Carlton Colville Arrivals

The latest arrivals at Carlton Colville © Syd Eade

Late this afternoon the East Anglia Transport Museum at Carlton Colville witnessed the arrival of two former London Transport vehicles.

The vehicles will be present for the museum's 2012 London Event being held on two days over the May bank holiday weekend.

The first to appear at Carlton Colville was 'Diddler' trolleybus no.1 following 22 years in store.

The "Diddlers" were the first trolleybuses in London and the only ones with a half cab. They were originally built for London United and were used on the South West London services plying Kingston, Teddington, Surbiton and Wimbledon.

Diddler No. 1 © Syd Eade

Introduced in 1931, the 'A' class began service between Twickenham and Teddington and lasted until 1952 when they were replaced by 'Q' class trolleybuses.

Diddler No.1 was preserved on retirement but ran again on 8 May 1962, the last day of trolleybus operation and is usually to be found at the London Transport Museum Depot at Acton Town.

The Diddler is expected to provide only a limited number of rides in service over the weekend.

Q1 No. 1768 (HYM1768) © Syd Eade

The last vehicle on site was the 'Q1' class BUT/MCW trolleybus No.1768 (HYM768). Built in 1948 it too is normally located at Acton Town. The trolleybus will be in service with limited passengers due to its seat cushions being fragile

The 2012 London Event is being held on Sunday 6th May and Bank Holiday Monday 7th May between 11:00am and 5:00pm. It marks 50 years since the London Trolleybus system closed and 60 years since London's last tram.

My thanks to Syd Eade for providing the photographs and some of the details; and also to Neil Chilvers at the EATM for the additional information