As under the Wellington-Hutt Road Railway Improvement Act (1905) it was forbidden to build tram tracks, the Wellington city council decided on laying down overhead wires for the trolleybus. The only trolleybus which operated on a 1,2km fragmenton was an AEC 602.

AEC 602 is historically the first trolleybus by AEC. According to my sources, only 6 vehicles were produced - one for Wellington, three for Mexborough & Swinton and two for Birmingham (England). There were three body types which were mounted onto the chassis:
- Strachan & Brown B36R (London, UK) - for Mexborough & Swinton Traction Co
- Brush B26R / Brush Traction (Leicestershire, UK) - for Birmingham & Mexborough & Swinton Traction Co.
- DSC & Cousins & Cousins (Auckland, New Zealand) - for Wellington.

The depicted trolleybus was assembled in New Zealand. A high-floor carriage-like body was mounted onto a domestically-made body. The overall length tolled 7,54m with a width of 2,28m. The electric equipment was supplied by by Dick, Kerr & Co (Kilmarnock, Scotland). It featured a 6-position manual master controller and the poles mounted on a sole axis. The traction motor, made by AEC, gave an output of 20kw (30hp) and a maximal speed of 27 km/h on the last master controller position. The overall capacity tolled about 40-42 passengers. Tillable ventlights were used for air ventilation, nothing is known regarding heating. This trolleybus was treated as firewood with discomfort engaged.

Having the chassis No. 602003, it was enrolled into service on September 29, 1924 and remained until May 30, 1932. Unfortunately I currently do not possess more information about the specifications of this trolleybus.

Best regards,
Serious Sam

Thank you very much for the interesting historical information.
I see, there were some experiments with overhead wires connection methods at the beginning of the 20th century: Wellington, Eberswalde...

You're welcome!
Yeah, I suppose you're right! What as to Eberswalde, it was an experiment conducted by Brown, Boveri & Cie in 3 cities - Gera, Zwickau and Eberswalde. It did not justify the entrusted hopes - the bipolar heads were heavy, expensive and occasionally pulled down the overhead wires in case the pole fell down. Sole-pantograph trolleybuses also operated in Drammen, Norway. One vehicle is still rolling nowadays with the original scheme!

Trolleybuses with poles mounted on a single axis were also used in Bratislava, Lausanne and Koblenz (I presume). I am not acknowledged for what reason all of them had this construction installed but I read a text about the Bratislava vehicles which stated that it was done to enhance the overall manouerability of the trolleybus.

Sincerely yours,
Serious Sam

This experiments reminded me the joke picture from computer magazine:
Two people are seeing on trolleybus overhead wires, and one says to other:
'And abroad they started to use the twisted pair...'

Sometimes I also thought, how to attempt make trolleybus's overhead devices so simple, like for a tram, for example:)
And I also thought about the different types of bipolar heads:)

That's right. In Netherlands and Switzerland trolleybuses occasionally utilized tram overhead wire and returned the "minus" by a shunt corbel attached to one of the rails like it's depicted over here: http://www.sfu.ca/person/dearmond/morph/Mystery.old_etb.jpg. I also remember seeing a 1930 Daimler-Benz/BBC trolleybus tested in Stuttgart with such scheme.

Regards,
Serious Sam

Great! Did they go with passengers in such manner, or there were only technical rides?

In Australia it was used in rides with passengers:
http://tdu.to/a46061/perth%20trolley%20b...0reed..jpg
http://tdu.to/223431.msg

http://www.sfu.ca/person/dearmond/argu/P....skate.JPG
(^^ the rode went to the wrong direction)
http://www.sfu.ca/person/dearmond/argu/Perth.photos.htm

Цитата (Михаил Черныш, 10.01.2017):
> Great! Did they go with passengers in such manner, or there were only technical rides?

Michail, yes, the depicted vehicle was exploited with passengers!

ЧКД-КТ4, the illustrated vehicles are actually Perth trolleybuses, not the Wellington ones ;-)
But nevertheless thanks for cool footage!

Stay Serious,
Serious Sam

I think, it is too dangerous in case of negative pole derailed. Every person (for example, driver) may become this negative pole, stepping out from the trolleybus to the ground. Сonsequences are obvious...

Thank's for interesting photos from other side of world!

You're welcome!
Yes, you're right concerning the electricity hazard and therefore German engineers worked hard with insulation issues. As far as I remember, the Bratislava MANs even had their stansions insulated. Nothing was mentioned in my book regarding sole bipolar pantographs regarding their safety but the only specificity was that it had two cables inserted into one pole and a bipolar head was about twice as heavy as a conventional head. I guess BBC developers couldn't have made it frugal. I am not acknowledged how it was carried out in American or British trolleybuses since I do not have much material regarding their electric equipment, but I guess they also worked on insulation.

Cheers,
Serious Sam

One more example of using a rail shunt:
http://transphoto.ru/photo/713111/
http://transphoto.ru/photo/713112/

Hi! The same goes to the pioneer Geneva trolleybuses. This Saurer also used a shunt corbel to substitute the negative pole:
https://www.snotpg.ch/site/wp-content/up...sortie.jpg

All the best,
Sam