On 01/04/15 09:41, stuart noble wrote:
Each bus must have carried a rather
long pole

I believe the London ones did have a long pole.

The latvin trolley buses I've been on are much more elegant - each of
the two wires retracts into a spring loaded reel on the back of the bus
(think vacuum cleaner cord retract) but it is nit string enough to
overcome the upwards spring in the pickup pole - so it reels in and out
as the pole moves.

So the "konduktur" (I love it when Latvian, which is a pretty unique
language, nicks bits of english, like "dzam" [jam] and "dzentelmens")
grabs the insulated single core cable and pulls it down and to one side
or another to guide the pole then releases it back onto the main wire.

I am surprised the Londoners did not think of that - it was ratehr
obvious in hindsight and a lot less fiddling around. The "konduktur" can
get the poles back on the wire in less than a minute.