Bronze Age Gold from Wales

Cardiff Corporation trolleybus No. 215 - registration number DBO 475. East Lancashire saloon body on an B.U.T. chassis (chassis type letter & no. - G64T 078) with G.E.C. electrical equipment. Painted in corporation crimson lake and cream livery. Seating capacity 67. First registered 9th April 1948 by Cardiff City Council, Transport Dept., Womanby Street, Cardiff. Last registered 4 January 1967. Withdrawn 1970 when the trolleybus system was finally closed.

The trolleybus, driven by electric motors using electricity collected from overhead wires, now seems to be a remote relic of the transport scene. However, it was only in January 1970 that the last trolleybuses ran in Cardiff. Number 215 was one of these. It entered service in 1948, has an East Lancashire body on a B.U.T. chassis, and is installed with GEC electrical equipment. Trolleybuses were popular because they ran smoothly and quietly and did not produce any pollution. However, the fixed overhead wires meant that the system was inflexible and caused problems when it became necessary to modify traffic flows in urban areas during the post-war years. Elsewhere in Wales trolleybuses ran in Llanelli, Pontypridd, Aberdare and the Rhondda.

Many of the Cardiff trolleybuses operated on a pay-as-you-enter basis and had an additional front entrance to assist operation, although this was later sealed up on No.215. In the late 1940s a flat fare of 1 old penny was charged, irrespective of the distance being travelled.

Source: Welsh Industrial & Maritime Museum Guidebook, 1984