We return to the vanished world of Newcastle trolley buses.
Our evocative image comes courtesy of the Armstrong Railway Photographic Trust and its Trustee, David Dunn.
Taken by K Gregory in Newcastle's East End, the photograph dates from September 1966, a time when black and white photography was the norm.
This image in vivid colour shines a rare light on an era usually depicted in monochrome.
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Below a tangle of overhead cables, the packed double-decker is making its way through the Bothal Street/Welbeck Road area.
The adverts on the gable end and on the side of the bus provide a glimpse into some of the minutiae of daily life 55 years ago.
Then, as now, they were buying Hovis bread, Danish bacon and Kit-Kats, while others were trying to pack in the fags - 'Give It Up.' The Daily Express, meanwhile, was telling people it was their job "to buy British".
Older folk will remember the distinctive banana-yellow, electric-powered buses and the cables suspended above the streets of Newcastle city centre and its suburbs.
They came in to use in 1935, and ran for three decades until the last vehicle from a fleet of 204 trolley buses, running on 28 Newcastle routes, completed its final journey - not long after our photograph was taken - in October 1966.
That happened to be the number 35 which ran its shift before humming quietly back to the city's Byker depot on a Saturday night. There was no farewell ceremony.
Most buses were sold off as scrap with some of them, the Chronicle reported, ending their days at a ‘trolley bus graveyard’ in Dunston.
If some passengers were disappointed to see them go, one conductor told the Chronicle: "I'm glad we're getting the new ones. These are too cold in the winter and even the ordinary petrol buses have heating in them."
Our photograph is one of among 500,000 images held in the archive of the Armstrong Railway Trust. The Trust, as its name suggests, mainly curates and archives old photographs of North East railways and rail infrastructure, but also collects images of buses, collieries, shipping and river life.
The Trust has kindly allowed us to publish a large selection of its images in recent years.
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