Category:SYPTE trolleybus 2450 (C45 HDT)

English: No. 2450 (C45 HDT), dubbed 'Electroline', was a prototype trolleybus built by the South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (SYPTE) as part of a project intending to re-introduce trolleybuses to Britain (the last system to close was Bradford's on 26 March 1972). It utilised the design of a contemporary conventional diesel motor bus - a Dennis Dominator double-decker with Alexander RH bodywork, but was fitted with a 300kW traction motor instead of a diesel engine, and with the body being reinforced with steel and modified to accept additional roof stresses and wiring. The bus was powered by a system of overhead wires carrying 600V, but the inclusion of a small (48hp) Dorman diesel powered generator meant the bus could also operate away from the wires. Based at the PTE's Leicester Road depot in Doncaster, in July 1985 it began test runs on a one mile system of wires installed over a private test track in the nearby Doncaster racecourse. Backed by a consortium which included GEC, Balfour Beatty and Insul-8, it was hoped to implement the system as four routes, two in Doncaster and two in Rotherham. The project however never went beyond the testing stage, with 2450 being withdrawn and for a time acting as a donor vehicle for parts for SYPTEs fleet of conventional Dominator buses. SYPE eventually sent it to the Trolleybus Museum at Sandtoft in Lincolnshire, later officially donating it to the museum. The test track was dismantled in the mid-1990s.