The Trolleybus Museum at Sandtoft.
On the August Bank Holiday weekend we went to the Trolleybus Museum at Sandtoft. Trolleybuses were used commonly throughout the UK until the late 1960's. They were road going vehicles with electric motors powered by overhead cables. The very last place to run them was Doncaster and the last one ran on the 24th March 1972.
We had them in Cleethorpes and I recall how smooth and quiet they were to ride on. The trolleybus museum has a collection of working, restored examples and visitors can enjoy riding on them around the museum site.
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We had a mixture of sunshine and cloud on our visit. This picture shows the overhead
electric wire system, the busses connected to them via twin poles above the busses. |
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| Most busses carried advertisements on them. |
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The interior of this one shows the familiar brightly coloured Moquette fabric which the seats
were covered in. Train carriages also used this type of fabric, very hard wearing. |
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| A couple of busses by the bus shed, but not perhaps what they may seem. |
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| Teddy enjoying a ride on the top deck. |
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And here you can see, they're scale replicas built on site by the volunteers who run the
Museum. They are powered by a small motor and the driver, seen here, sits inside them
to take them round the site. Children love them. |
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| The bus on the left shows the rods connecting the trolleybus to the overhead wires. |
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| In the workshop we saw this bus undergoing restoration. |
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Regular trips take visitors around the site to experience what is was like to ride on an
electrically powered bus. Seems things will soon be going full circle when vehicles on
the UK roads will all be run by electric motors. |
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| The livery on the busses is kept to a high standard. |
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A much better picture showing the system of overhead wires and how the trolleybuses
connect to power the motors. |
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| A driver and his conductor (known as a "Clippie") taking a rest between rides. |
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| A Clippie's ticket machine. |
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The bus on the left is an original, restored model that ran in Cleethorpes, my home town.
It's almost certain I would have ridden on it many times. |
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| Time for a cuppa and something to eat. No, that's not me. |
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| There are a few restored old shops on site, this one is a photography shop. |
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Many familiar cameras on show, the Kodak one, just below the timing clock, is the same
as my 1st camera. I bought it from Comley Cameras when I was 11 years old and I'm still
buying things from that shop. Although they've relocated to a different place in Cleethorpes. |
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| The museum shop has lots of interesting things within. |
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| This Thomas the Tank setup attracted me and I couldn't resist a few photos. |
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| A toy peddle car. |
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And then I was tempted to take one more photo, I can't remember what this character was in
the original books, written by Wilbert Awdry & his son Christopher. They wrote many books
for children which were later made into TV shows.
That's the end of our trip down memory lane, hope you enjoyed seeing the trolleybuses.
Nikon Z-2 + 24 - 70mm lens.
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What a lovely post, David. I remember trolley buses in London when I was a child. I was fascinated by them and wonder even now whey they stopped using them. With today's focus on environmental issues, they would seem to be a great alternative to the petrol and diesel guzzlers. Lovey photos of the museum and the colourful buses too. Thanks for the reminder, David.
ReplyDeleteThank you Val, I'm pleased you liked the pics & memories. Yes, in today's climate changing environment it would be a good alternative and avoid the need to dig up roads to install the tracks that modern tram systems require. No charging periods either, take care. David.
DeleteA super post David and stirred many memories, especially the red trolleys and the overhead wires. Living in west London as a child I used red trolleys to get me to school, especially in junior school. I remember the bus ticket machines and the 'real' tickets. Thanks for the memories your great photos gave me. Sorry I haven't been around blogs recently All good .
DeleteThank you Mike, it's a real trip down memory lane at this place . I can imagine how you would like the red trolleybusses, the also have a restored red Routemaster road going bus that visits from another preservation group. The red busses are my favourite.
DeleteYou say "all good" and I have worried why no posts from for a while, so I hope all is well with you both. David & Popcorn
Hello Ann, glad liked these pics. We used to get an ever ready m real leather case back in the day. A perfect fit and you only needed to drop the front down and you were ready to take pictures. Oh and yes, the leather smelt great. Take care, David
DeleteA fantastic post and your photos are stunning! This museum looks amazing and it must feel like a treat to ride on the trolley busses. Someone has taken great care to maintain this fleet. I would enjoy spending time in the camera shop as well and certainly remember my first Kodak. I always loved the scent of the leather case on my father’s camera and seeing these brings me memories of him and his love of photography. I know that you have the same passion. I really enjoyed this post, David, thank you. As always, Ann K.
ReplyDelete