In 1936 Reading Council introduced trolleybuses to the town to replace the ageing tramway system that was in operation.

The changeover from trams did not happen as quickly as planned and it took over 3 years to complete the operation. The trolleybuses initially proved a great success but were stalled by the start of the second world war.

The Trolley Buses were the mainstay of the towns transport system through to the 1960's where the system declined countrywide due to the increasing use of the motor car in the 1950's and the subsequent reduction in trolleybus passengers using the service.

The Council started reducing the trolleybus fleet in 1968 and they were completely withdrawn on 3rd November 1968.

Our Chief Photographer at Newsquest Berkshire (who was former bus driver and still holds a PCV license) attended the 50th anniversary of the last trolleybus service in the town which took place on Saturday 3rd November 2018 complete with one of the original trolleybuses (No.144) which was towed from the Trolleybus Museum in Doncaster for the occasion.

It is still parked at the Reading Buses Garage in Great Knolly's Street as we go to press this week.

The weekend culminated in the launch of a new book by Dave Hall on the trolleybus story in Reading.

Speaking to Dave on the day we asked if we could use some of Michael Russell's pictures from the book to do a Then and Now article for the Reading Chronicle over the New Year.

He contacted Michael who was happy to help. We then sent Mike and his camera out to recreate, as near as possible, the same pictures with a current Reading Buses vehicle in the same position.

If anyone else has any old pictures of the trolleybuses in Reading or indeed any archive pictures of the town itself we would be happy to send Mike out to shoot the current pictures from the same positions to put in the paper so as readers can see the development of their town.

Images should be sent to mike.swift@newsquest.co.uk