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The Trolleybus Museum at Sandtoft is pleased to announce the purchase of additional of land to expand the museum.
It is almost 40 years since Michael Dare, a school teacher from Reading, bought a section of the former RAF Sandtoft airfield to start a trolleybus museum. Now with over fifty examples, The Trolleybus Museum at Sandtoft is home to the world’s largest collection of preserved trolleybuses. The additional, adjacent, land increases the size of the Museum by 30%.
This expansion completes phase 1 of an ongoing development plan by the Museum which will eventually include a new exhibition hall and extension of the current trolleybus operating circuit. Steve Harrison, Managing Director explained this ‘would enable the Museum to better demonstrate and explain the full history, capabilities and advantages of the trolleybus.’
Remarkably, this expansion has been funded without any external support. Commenting on this achievement Trolleybus Museum Company Chairman, Graham Bilbé, who negotiated the deal, said ‘the achievement is not mine but that of the members who have all contributed enormously in the last four years.’
Fundraising at the Museum, located just outside Doncaster, does not end here. As development moves into phase 2 the Museum continues to seek donations and is also planning a volunteer’s recruitment day in June. The Museum is open on selected weekends throughout the summer.
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The Trolleybus Museum at Sandtoft is pleased to announce the appointment of Stanley King F.S.A as its new President. Stanley, a City Councillor in his hometown of Bradford, fought hard to save trolleybuses from withdrawal during the 1960’s. More recently, as Chairman of West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Authority, Stanley has spearheaded the campaign to revive trolleybuses in Leeds. Upon receiving his invitation to the role of President for the Trolleybus Museum at Sandtoft, home to the world’s largest historic trolleybus collection, Stanley said he was both, “honoured and proud” to have been considered and readily accepted the position. Bruce Lake, Company Secretary for the Trolleybus Museum commented, “we are pleased to have such an influential, knowledgeable and well respected trolleybus advocate as Stanley as our President.” RIGHT: Stanley King (left) is welcomed to his new role by Bruce Lake, Company secretary for The Trolleybus Museum. |
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Stanley is a Bradfordian by birth and upbringing, but one-quarter of a “Lincolnshire Yellowbelly”, as befits the incoming President of a Lincolnshire museum. He learned to drive trams at the age of twelve and, illicitly, put theory into practice in the streets of Bradford in 1950.
However, having born on a tram route, conveyed to school by bus (diesel and occasionally petrol) and to work by trolleybus, he concluded that for urban transport in medium-sized towns and cities the trolleybus has no equal.
His first glimpse of a trolleybus occurred at the tender age of 2½, and, by a stroke of good luck, the vehicle in question was Bradford’s avant-garde AEC/EEC “Q”, which left him with a lifetime’s enthusiasm for progressive change and evolutionary development. This led, at the age of 9, to a personal guided tour of the Corporation’s tram, bus and trolleybus repair works by the Assistant Rolling Stock Engineer, Mr. Ronald Edgley Cox. Thus, the Trolleybus Museums’ first and third Presidents became acquainted while trolleybuses were firmly in the ascendant.
A close colleague of Bradford’s post-war trolleybus transport manager Mr C.T. Humpidge (1951-1961), Stanley was well placed to criticise and oppose the illogicality and flawed rationale of the post 1961 abandonment policy, a battle which nine years later led to his election to City Council as a member (and subsequently Deputy Chairman) of the Passenger Transport Committee. Regrettably, this was too late for a change of policy, but he ensured that the trolleybuses received a fitting funeral, and that a vehicle should be preserved in the city’s Industrial Museum.
In 1985 he became leader of the Conservative group on the newly formed West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Authority, ultimately serving as Chairman in 2004/5 and 2006/7, and alternating as Deputy Chairman in 2005/6 and from 2007 to his retirement in May this year.
Following the failure of the PTA / PTE bid for a Leeds Supertram, Stanley proposed and accompanied study visits to Holland, Germany, Switzerland and France which resulted in the formal adoption of modern, Continental-style trolleybuses (officially designated NGT – New Generation Transport) as the preferred option for a Supertram substitute. The outcome depends on Department for Transport consent at a future date, but as a sound, professional business case has been formulated, Stanley can step down in the knowledge that genuinely sustainable environmentally-friendly public transport is back on the agenda.
| Following its recovery from France's second
city, Marseilles in summer 2006, trolleybus number 202 entered service
at the Trolleybus Museum on Sunday 14 October.
Number 202 was due to be relaunched at the European Weekend in may 2007 but a number of technical difficulties prevented it from carrying passengers although it was able to operate on demonstration. A working party from The Museum visited the trolleybus system in St. Etienne during summer 2007 to collect some spare parts required for number 202. Now, with fully functional rear suspension and interior handrails amongst the completed repairs, number 202 joins the growing fleet of operational trolleybuses at the Trolleybus Museum. |
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| The Trolleybus Museum was a sea of green
during August Bank Holiday 2007 with Nottingham and Derby trolleybuses in
operation.
The East Midlands area had several trolleybus operations. Derby, Nottingham and Chesterfield Corporations all had their own system, as did private operator Notts & Derby Traction Co. The year 2007 marks 75 years since the start of the Notts & Derby and Derby Corporation systems, whilst it is 80 years the first trolleybus ran in Nottingham and Chesterfield. The Trolleybus Museum held a special event over the 2007 August Bank Holiday to commemorate and relive the heyday of trolleybuses in the East Midlands. Trolleybuses ran in Nottingham, mainly replacing trams, between 10 April 1927 and 30 June 1966. Number 506, one of the 4 trolleybuses operating in service over the weekend, operated the official last journey, on Friday 1 July 1966. Also from Nottingham was trolleybus number 493, which was new in 1948 and returns to service after 10 years out of service. Nottingham trolleybuses numbers 367 and 466 are preserved at Sandtoft, along with ‘tower wagon’ number 802. Number 172 represented Derby. Built during WWII no. 172 has a utility body with single skin panelling and wooden slatted seats! We were pleased to welcome Derby trolleybus number 224, which was on loan from our colleagues at the East Anglia Transport Museum. We
also had a variety of new and old motorbuses visiting over the weekend to
add to the East Midlands theme. |
A line-up of the 4 East Midlands Trolleybuses in service over the weekend. L to R: Nottingham 506, Nottingham 493, Derby 172 & Derby 224. |
A line-up of Nottingham vehicles. L to R: 506, 493, Tower Wagon 802, motorbus 137 & trolleybus 466. |
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Nottingham trolleybus 493 back in service after 10 years. |
You can now travel to The Trolleybus Museum by public transport on Saturday Trolleydays and stay longer at the museum.
For a trial period commencing with the Southern Weekend event on Saturday 26th May you can catch the 291 Owston Ferry service from Doncaster Interchange stand A2 which departs at 11.00am. This service, operated by Isle Coaches, will connect with a free bus to The Museum at Epworth Rectory, and what's more, save your Isle Coaches ticket for this journey and receive a 10% discount on admission to the museum. The return journey from Sandtoft will depart at 16.10 linking to the 399 Isle Coaches service in Epworth which arrives back in Doncaster at 17.35. The timetable will operate as below:
