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Fleet Details
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CARDIFF 203 (CKG 193)

Chassis: AEC 664T (3 axle)
Chassis No. 664IT862
Motor : English Electric MV202 (80hp)
Bodywork: Bruce H70R
Body Number : 3203
Length 30ft 0in, Width 7ft 6in.
Unladen Weight : 9 tons 8 cwts 1 qtrs.
Entered Service : 1 March 1942
Withdrawn : December 1962

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BRIEF HISTORY


The Cardiff trolleybus system was inaugurated on 1 March 1942 when trolleybuses replaced trams on the route between Wood Street and Clarence Road. Ten AEC664T trolleybuses with Bruce bodywork had been purchased and they were the last AEC664T chassis manufactured by AEC. Of the ten vehicles purchased, only five entered service immediately and 203 was one of them. The other five vehicles were delivered later in the year and entered service in November 1942 which allowed the route to be extended from Wood Street to Llandaff Fields.

All 10 vehicles entered service in a drab wartime grey livery. However, in 1946 at least four of these vehicles, including 203, were repainted in a streamlined crimson lake and cream livery. Others remained in grey until by 1949/50 all ten vehicles had all been repainted in standard motorbus livery.

Whilst some of these vehicles continued in service until 1965, 203 was withdrawn in December 1962 whereupon she was presented to the Reading Transport Society and stored in Reading. Later in the 1960s 203 transferred into private ownership and remained so until the early 1990s when she was brought back into the care of the BTS once more.

203 was repainted in Cardiff’s original grey livery in the early 1990s and has operated at both the Black Country Museum and Sandtoft in recent years although she is currently out of service due to a defective motor and awaiting some attention to the bodywork.

Plans are now afoot to restore 203 into the streamlined livery it carried in the late 1940s. This work will be undertaken in memory of the late BTS Chairman, Mike Dare and also the late Geoff Griffiths, a Welshman who carried out much electrical work for a number of trolleybus preservation societies. See the Cardiff 203 Appeal Page for more details.