Yes, Noel ­ quite a bit: the traction motors (though rewound), front and
rear drive axles (the new buses also have a rear tag axle), some items of
electrical equipment.

BTW ­ the tone of the Vale article below is, in my opinion, a bit silly and
doesn¹t reflect well on the gunzel community here. The fact is that the
Volvos had a difficult and protracted introduction, including a redesign
halfway through the delivery process, because they were not well engineered
or managed to start with. With high floors and quite difficult access they
rapidly became obsolete, and their passing to be replaced with new low-floor
locally-made vehicles that will maintain electric transit in our streets
into the future is to be celebrated. Particularly when trolleybus systems
elsewhere are still getting the chop ­ like Edmonton which used similar
vehicles to Wellington.

And heritage considerations are being covered with the preservation of two
of them.

Brent Efford

On 17/11/09 12:29 AM, "Noel Reed" noelreed10@...> wrote:

>

>

> I heard somewhere that the Wellington Designline trolley buses have used some

> recycled parts from earlier trolleys. Is this correct ?

>

> New Zealanders must be experts with recycling railway equipment with

> locomotives from Queensland (some went to Tasmania), carriages from Queensland

> (via Zig Zag Railway, Lithgow NSW) and railcars from Western Australia.

>

> Brisbane tramways recycled some tram parts retrieved from the Paddington Depot

> fire.

>

> Sydney¹s 195 R class trams built from 1933 have reputedly used some parts

> recycled from the 202 E class trams which dated from 1901 ­ 1903.

> Is it known if this is the case and which parts were reused? The R cars at

> the STM may have bits of equipment much older than their nominal age.

>

> Noel Reed. Who often puts out old stuff for recycling at the kerbside and it

> disappears well before the official council collector visits the area.

>

>

> From:TramsDownUnder@... [mailto:TramsDownUnder@yahoogroups.com]

> On Behalf Of Bob Merchant

> Sent: Monday, 16 November 2009 9:51 PM

> To: TramsDownUnder

> Subject: [TramsDownUnder] Fw: Vale Wellington's Volvo trolley buses

>

>

>

>

>

> Sent to me by a friend.

>

>

>

> Bob M

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

> Vale Wellington¹s Volvo trolley buses

> Unmarked, and probably unnoticed, the last revenue trip of the last of

> Wellington¹s Volvo trolley buses is likely to take place today. A Volvo

> trolley is, barring problems, scheduled to leave Karori Park at 11.05am for

> Lyall Bay, then run into Kilbirnie depot at 12.06pm, ending 28 years of Volvo

> trolley operation in the capital. This might seem unimportant. After all,

> trolley buses will keep running in Wellington. A fleet of some 60 new

> low-floor Designline trolleys has replaced the old Volvos, hence the

> retirement of those old high-floor rattlers. But it is sad there will be no

> celebration, or even a wake, to mark the last Volvo in passenger service. Sad,

> because there was no celebration, or any marking at all, of the 60th birthday

> of Wellington trolley bus operation on June 20 this year. Sad because the 60th

> birthday of a trolley bus service is a rare event in the English-speaking

> world and the survival of Wellington¹s trolleys was extraordinary. Sad because

> the noisy old Volvos were the workhorse of Wellington¹s bus system for so many

> years, and their passing will go without a mention, other than here on this

> blog. Trolley buses used to be an important part of the capital¹s public

> transport system. They replaced the city¹s trams between 1949 and 1964. By the

> latter year, there were 119 of them, compared with the 60 of today. Then, they

> ran all services on the wired routes from first bus to last, seven days a

> week. The Volvos were ordered in 1979 to replace the oldest first-generation

> trolleys, and entered service between 1981 and 1986. There were 68 in all.. In

> 1984, 20 Ansaldo trolleys began running, taking the modern trolley fleet to

> 88. But the Ansaldos lasted only five years before being converted to diesel

> buses. Sixty of the Volvos soldiered on, older and more decrepit, and used

> less and less in favour of diesel buses, until a decision was made in 2005 to

> buy the present new fleet of Designline trolleys to replace the Volvos. The

> purchase of so few new trolleys was supposedly to keep Wellington¹s streets

> green, but that is a farce. The real reason is to allow Infratil (owner of Go

> Wellington) to retain a monopoly of bus services on the wired routes, which

> are meant to be run solely by trolley buses, but which of course they are not.

> Trolley buses now run only a minority of services on the wired routes (most

> are run by diesel buses), and trolleys do not run at all on weekends any more,

> and rarely after 7pm on weekdays. The powers that be prefer to run diesel

> buses, despite Wellington ratepayers and taxpayers paying $9 million for a

> seven-day trolley service that no longer happens. That is rather sad, as it

> means Wellington¹s streets are very noisy because of the roar of diesel buses,

> especially at nights and weekends when using trolley buses would make them a

> quieter, better place. Much of the opposition to turning Manners Mall into a

> bus lane would evaporate if full-time trolley operation resumed. Farewell,

> Volvos. Lest we forget.

>

>

>

>

>

>

> http://www.incredimail.com/?id=603341&rui=117050948

>

>

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