. Although the film was transmitted in Jan 1961 some of the shots might have been put together much earlier, in 1959 say.

Hope these observations might help.

From: "Mike Hurley" <mail@mikehurley.co.uk>

The Danger Man series was made at Elstree Studios. They used to film in locations close to the studio to save travelling time and costs - as a result, many of the episodes were filmed in the grounds of my school, Haberdashers', also in Elstree. Consequently, their radius for location shots, coupled with a trolleybus, would ordinarily have put them in the Barnet/Edgware/Colindale/Stonebridge area.

Could it be the route is not 662 but 660, possibly around the Finchley/Golders Green area?

From: "John O'Shea" <JOSHEA2@nyc.rr.com>

This has to be Acton Vale. This photo was taken after the 607 had been taken out of service and replaced by the 207.

It's highly unlikely that the bus is coming from Bromyard Avenue. It would have to be coming from Hammersmith Broadway.

I often looked out the window, from across the street, at the buses in that avenue and they were always trolleys from Hanwell. Never did the 660/666, which originated, I believe, in Finchley, use that terminus.

I well remember that Danger Man episode. There were brief shots of McGoohan in The Vale and in other areas. They were then strung together and incorporated into that episode, Vacation.

The street lamps shown are, indeed, the ones used to replace the old gas lamps.