Park Royal bodied Sunbeam S7 at the Liverpool Road terminus of the London Road route, October 1965
Operation
Locale
Reading, Berkshire, England
Open
18 July 1936 (1936-07-18)
Close
3 November 1968 (1968-11-03)
Status
Closed
Routes
4
Operator(s)
Reading Corporation
Infrastructure
Stock
93, including six bought second hand and never used; 63 maximum in service
The Reading trolleybus system served the town of Reading in the English county of Berkshire and was owned by Reading Corporation, who had operated an electric tramway since 1901. As there was a need for major refurbishment of the tramway in the 1930s, they decided to replace it with a trolleybus network. The first route was converted on 18 July 1936 (1936-07-18), and by mid 1939, trolleybuses were running over most of the tramway routes, with the last tram running on 20 May. By the standards of the various now-defunct trolleybus systems in the United Kingdom, the Reading system was a moderately sized one, with a total of four routes, and a maximum fleet of 63 trolleybuses, a size that lasted from 1 December 1950 to 27 March 1952.
Reading saw a large increase in population during the Second World War, and extra vehicles were obtained to meet the demands for transport. During this period, all of the termini were given new non-geographical names, in case there was an invasion, but most were reverted when hostilities ceased. In the post-war period, small extensions to the system continued to be made, and although a batch of second-hand trolleybuses were purchased in 1949, most acquisitions were new, with a final batch of twelve obtained from Sunbeam Commercial Vehicles in 1961. The demise of the system was hastened by the manufacturer of overhead wiring announcing that they would cease production of these items, and some major roadworks taking place in the town, which would have required reconstruction of the overhead wiring. The first closure of a route took place in July 1965, and the system closed on 3 November 1968 (1968-11-03).
Reading was at the forefront of the trolleybus preservation movement, when Reading Transport Society obtained the first British trolleybus to be privately preserved. Another five Reading vehicles were eventually saved, including one that was sold to Teesside for further service when the Reading system closed. The Reading Transport Society spent years searching for a site where their vehicles could be exhibited and operated, and were instrumental in setting up The Trolleybus Museum at Sandtoft in 1969, where all of the preserved vehicles are normally stored. The Society was rebranded as the British Trolleybus Society in 1971, reflecting the wider remit that they now had.
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