Electric travel - and no batteries
For many years in the middle of the twentieth century, citizens of many parts of Greater Manchester were already very familar with buses that were almost silent, had no polluting exhaust pipe and had the phenomenal acceleration that only an electric motor can provide. And unlike today's advanced hybrid or battery electric buses, these visions of the future didn't carry huge lithium batteries.
We're talking, of course, about the trolleybus. A trolleybus has rubber tyres and a steering wheel, just like a diesel bus, but it's equipped with a powerful electric motor that draws current from overhead wires above the road via flexible 'booms' that can swivel to stay in contact with the wires even if the bus has to steer round obstacles (within reason).
Trolleybuses became popular in the 1930s as municipal tramway system tracks wore out, but the electrical systems (usually also owned by the municipality) still had plenty of life left in them. But they waned in popularity after the second world war for a series of reasons. First was that the electricity industry was nationalised, so the benefits of a Corporation trolleybus using electricity from a Corporation power station no longer applied; secondly, postwar housing schemes rehoused people further out from towns, in lower density housing that cost money to extend the overhead wiring to; thirdly, the electrical power systems finally began to wear out; fourthly, postwar road building schemes meant expensive changes to the overhead system; fifthly, the spread of bus services to leafy suburbs beyond the wires was only economic for buses that didn't require overhead wires; sixthly, the overhead wiring and poles had to pay rates, not payable by diesel buses; and lastly, trolleybuses just became... well... unfashionable.
So Manchester's last trolleybus ran in December 1966 and the UK's last one, in Bradford, swished sliently into the garage in 1972. Manchester's Stevenson Square had been a busy trolleybus terminus and here we see a Manchester trolleybus about to set off to Audenshaw, while an Oldham bus waits to start its trip to New Hey in the Pennines.
Thankfully there are a few trolleybuses preserved including Ashton 80 and Manchester 1250, which are on display at the Museum of Transport Greater Manchester. If you'd like to know more about the Museum of Transport and its collection of vintage buses, go to www.motgm.uk.
© Greater Manchester Transport Society. All rights reserved. Unauthorised reproduction is strictly prohibited and may result in action being taken to protect the intellectual property interests of the Society.
Electric travel - and no batteries
For many years in the middle of the twentieth century, citizens of many parts of Greater Manchester were already very familar with buses that were almost silent, had no polluting exhaust pipe and had the phenomenal acceleration that only an electric motor can provide. And unlike today's advanced hybrid or battery electric buses, these visions of the future didn't carry huge lithium batteries.
We're talking, of course, about the trolleybus. A trolleybus has rubber tyres and a steering wheel, just like a diesel bus, but it's equipped with a powerful electric motor that draws current from overhead wires above the road via flexible 'booms' that can swivel to stay in contact with the wires even if the bus has to steer round obstacles (within reason).
Trolleybuses became popular in the 1930s as municipal tramway system tracks wore out, but the electrical systems (usually also owned by the municipality) still had plenty of life left in them. But they waned in popularity after the second world war for a series of reasons. First was that the electricity industry was nationalised, so the benefits of a Corporation trolleybus using electricity from a Corporation power station no longer applied; secondly, postwar housing schemes rehoused people further out from towns, in lower density housing that cost money to extend the overhead wiring to; thirdly, the electrical power systems finally began to wear out; fourthly, postwar road building schemes meant expensive changes to the overhead system; fifthly, the spread of bus services to leafy suburbs beyond the wires was only economic for buses that didn't require overhead wires; sixthly, the overhead wiring and poles had to pay rates, not payable by diesel buses; and lastly, trolleybuses just became... well... unfashionable.
So Manchester's last trolleybus ran in December 1966 and the UK's last one, in Bradford, swished sliently into the garage in 1972. Manchester's Stevenson Square had been a busy trolleybus terminus and here we see a Manchester trolleybus about to set off to Audenshaw, while an Oldham bus waits to start its trip to New Hey in the Pennines.
Thankfully there are a few trolleybuses preserved including Ashton 80 and Manchester 1250, which are on display at the Museum of Transport Greater Manchester. If you'd like to know more about the Museum of Transport and its collection of vintage buses, go to www.motgm.uk.
© Greater Manchester Transport Society. All rights reserved. Unauthorised reproduction is strictly prohibited and may result in action being taken to protect the intellectual property interests of the Society.