The first post-war trolleybus MTB was restored in Moscow

The Moscow Transport Museum has completed the restoration of the MTB-82M trolleybus. This is stated in a message from representatives of the museum, which was received by Izvestia on May 20. When the trolleybus appeared on movie screens in 1947, it turned out to be a symbol of the post-war era, and the abbreviation MTB became synonymous with the word "trolleybus".

The MTB-82M became the first mass-produced domestic trolleybus with an all-metal body and the first trolleybus to enter mass production after the war. The model was produced in 1946-1947, during which time 147 such machines were built. They worked in Moscow until 1968, and later they were transferred to other cities of the USSR. The restored MTB-82M is now the only fully restored trolleybus of this model, the museum said.

The exhibit from the museum's collection was released among the first, in the fall of 1946, and worked in the First Trolleybus Fleet until decommissioning in 1967. The trolleybus arrived at the metropolitan Museum in very poor condition. It had to be almost completely disassembled at first, and then reassembled according to drawings and photographs. The exhibit will take the place of the permanent exhibition of the Moscow Transport Museum, which will open in Konstantin Melnikov's garage on Novoryazanskaya Street.

"The car was painted beige-red, which is exactly what trolleybuses looked like in 1946, and the interior, chassis, and engine were restored. There are almost no MTB-82 trolleybuses left. It is a great value and responsibility for us to restore equipment that not only provided comfortable movement around the city, but also became a symbol of renaissance and progress in the post—war years," said Oksana Bondarenko, director of the museum.

MTB stands for "Moscow TrolleyBus". The number 82 is the number of the aircraft factory of the People's Commissariat of the Aviation Industry, where this model was assembled. An earlier model, the MTB-82A trolleybus, was developed in 1945 at the same enterprise based on the chassis of the YATB-4 trolleybus of the Yaroslavl Automobile Plant. Unlike previous models that had wooden body elements, the MTB-82M was made of steel and duralumin parts. The last flight in the capital was made by MTB-82M in June 1968.

On April 14, the Moscow Transport Museum announced that it had completed the restoration of the ambulance RAF-22031-01, which was produced in 1988 at the Riga Bus Factory.

On March 24, the Moscow Transport Museum announced that the 1954 GAZ-M20A Pobeda car had been restored. This is the first taxi model to be mass-produced in the post-war period.