The day we bought a trolleybus

DAVID BEACH (1958 - 1966)

When Huddersfield abandoned its superb trolleybus fleet in the 1960s, three KJGS pupils decided it was time for direct action.This is the remarkable story of how they managed to save trolleybus 631 from the breaker’s yard.

IN 1963/4, it became apparent that Huddersfield’s trolleybuses were heading to the scrapyard. In the absence of any pro-active adults, my fellow Almondburians Stephen Lockwood and John Trevor Longbottom (both aged 15) started putting pocket money on one side to rescue a trolleybus, and I, one year older, joined in shortly afterwards. I should really have been working hard towards my ‘A’ levels, a point my parents [George Beach was KJGS Head of Maths at the time] made on numerous occasions. I fear they were flogging a dead horse and my pathetic ‘A’ level grades caused them and probably KJGS much embarrassment.

Before long Michael Storry and Norman Hinchliffe also became deeply involved and a contingent from Huddersfield New College showed an interest in our activities, though inter-school rivalry was a factor until we had all moved on. By 1968 we had evolved into a society with around 125 members, organising events and trips of all sorts.

Our initial plan was to acquire No 549: a few words on the detailed design of the trolleybuses over that period might help to explain our choice.

The pre-war Huddersfield trolleybuses [Nos 401-540] had three windows at the front of the upper deck. Some gained new bodywork with two-front

David Beach

DAVID spent four years at Goldsmiths' College, where he gained his B.Ed, and enjoyed 37years teaching junior [8-13] science and maths in a boys' boarding prep school near Newbury.

There he built a large model railway, with associated tramway, and was swimming teacher, stage manager, and pocket money supremo! In his last ten years he was the Estates Bursar. “Thus I achieved great job satisfaction, if not the heady heights of academia my parents wished for me,” he says modestly.

He married his colleague Audrey in 1980 and they retired to Minehead in 2007. There he raises funds for trolleybus preservation, sells tickets at Minehead Station and chairs the local National Trust support group for whom he organises socials, coach trips and talks.

windows upstairs but all had been withdrawn by 1963 when the Marsden route was converted to diesel buses. In 1947 similar vehicles [Nos 541-592] arrived, but with a more ‘upright’ frontal appearance. Eventually most of these were fitted with new bodywork, again with two rather than three upper deck front windows. The travelling public probably thought they were new buses. By April 1964 only seven 3-window trolleybuses survived, of which Nos 541, 542, 544 and 547 were withdrawn af - ter the Crosland Hill to Birkby service was converted to diesel. Nos 549, 588 and 590 were due to be withdrawn when the Almondbury service followed suit a year later. Nos 541 and 544 retained the original destination blind equipment, but we were not yet ready to preserve either as we lacked the funds, the experience, the support, and somewhere to put one. So we started raising funds for No 549, a slightly updated vehicle which was due to survive another year.

In April 1964 we organised a fund- raising tour, in No 549, of the remaining trolleybus routes, which The Huddersfield Examiner sent a reporter to record. However, by then the National Trolleybus Association had submitted a £25 offer to buy No 541. The Corporation did not accept this offer which was probably well below scrap value, but instead generously presented the vehicle to the NTA who still own it.

It would have been foolish to rescue No 549 as well as No 541, as they were largely identical. Thus, we announced that we would not be preserving No 549 after all. Hence the Huddersfield Examiner published a large photograph of the three of us under the headline ‘549 will not be saved’ .

Actually this was a relief. We had no need now to make an early purchase of a trolleybus and we resolved to obtain one of a 1951 batch of Roe bodied vehicles. When this also went wrong we set our sights on No 631, one of the last batch of trolleybuses dating from 1959, which was thought to be in better condition than the others. In 1968 our tender of £125was accepted and No 631 was ours.

Four of our members also purchased a trolleybus at the closure: No 619 dating from 1956. These preserved trolleybuses have had a variety of adventures after 1968 and I have had personal involvement with all three.

After 1964 No 541 was housed for some time in the Midlands, ran a tour in Wolverhampton before that system

140 years of public transport in Huddersfield

HUDDERSFIELD CorporationTramways commenced a tramway service in 1883, initially using steam locomotives pulling unpowered tramcars. The system was built to the unusual gauge of 4 ft 7¾ in (1,416 mm) with the thought that coal trucks from the main line railway might be taken onto the tramway for local distribution, but the lines were never connected. As the system was expanded, the first fully electric trams began operating in February 1901.

The decision to introduce trolleybuses was taken in 1931/32, by which date successful trolleybus systems were already in operation in Bradford and Wolverhampton. The Tramways Committee, faced with the potential cost of relaying the tram track on the Almondbury route, decided that this was the ideal starting point and the opening ceremony took place on 4th December 1933 when two trolleybuses carried a civic party over the new route.

In the ensuing years, the system was greatly expanded. At its peak in the 1950s its route mileage was 37 miles, carrying 60m passengers per annum using a fleet of 140 trolleybuses.

But it couldn’t last. In the 1960s trolleybuses started to go out of fashion and Huddersfield Council decided (by a single vote and contrary to the wishes of most citizens) to gradually replace the town’s trolleybuses with motorbuses.

Trolleybus No 1 in Northgate, Almondbury closed, and returned to Huddersfield in 1968 to tour the remaining routes. It is still owned by the National Trolleybus Association and is currently at the Sandtoft Trolleybus Museum near Doncaster which was established in 1969. I helped to fund its restoration and still sponsor its upkeep.

In the autumn of 1968 we towed No 631 to run tours in Reading and Bournemouth. For these events Huddersfield Corporation Transport kindly lent me a uniform so I could look the part! Subsequently No 631 then occupied a space in a Viaduct Street archway, before moving to Sandtoft, which currently houses around 50 trolleybuses including the trio from Huddersfield which have been located there at different times since then. No 631 was indeed in good condition and is one of the most regular op- erating trolleybuses, where it has now spent over fifty years, five times as long as it ran in Huddersfield.

Sadly, the trolleybus era finally came to an end on 13th July 1968.

No 619 spent some time at Meltham, and in January 1969 was towed to Middlesbrough to operate a tour over their trolleybus routes. After storage elsewhere it also found its way to Sandtoft.

As time went by there seemed to be less virtue in small groups owning trolleybuses, and 619 and 631 both now belong to the British Trolleybus Society. They are in good condition and sometimes operate around the overhead wiring of the museum’s circuits on open days. Both the British Trolleybus Society (which owns twelve trolleybuses) and the Trolleybus Museum at Sandtoft have excellent web sites.

For completeness it is also worth mentioning that in the late 1960s a

Opposite page top: Trolleybus No 631in all its glory in special livery to mark the Diamond Jubilee of HM the Queen in 2012 (Photo: Stewart David)

Bottom: pre-war Huddersfield trolleybus [No 470] was rescued from Epsom Racecourse, where it had spent many years as a mobile gentleman’s toilet, being dragged out onto the racecourse for the Derby. [urinals downstairs, WCs upstairs]. Its owners were unable to keep it in a protected environment, and when it eventually collapsed the bodywork was scrapped. The chassis survives at Sandtoft.

The three restored Huddersfield trolleybuses, Nos 619, 631 and 541 at Sandtoft (Photo: Andrew Haigh).

Of the three teenagers in the Huddersfield Examiner photo, Trevor Longbottom dropped out of the trolleybus preservation scene soon after No 631 was rescued, and I lost contact with him. Stephen Lockwood went on to work in the Passenger Transport Industry, and has published at least seven books about trolleybuses around the country including a major volume Huddersfield - the trolleybus years which contains a chapter I wrote about my experience as a student conductor on the trolleybuses in 1966/7/8. I continue to be in touch with Michael Storry, who helps to support No 619 and No 631, and Norman Hinchliffe who continues to help maintain the overhead wiring at Sandtoft.

For myself, I help to fund all three Huddersfield vehicles, and continue to work to fundraise for the British Trolleybus Society, of which I am a trustee. I can also report that the model railway room at the school where I spent my life teaching until 2007 still sports a colour poster of No 631!

It is to be hoped that one day these vehicles, representing a type of ecofriendly transport which should never have been rendered obsolete in the UK, will be of sufficient historic value that it will no longer be necessary for enthusiastic individuals to go on dipping into their own pockets. Most of those who grew up with these vehicles are now in their seventies and eighties and cannot be expected to go on supporting them for ever. n l TheSandtoft Trolleybus Museum near Doncaster is home to the world’s largest collection of historic trolleybuses. The Old Almondburians’ Society organised a visit there in 2016 and a video can be seen at www.oas.org.uk/videopage.php .

HUDDERSFIELD - the trolleybus years

This handsome 232-page A4 book by Stephen Lockwood with contributions by David Beach and Philip Jenkinson is packed with information and photographs (many in colour) about Huddersfield’s much-admired trolleybus fleet.

Publisher: Adam Gordon