It was April 1963 and the everyday sight of trolley buses trundling around the streets of Newcastle and its suburbs would soon become a thing of the past.
Our picture taken 60 years ago shows what the Evening Chronicle described as a ‘trolley bus graveyard’, in Dunston, Gateshead. The image comes from a set captured by staff photographer Larry Wilson who had to contend with a fearsome Alsatian guard dog while taking his pictures at the scrap yard.
Older folk will remember the distinctive, banana-yellow, electric-powered trolley buses and the miles of cable suspended above the streets of Newcastle. The vehicles had entered service nearly three decades earlier, as the old tram system was being phased out, but were approaching the end of their working life in 1963. The buses at Dunston were Sunbeam F4s, dating from 1949. Around 24 of them were eventually broken up here, with many others sent off to different parts of the country for various uses.
