Trolleybuses in Ipswich

Ipswich Trolleybuses
Whitton 9 11 Sidegate Lane - Colchester Road Norwich Road Bridge 9a Rushmere Heath 8 3a 3 Lattice Barn (3a) Adair Road Adair Road Bramford Road Bridge 8a Town Centre 5 Foxhall Circle Constantine Road Depot Hadleigh Road 7a 4 Broke Hall Station (X) X Tyler Street (1a) 1a Priory Heath Depot Chantry Park 7 Gainsborough Estate (6) Bourne Bridge 1 6 6a 6b 2 Priory Heath 2a Airport

Ipswich Corporation had been running a 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm)-gauge electric tramway system since 1900, when an Act of Parliament enabled them to take over and extend an existing horse tramway.[6] However, there was some concern about the state of the roads and tram tracks in the town centre by the summer of 1922. Rather than replace the tram tracks, the Corporation decided to experiment with trolleybuses, and hired three Railless single deck vehicles to allow this to happen. The route between Ipswich railway station and Cornhill was chosen for the trials, as it was relatively short at 0.75 miles (1.21 km) and the overhead wiring had been altered by May 1923.[7] Railless was a joint venture between Charles H Roe and Short Brothers of Rochester and Bedford, and around this time Charles Roe was experiencing financial difficulties, resulting in Short Brothers buying out Roe's share of the business and restructuring the company.[8] Delivery of the new vehicles was consequently delayed, but trials finally began on 2 September 1923. The vehicles had solid tyres, an entrance at the front to allow for one-man operation, and an open smoking compartment at the rear. As the corporation were pleased with the results of the trials, in 1924 they bought the three vehicles they had hired, and ordered another experimental vehicle from local company Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies.[7]

Next, the Corporation decided to run trolleybuses on the route southwards from the town centre to Bourne Bridge. They still considered themselves to be in an experimental phase, and purchased three more vehicles, one each from Richard Garrett & Sons of Leiston, Suffolk, Ransomes of Ipswich, and Tilling-Stevens of Maidstone, Kent. Once reliability had been assessed, 15 vehicles were ordered from Ransomes and another 15 from Garretts. Operation on the Bourne Bridge route began on 17 July 1925, and the Corporation laid plans to replace all of the trams with trolleybuses,[9][10] resulting in the last tram operating on 26 July 1926.[6] The Ipswich Corporation Act 1925 was obtained, and routes opened in quick succession. Trolleybuses ran along four new routes in 1926, one more in 1927, and in 1928 the first of several loops were introduced. As the service expanded more vehicles were bought, with six from Ransomes in 1928/29, three more Ransomes in 1930, and a lone Garrett in 1931. All were single deck vehicles, with an entrance at the front to allow for one-man operation, but this was not particularly successful, and all services were worked by a two-man crew from 1932. Subsequently, the Corporation switched to double deck designs, buying 4 in 1933, ten in 1934, and eight in 1935, all from Ransomes.[11]

Expansion of the system continued, with eight more routes opening between 1931 and 1940. The main depot was at Constantine Road, from where wires ran northwards to Barrack Corner and southwards to Princes Street, near the station, but there were no public services along these two stretches. In 1937 a new depot, complete with workshops, was completed at Priory Heath, near the eastern edge of the system. Ransomes produced a leaflet in 1939 stating that all of the trolleybuses operating in Ipswich had been made by them, but this was untrue, as ten of the original Garretts were still in operation, as well as 61 vehicles from Ransomes. They supplied one more vehicle in 1940, the last one they sold to a British system, although they continued to make trolleybuses for overseas operators. During the Second World War, four Karrier vehicles with utility bodywork were delivered in 1944, and another twelve in 1945. Some of the Garretts were not withdrawn until after they had arrived, and so Ransomes claims were never true.[12] The network was extended for the final time in 1947, when overhead wiring was erected to Sidegate Lane in April and from Priory Heath to the Airport in August.[13]

The network was quite comprehensive, and enabled a number of circular routes to be operated. In particular, the '0' service ran from the town centre to Broke Hall, continued around the eastern and north-eastern edge of the town to Colchester Road, also the terminus for an unnumbered service, from where it returned to the town centre. Twenty-four new trolleybuses were purchased from Karrier and Sunbeam between 1948 and 1950, and some of the single deck vehicles from the 1920s were still operating on the Adair Road route, where a low bridge prevented double deck vehicles from replacing them.[13] A number of extensions to the system, to serve areas where new housing was being built, or to form links between existing routes, were proposed and authorised by Acts of Parliament obtained in 1946 and 1948, but in 1948 electricity generation was nationalised, and two departments which had worked together for 48 years were split apart. This caused the corporation to consider the long-term future of the trolleybus network, and in 1950 they purchased their first motor buses. Three years later, the first trolleybus service was withdrawn, when the elderly vehicles on the Adair Street route were scrapped and replaced by the new form of transport.[14]

Thus began the gradual replacement of the trolleybuses, but the dates of final operation on many routes are uncertain, as in some cases they were withdrawn and then reinstated for a while, or motor bus services were supplemented by trolleybuses during peak periods, but by 29 April 1962, when operation on the Rushmere Heath and Norwich Road routes ceased, just four routes remained. These succumbed to the motor bus on 23 August 1963,[15] when the final journey carried a large notice stating "This is DEFINITELY the last trolleybus." However, eight of the final batch of Sunbeam F4 vehicles saw further service in the Midlands, when they were sold on for use on the Walsall system.[13]

Seven vehicles from the Ipswich fleet have found new life in preservation, and the chassis of an eighth is also preserved.

Karrier W 105, now at the East Anglia Transport Museum

• Railless trolleybus No.2, built in 1923 with English Electric equipment and a 30-seat Short single deck body, carried the registration number DX 3988. It was withdrawn in 1934 and moved to Flatford, where it was used as a caravan. The Ipswich Transport Museum obtained it in 1977 and it was cosmetically restored by 1981. Around 2007 it was fitted with an Estler trolleybase, where the two trolleypoles are mounted one above the other on a central pivot.[24]
• Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies type D trolleybus No.9, built in 1926 with English Electric/RS&J equipment and a 31-seat single deck body, carried the registration number DX 5610. It originally has a front entrance and rear exit with 30 seats, but was rebuilt in the 1930s with rear access only. Withdrawn in October 1949, it then served as part of a house at Theberton until it was acquired by Ipswich Transport Museum in July 1972. In 2007 it was exhibited in "as found" condition.[24]
• Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies type D trolleybus No.16, was built in 1926 and was part of the same batch as No. 9, carried the registration number DX 5617. It was upgraded with pneumatic tyres in the 1930s, and withdrawn from service in June 1950. Only the chassis survives.[24]
• Richard Garrett & Sons type O trolleybus No.26, built in 1926 with a Strachans & Brown 31-seat single deck body, carried the registration number DX 5629. It was used as a summerhouse at Pin Mill following withdrawal in 1945, and was obtained for preservation by the Long Shop Museum at Leiston, but was loaned to the Ipswich Transport Museum in 1995 and subsequently donated to them in 2004.[24] No.26 re-donated to the Long Shop Museum, Leiston in July 2021 and is currently being restored by the Museum volunteers in the former motor workshop. edited Oct 2022
• Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies trolleybus No.44, built in 1930 with a B31D dual entrance, carried the registration number DX 8871. It was owned by the Science Museum, London. Ownership transferred to the Ipswich Transport Museum in April 2022, arriving there on 22nd of that month.[25]
• Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies trolleybus No.46, built in 1933 with English Electric equipment and an H24/24R double deck body, carried the registration number PV 817. It was shown at the Commercial Vehicle Show in 1933, and was one of the first batch of four double deck vehicles obtained by the corporation. After withdrawal from service in August 1951, it was used as a caravan at Needham Market before being acquired for preservation by the Ipswich Transport Museum in 1971. All of the electrical equipment needed to restore the vehicle had been amassed by 2007, but there were no immediate plans to start restoration.[24]
• Karrier type W trolleybus No. 105, built in 1948 with Metrovick equipment and a Park Royal Vehicles H30/26R double deck body. carried the registration number PV 8270. After withdrawal, it was used as a mobile Civil Defence showroom[24] and then as a canteen, until it was obtained by the Ipswich Transport Museum in 1971. An 11-year restoration project started in 2003, and the vehicle was returned to operational status in 2014, at a cost of some £25,000.[26]
• Sunbeam type F4 trolleybus No. 126, built in 1950 with Metrovick equipment and a Park Royal H30/25R double deck body, carried the registration number ADX 196. It was sold to the Walsall system in 1962 for further use, and was obtained by the Ipswich Transport Museum in 1970 when that system closed. It was stored at the Sandtoft Trolleybus Museum for a time, where it ran occasionally, but subsequently moved to the East Anglia Transport Museum at Carlton Colville.[24] It is now on static display at the Ipswich Transport Museum.

• History of Ipswich
• Transport in Ipswich
• List of trolleybus systems in the United Kingdom

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Trolleybuses in Ipswich.

• Official website
• SCT'61 website - photos and descriptions of Ipswich trolleybuses and early motorbuses
• National Trolleybus Archive
• British Trolleybus Society, based in Reading
• National Trolleybus Association, based in London