The British Trolleybus Society was founded (as the Reading Transport Society) in April 1961 with the initial aim of purchasing for preservation one of Reading’s AEC trolley-buses supplied in 1938-39 that, in 1961, were being replaced with new trolleybuses.

A lot has happened since 1961 and details can be found by browsing our website www.britishtrolley.org.uk.

The Society now owns an amazing collection of 14 historic trolleybuses from around the UK, as well as motorbus 47 and a 1902 horse-drawn tower wagon that was used to install and maintain the electrical overhead wiring for Reading’s tramway.

Bus no.47 is 91 years old, being one of 3 buses built for Reading Corporation Transport (the town council’s own bus operator) in 1935. No.47’s chassis was manufactured by AEC and the 52-seat body was built by Park Royal Coachworks. The 7.58 litre diesel engine and manually-operated 4-speed “crash” type gearbox were also AEC products.

At 91 years old, this wonderful old bus is becoming rather frail and is much in need of extensive renovation work that could take as long as 4 years to complete.

2026 marks the 125th anniversary of Reading County Borough Council taking on responsibility for providing public transport within the town. The Society is delighted that 47 will participate in the celebratory event in Reading’s Broad Street on Sunday, 4 October 2026 to commemorate this civic event. After that, it is planned that 47’s major renovation work will start.

Plans for Restoring Bus 47

At the end of this year it is planned that no.47 will be taken off the road to allow some initial inspections of the off-side of the bodywork to take place. It is suspected that over time some of the body’s steel structural members have become severely corroded.

If this is the case, the extent of the corrosion will need to be established, which will involve the removal of much of the external aluminium panelling. It is vitally important that as far as possible the design of the original bodywork structure is conserved and, as necessary, replicated, so accurate drawings of deteriorated parts will have to be prepared so that replacements can be fabricated and, one by one, the new parts can be bolted or riveted in place.

We know of all sorts of other tasks to bring no.47 up to standard:

• all bodywork steel needs to be rust-treated and painted

• some new opening windows are needed and all the glazing needs to be re-fixed in new rubber mountings

• the lino to both decks needs renewing

• light and bell circuits need to be re-wired and some internal light fittings need renovating

• internal panelling and some widow surrounds need replacing

• all sorts of surfaces need to be prepared for redecoration

On the plus side, the chassis and majority of the mechanical units seem to be in a good state with only minimal work required.

All the work needed on bus 47 requires much patience, attention to detail, record-keeping, experience and dedication - traditional skills that are not necessarily easy to find! A bus is big and there will be a lot of repetitive work.

So, at this early stage, it is impossible to establish any likely estimate of how much the necessary refurbishment work might cost, but we know it won’t be cheap!

Accordingly, the Society needs to do a lot of fundraising to allow this worthy project to go ahead – we could call this FARE’S FAIR FOR 47!

We have set up this dedicated Go Fund Me page for bus 47 and so we ask if you could, please, make a donation to this cause The equivalent cost of a couple of High Street coffees would be warmly welcomed, and likewise, the cost equivalent of a pint or two of ale would be a great help!