TROLLEYBOOKS
Model and Toy Trolleybuses, by Ashley Bruce and Gottfried Kure



As work continues on this work, we'd like to bring you an update on progress, with a few illustrations.

Gunthermann 6 wheel 'London' trolleybus c.1938

With the book having a wide remit of industrial, public, scratchbuilt and conversions as well as commercial trolleybus models, the examples list is approaching 900. Even taking into account all 173 Lledo variants and the 44 Corgis from 3 castings, that still leaves an amazing diversity. There are 139 St Petersburg Tram Collection models of 28 different types. 4 prodigious makers are mainly responsible for 83 models from the Czech Republic - a country that, like Germany, doesn't seem to able to make enough trolleybus models.

Dave Wall's trolleybus exhbit at Aston Manor Transport Museum

And with large numbers of Museum models, attempts at motorizing them and wish fulfillment on the part of a number of very enthusiastic collectors, the problem is not only including them all, but also finding a way of doing so that makes for a good read and an easy way of navigating the plethora of examples. After introductory chapters that deal with special cases and the relevance of nostalgia, the book is being organised by full size chassis type, with say, all AEC 661T models grouped together. Post war chassisless construction still means categorization is possible, though discussion with collaborator Gottfried Kure is ongoing!

Winterthur Solaris Trollino 18, by Andras Ekkert from a Reitze model.

Lines have been drawn with trailers, of which there have been a great number in Europe, and card models, which in total would take the number of model trolleybuses and variants beyond a 1000!

With the database bulging and image processing well in hand, the writing of the book is now about a third complete, though just how big it'll be isn't yet known. It'll probably take the rest of this year to complete.

The authors, Ashley Bruce and Gottfried Kure, would like to hear from anyone who has unusual, unique or rare models and toy trolleybuses, and can be contacted at trakless@trolleybus.co.uk or at 156 High Street, Bildeston, IP7 7EF, UK.