Bradford City Transport 735 (DKY 735) at Thornton - 22 Mar 1972 (202 BB)

Wednesday 22 March 1972 – Bradford City Transport 735 (DKY 735) seen at Thornton, the western terminus of cross city service 7 to Thornbury.

It was 50 years ago that the last trolleybuses ran in normal everyday service in Bradford, the last urban trolleybus system in the United Kingdom. Normal scheduled services ended after operation on Friday 24 March 1972 which was followed by a weekend of special commemorative tours with the final runs being made on Sunday 26 March 1972.

As other trolleybus systems closed during the 1960s Bradford City Transport bought a number of redundant vehicles from the former operators along with the electrical equipment and other infrastructure.

Some of the acquired vehicles were refurbished and re-bodied with modern forward entrance bodywork in the same style as the vehicle in this photograph which was actually new to BCT in March 1946 with a rear entrance Roe body. The Karrier W4 chassis was re-bodied by East Lancs in October 1959.