A-Z of British Trolleybuses E-Book

Stephen Lockwood

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

In the last century, the trolleybus developed into a successful provider of public transport in many towns and cities around Britain. It is often described as being part tram and part motorbus. The trolleybus was a fast vehicle whose acceleration from rest was far superior to that of any motorbus. Added to this it was quiet and fume-free, and consumed home-produced electricity generated using coal. During the last twenty years, there have been many books about trolleybuses published, but hardly any of these has tackled the subject from the vehicle manufacturers' angle, instead concentrating on individual trolleybus systems. This volume is, therefore, a summary of the British trolleybus, describing each manufacturer and its products, and then showing what happened to these vehicles throughout their life. It contains an alphabetical listing of all the manufacturers, detailing company history and trolleybus types produced including production totals. A second alphabetical company-by-company listing gives full details of every trolleybus built for British use, including data such as chassis number and any subsequent significant changes. As far as possible it is all presented in a non-technical way.

Leseprobe

A–Z OF BRITISHTROLLEYBUSES

STEPHEN LOCKWOOD

THE CROWOOD PRESS

First published in 2017 by

The Crowood Press Ltd

Ramsbury, Marlborough

Wiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2017

© Stephen Lockwood 2017

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 78500 2892

CONTENTS

Author’s Note

Introduction

Part I         BACKGROUND TO THE BRITISH TROLLEYBUS

Part II        BRITISH TROLLEYBUS CHASSIS BUILDERS

Alldays and Onions

Associated Equipment Co. Ltd. (AEC)

Bradford

Bristol

British United Traction Co. (BUT)

Cedes–Stoll

Crossley Motors

Daimler

Dennis

Electric Traction Co./Trackless Cars

Electro-Mechanical Brake Co. (EMB)

English Electric

Garrett

Gilford

Gloucester Carriage and Wagon Co. (Gloster)

Guy

Karrier

Leyland

Railless

Ransomes

Straker

Sunbeam

Thornycroft

Tilling–Stevens

Part III       TROLLEYBUS CHASSIS – THEIR OPERATIONAL HISTORY

Appendix I:  British Trolleybus Operators – A Brief Survey

Appendix II: How To Drive A Trolleybus

Index

AUTHOR’S NOTE

During the past twenty years or so there has been a plethora of books published about British trolleybuses. All except one of these have been based on a particular trolleybus system, or a review of all fifty or so trolleybus systems in the United Kingdom. In 1996, a fellow Huddersfield native, Geoff Lumb, published a work on trolleybus chassis, but since then there has not been a comprehensive written account of trolleybus chassis makers.

The layout of the book is as follows:

Part I gives a background to the British trolleybus and how it developed.

Part II is an A–Z list of chassis manufacturers, each entry giving a potted history of the company, details of the trolleybus types it sold, and a table showing production figures. The photographs in this section concentrate on chassis views, prototypes and demonstration vehicles.

Part III is another A–Z list of chassis manufacturers, giving details of where each manufacturer’s product operated, together with chassis numbers, fleet numbers and other data. The photographs here are of trolleybus types in the fleets that ran them, and consist of ‘official’ views taken by a manufacturer or operator, and less formal views of the vehicles in the streets.

There were many places in the London area where trolleybuses provided an intensive service. Four Leyland LTB70 vehicles (London Transport type F1) in Uxbridge Road. (D.A. Thompson)

The intention is to provide a readable book that is not too technical and to be enjoyed by all those impressed by the British trolleybus.

Readers should be aware that this work is about trolleybuses that operated in Britain; any home-built chassis for operators abroad are not included, although they are sometimes referred to where relevant.

Therefore this is a record of trolleybuses that operated in Britain between 1909 and 1972 (with a brief resurgence in the 1980s).

SOURCES

The source of material is largely from my own large collection of trolleybus-related books, photographs and archive material, which has been amassed over the past fifty-six years. Sources consulted can be summarized as follows:

Books

The Electric Trolleybus, R.A. Bishop, 1931

Early Development of the Railless Electric Trolleybus, A.S. Crosley, 1960

London’s Trolleybuses, a Fleet History, The PSV Circle and The Omnibus Society, 1962

Keighley Corporation Transport, J.S. King, 1964

Glasgow Trolleybuses, B.T. Deans, 1966

Trolleybus Classics, a series of thirty-three pictorial studies published by Middleton Press from the 1990s to the present.

Reading Trolleybuses, D. Hall, 1991

Bradford Corporation Trolleybuses, J.S. King, 1994

Kingston upon Hull Trolleybuses, M. Wells, 1996

Leeds Transport vol. 2, J. Soper, 1996

The London Trolleybus Vol. 1 and 2, K. Blacker, 2002/2004

Garrett Wagons-Electrics and Motors, R.A. Whitehead, 1996

Bournemouth Trolleybuses, D. Bowler, 2001

AEC Vehicles: Origins to 1929, B. Thackray 2004

Nottingham Trolleybuses, D. Bowler, 2006

Halifax Passenger Transport, G. Hilditch, 2006

The Manchester Trolleybus, C. Heaps and Mike Eyre, 2008

Trackless to Trolleybus, S. Lockwood, 2011

The AEC Story from the Regent to the Monarch, B. Thackray, 2012

Portsmouth Trolleybuses, D. Bowler, 2014

Pontypridd Trolleybuses, D. Bowler, 2014

PSV Circle chassis histories, Karrier/Guy/Sunbeam and Ransomes/Garrett

PSV Circle fleet histories – various editions referring to trolleybus operators

Periodicals

Buses Illustrated/Buses

Tramway Review (Historical tramway journal)

Trolleybus (Journal of the British Trolleybus Society)

Trolleybus Magazine (Journal of the National Trolleybus Association)

Trade catalogues relevant to most trolleybus manufacturers.

Other

Commercial Motor magazine archive website.

PEOPLE

Philip Jenkinson and Hugh Taylor read through my text and made useful comments accordingly.

Roger Smith has produced the maps to his usual high standard.

Robin Hannay, formally of Guy Motors, answered some queries about trolleybus production in the 1950s, and made available several items on loan. Paul Fox contributed some material on early AEC trolleybus chassis, and also data on Rotherham’s early trackless fleet. My thanks go to all these gentlemen.

The photographs are credited at the end of each caption. Those not credited are from my own collection, whose provenance has not been possible to establish. Any information on the origin of these images would be welcome.

Photographic assistance has come from David Bowler, David Bielby, Ashley Bruce, Dave Hall, Ipswich Transport Museum, Roger Monk, Hugh Taylor, Paul Watson and Francis Whitehead.

Paul Harman of Maple Leaf Images, Skipton, scanned most of the photographs. Please note that Roy Marshall’s images are now held by The Omnibus Society.

Thanks go to all.

Any errors and omissions in this work are entirely my responsibility.

Lastly, thanks go to my wife Eileen, who gamely waded through all the tables and statistics, checking each addition – as well as checking the overall text.

INTRODUCTION

Trolleybuses ran in Britain for seventy-one years. During that time, 6,000 examples were constructed, ranging from small tram-like single-deckers (trackless trams or railless), to full size sixty- to seventy-seat trolleybuses with four or six wheels.

This type of vehicle is often described as a cross between a tram and a bus. In fact, for the first fifteen years it was very much derived from a tram (most having tram-type hand controllers), but afterwards it developed into a trolleybus, adopting the size and styling of contemporary motorbuses. By the outbreak of war in 1939, there were 3,000 on the road.

Of the twenty-four British trolleybus chassis manufacturers, the earliest were relatively small companies that dealt with trackless products only, and the very earliest, Railless Ltd, did not even have the capacity to build its own products, having to contract out this function. By the late 1920s the large motorbus manufacturers began to design trolleybus chassis, and often these small companies ceased production. After 1930, when London began its operation, the trolleybus became a mainstream transport provider.

Not so long ago, a columnist in a bus trade magazine wrote that the trolleybus never made an impact on British passenger transport. It is true that there were many places around the country that never saw a trolleybus, particularly in rural areas. However, north London and the East End were awash with these vehicles, and so were such major trolleybus towns as Belfast, Bournemouth, Bradford, Huddersfield and Wolverhampton, to name but a few. These electric people carriers were essentially ‘townies’. They certainly made an impact where they operated, and when the time came for the trolleys’ last run, there were often emotional crowds to witness the event.

Since the final passenger alighted from the last Bradford trolleybus in March 1972, there has been no public transport service using these vehicles. A major attempt to reintroduce the breed was made in the mid-1980s by South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive, to the extent that a trial vehicle was manufactured and an off-highway test track was provided. In the twenty-first century, the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Authority has had a trolleybus scheme in Leeds rejected by central government. Improvements in diesel bus technology including hybrid diesel/electric drive, plus the difficulty of persuading residents to accept the necessary infrastructure, means that in all probability trolleybuses will never be reintroduced in this country.

Trolleybus operation in Europe, originating earlier than in Britain, is still relatively flourishing, typically using long articulated single-deckers.

ABBREVIATIONS SOMETIMES USED IN THE TEXT

ADC

Associated Daimler Company

AEC

Associated Equipment Company

BTH

British Thomson–Houston

BUT

British United Traction

ECC

Electric Construction Company

EEC

English Electric

EMB

Electro-Mechanical Brake Company

hp

horsepower

LPTB

London Passenger Transport Board

MCW

Metropolitan Cammell Weymann

Metro–Vick

Metropolitan–Vickers

Mexborough and Swinton

Mexborough and Swinton Traction Co.

MoS

Ministry of Supply

MoT

Ministry of Transport

Notts and Derby

Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Traction Co.

UDC

Urban District Council

TERMS EXPLAINED

Forward Entrance

This term describes a doorway immediately behind the front axle.

Front Entrance

A doorway immediately ahead of the front axle.

An early German trackless trolley operation was the 2.8-mile (4.5km) route between Monheim and Lagenfeld, opened in 1904 and closed in 1908. The Scheimann trolley pole system was used. The wires were also used by trolley tractors pulling freight wagons, as seen in the right background. There was only one line of overhead wiring, so that one vehicle had to lower its poles to allow another to pass.

Many overseas trolleybus operators used British-built vehicles. The Dutch city of Arnhem began operations in 1949, using BUT vehicles (type 9721T). Two of them are passing at Oosterbeek, which was (and still is) the destination of Line 1.

Lowbridge Bodywork

This was used in areas where low bridges prevented normal height buses from passing under them. To reduce the overall height of the vehicle, a sunken gangway was provided on the upper deck, which protruded into the side of the lower deck roof. The upper deck accommodation was bench seating along the length of the gangway.

SOME TROLLEYBUS CHASSIS CHARACTERISTICS

Unlike motorbuses, which had a clutch, trolleybuses had a driveline that was always connected to the motor, whether or not power was being taken. Also, unlike their diesel or petrol counterparts, the motor offered little resistance when coasting or descending hills. A trolleybus will happily continue for a surprising distance after power has been shut off.

Coasting Brake

A consequence of these factors was that when descending a steep hill, the trolleybus driver could not rely on any braking effect from an engine in low gear. The vehicles of trolleybus systems with very steep hills were fitted with a ‘coasting brake’, which the driver had to switch in at the start of the gradient. This limited the speed of the vehicle to around 15mph. Some coasting brake sections were insisted upon by the Ministry of Transport as a condition of allowing the route to operate.

Towing

The solid driveline of trolleybuses could present problems when such a vehicle was being towed, because the motor would be turned by the rotation of the rear wheels, thus risking damage. For short distances (e.g. recovery of a trolleybus following a breakdown or accident) this was not a problem. Long-distance tows, however (e.g. delivery runs from the manufacturer to the operator), required the motor to be temporarily disengaged from the rear wheels by removing part of the driveline between the two. This was often achieved by the removal of the half-shafts, which took the drive from the differential to each of the rear wheels.

THE FINANCE ACT 1920

This Act came into force on 1 January 1921, and one of its provisions was to require all trolley vehicles to have a Road Fund Licence and registration numbers. Hitherto, these vehicles were exempt from such regulation.

From the above date, all trolley vehicles operating on the highway needed to display a registration number.

The closure of any trolleybus system was usually accompanied by many people watching the last vehicle go by. These crowds are watching the last moments of the British trolleybus (on 26 March 1972), just prior to the vehicle turning off the highway into Bradford’s Thornbury depot. The object of attention was a Sunbeam F4, originally used on the Mexborough and Swinton system where it was a single-decker. After purchase by Bradford in 1961, it was given new double-decker bodywork. (S. and A. Warnes)

Part I

BACKGROUND TO THE BRITISH TROLLEYBUS

Britain came a little late in introducing the ‘trackless tram’, or ‘railless’ to its streets. In the first decade of the twentieth century, these vehicles were running in Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and even the United States, and about forty such systems had been established. They used small single-deck vehicles running on short routes, either feeding to tram routes or operating in smaller towns where the expense of a tram installation was not economical.

Such progress did, however, attract the managers of several British tram operators, and delegations made visits abroad to inspect them. The main advantages of the trackless tram were perceived as:

The ability to use existing tramway technology, e.g. poles and overhead, as well as electrical, equipment, and be maintained by existing electrical engineering staff

Motorbuses of the day required specialist motor engineers, who were not universally common in pre-First World War years

Initially, trackless routes could be introduced at a lower cost than a tramway, and routes that could not justify the cost of track installation were now a possibility. If sufficient traffic was built up then the route could be converted to tram operation (although, with one exception, this never happened in Britain).

TRACKLESS NO. 1 – BIRKENHEAD 1909

Britain’s first trackless trolleybus in operation on the test circuit within the grounds of the Metropolitan Electric Tramways premises at Hendon.

By 1908, a British company had been established to market trackless systems and vehicles. This was the Railless Electric Traction Co., which had obtained the UK rights to market the Schiemann current collection system. This consisted of two rigid trolley booms, sprung to press against the underside of the twin overhead wires. One of the large tram operators considering the use of trackless vehicles was the Metropolitan Electric Tramways (MET), based in north and north-west London. Working with the Railless company, it arranged a trial of the new system at its Hendon depot and works, erecting a ‘u’ shaped circuit of overhead wires with turning circles at each end entirely within the works’ grounds. For its part, Railless provided the vehicle, this consisting of a chassis built by a local London engineering firm with two BTH 25hp electric motors. The body, accommodating twenty-four passengers, was built by G.C. Milnes Voss and Company of Birkenhead, a well-known tramcar body builder. It was in Birkenhead in the late summer of 1909 that this first trackless car ran on a British street, namely Cleveland Street, Birkenhead, outside the Milnes Voss works. The vehicle could operate using the tram overhead of the Birkenhead Corporation Tramways, with a skate in the tram rail to provide a path for the return current.

The vehicle ran on the MET demonstration line at the end of September 1909 for the benefit of delegates to the Municipal Tramways Conference, and shortly afterwards for local authority officials. It had a red livery with lettering for a local route in Hendon on which the tramway company was hoping to run public services. However, nothing came of this and the vehicle was never heard of again. The demonstration overhead was dismantled in 1911.