The double-deck bus in the photograph (Weekend, June 30; Opinion, July 5) was one of 21 delivered new in 1939 to Brighton Corporation Transport along with 44 trolley buses with similar Weymann bodies to replace the trams. A further eight trolley buses were supplied to the Brighton, Hove and District Omnibus Company Limited.

More vehicles of similar design followed after the Second World War - 14 diesel and 11 trolley buses. This style of vehicle was seen in Brighton for the next 30 years until the last one was withdrawn in March 1969.

The photograph showed preserved 1939 AEC motorbus number 63 (FUF 63) during one of the Historic Commercial Vehicle Club's London-to-Brighton runs, possibly in 1968. It is still in working order and can be seen from time to time at bus rallies.

These vehicles were good at climbing Brighton's hills when compared with contemporary diesel buses but could not compete with the superior acceleration and hill-climbing characteristics of the trolleybuses. Ten of the pre-war batch survived into the Sixties but by September 1965 all had gone.

Also from this era, Brighton, Hove and District's AEC trolleybus 6340 (CPM 61) is a static exhibit in the Reserve Road Transport Collection of the Science Museum, held at Wroughton, near Swindon, Wiltshire while Brighton Corporation trolleybus 52 (LCD 52) can be seen at the East Anglia Transport Museum, Carlton Colville, near Lowestoft, Suffolk. It has recently been completely restored internally but, externally, is in Maidstone Corporation's yellow ochre and cream colours, for it ran in the Kent town until April, 1967.

-Andrew P Henbest, Sheridan Road, Worthing