Preserved Trolleybuses

[MK Tom]

I'm trying to put together a list of where trolleybuses are preserved in the UK and beyond. So far I'm aware of three operational museums with working overhead in the UK:

Sandtoft Trolleybus Museum
Black Country Museum
East Anglian Trolleybus Museum

I've also found preserved trolleybuses at the following locations:

Wythall Transport Museum
East Kent Railway
Ulster Folk & Transport Museum

Can anyone tell me if there are any other major locations I'm missing where I can see or ride some?

I'm also very interested to know if there are any operational museum systems with rideable trolleybuses overseas.

Many thanks!

 

[Busaholic]

I'm trying to put together a list of where trolleybuses are preserved in the UK and beyond. So far I'm aware of three operational museums with working overhead in the UK:

Sandtoft Trolleybus Museum
Black Country Museum
East Anglian Trolleybus Museum

I've also found preserved trolleybuses at the following locations:

Wythall Transport Museum
East Kent Railway
Ulster Folk & Transport Museum

Can anyone tell me if there are any other major locations I'm missing where I can see or ride some?

I'm also very interested to know if there are any operational museum systems with rideable trolleybuses overseas.

Many thanks!

Three London trolleybuses are preserved in the LT Collection, two of them in the reserve collection at Acton Town and one in the main LT Museum in Covent Garden. Others of the post-war BUTs are preserved in Spain, I believe.
East Anglian is a general Transport Museum, by the way, though it does of course have a number of trolleybuses both resident and visiting.

 

[Robertj21a]

A quick Google finds:-

http://www.britishtrolley.org.uk/preserved-trolleybuses

Which has detailed listings.

 

[PaulLothian]

Beamish Museum is working on a trolleybus route - http://www.beamish.org.uk/explore-discover/beamish-tramway/ - not operating when we visited last October, but I kept the rest of our party hanging around while I checked out the overhead!

"At present there is one working trolleybus, Newcastle 501, but this will be supplemented once the development of the trolleybus route begins from 2016."

 

[MK Tom]

Beamish Museum is working on a trolleybus route - http://www.beamish.org.uk/explore-discover/beamish-tramway/ - not operating when we visited last October, but I kept the rest of our party hanging around while I checked out the overhead!

"At present there is one working trolleybus, Newcastle 501, but this will be supplemented once the development of the trolleybus route begins from 2016."

That's very exciting, thanks!

Is anyone aware of any working museum systems overseas?

 

[Strathclyder]

That's very exciting, thanks!

Is anyone aware of any working museum systems overseas?

The United States has at least 2 working heritage trollybus systems, each utilized on select days and weekends each year:

• The Illinois Railway Museum (Union, Illinois)
• The Seashore Trolley Museum (Kennebunkport, Maine)

As an related aside, at least two transport authorities in the States (The King County Metro in King County, Washington State & The San Francisco Muni in San Francisco, California) maintain small fleets of heritage trollybuses.

More info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolleybus_usage_by_country

 

[Zamracene749]

Preserved trolleybuses work specials on the Teplice, Zlin, and Pardubice systems in the Czech Republic, the ones in Teplice at least run occasionally in the summer alongside a heritage Skoda 706 RTO bus. Plzen, Ostrava, Usti Nad Labem and Ceske Budejovice I'm not sure about. I believe Solingen in Germany and Salzburg in Austria also run preserved trolleys?

 

[Busaholic]

Ferrymead in New Zealand, near Christchurch, has examples of trolleys from each of the five systems that once operated in NZ, including Australasia's oldest-surviving example.

 

[Trainfan344]

Science Museum store has a number of trolleybuses in various states, Also it's the East Anglia Transport Museum. We have a number of Trams and motor buses as well as just Trolleybuses.

 

[Busaholic]

Science Museum store has a number of trolleybuses in various states, Also it's the East Anglia Transport Museum. We have a number of Trams and motor buses as well as just Trolleybuses.

Indeed, and a wonderful place. Much enjoyed my only visit there for the London trolleybus event which reunited all but one of the surviving London trolleys - also very pleased to travel on an old London tram for the first time since Last Tram Week in July 1952!

 

[Trainfan344]

Indeed, and a wonderful place. Much enjoyed my only visit there for the London trolleybus event which reunited all but one of the surviving London trolleys - also very pleased to travel on an old London tram for the first time since Last Tram Week in July 1952!

That sounds like our London Trolleybus event in 2012, It was a wonderful event!

We've got a big line up for this year, including a 1940s weekend and a ECW Event, take a look at our website http://eatransportmuseum.co.uk/

 

[Busaholic]

That sounds like our London Trolleybus event in 2012, It was a wonderful event!

We've got a big line up for this year, including a 1940s weekend and a ECW Event, take a look at our website http://eatransportmuseum.co.uk/

It's rather a long way from Penzance, which is my only reason for not having repeated my visit thus far, but I do hope to return, maybe for my 70th birthday next year. That 2012 visit will certainly live in my memory: my only regret was that I never got to travel on the Diddler trolleybus, no. 1, and probably never will now, but that's minor compared to the joy of the rest of it.

 

[Trainfan344]

Very unlikely to ever run again, but there were very limited spaces! I was very privileged to be able to conduct the Diddler!

 

[LordCreed]

Whilst it isn't in the UK, Poland still has a number of functioning trolley bus systems.

They're something I've wanted to try for a while now.

 

[jp4712]

No overhead but there are two trolleybuses at the Museum of Transport, Manchester: www.gmts.co.uk

 

[bradford758]

Solingen, there is a summer Sunday service not sure if monthly or weekly on the old number 3 route, terminating on the functional turntable (the present route 603 continues on the main road under diesel power)

Sent from my 4009X using Tapatalk

 

[Trainfan344]

Not mentioned yet, but I know there are a few privately owned trolleybuses including Solingen number 1! Also at the East Anglia Transport Museum is Athens Trolleybus 5088, a ZIU, a very noisy trolleybus! (Bit ironic really).

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Whilst it isn't in the UK, Poland still has a number of functioning trolley bus systems.

They're something I've wanted to try for a while now.

Essen in Germany has an unusual system- a hybrid tramway/guided trolleybus system (with bi-mode buses) including a shared tunnel section in the city centre, and a section running down the central reservation of an autobahn!

https://youtu.be/3ct1IoTrg44