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Barry Edwards looks at the reasons behind the decline of the trolleybus in Derby.

Stanley Tisdell, who lived in Westgreen Avenue, Allenton, had just parked his smart 1958 Austin Cambridge on London Road, and nipped in to see a friend in the motor car showroom at the corner of Clifton Street.

Within minutes he heard a commotion and rushed out of the premises to find mayhem and sheer terror. Sparks were flying everywhere in what was described as a huge fireworks display without the fun factor. Live high voltage overhead trolleywires were curled across the carriageway making contact with a lorry, which was rapidly becoming red-hot.

The cab door opened, and in the manner of a soldier escaping from a vehicle under attack, the terrified driver plunged to the ground. Petrified pedestrians watched in horror as huge swathes of tarmac were scorched by the errant cables, rightly concerned that a sudden whiplash could bring death and destruction in its wake.

Worse was still to come for Stanley who looked back towards the kerb with horror, realising that his beloved Austin Cambridge now had a trolley standard lying across its bonnet at an acute angle. In fact, the car had prevented the pole from crashing to the ground.

In the carriageway was a stationary Derby Corporation trolleybus, its wayward trolley booms flapping about in the air. Such had been the force when the booms had lost contact with the overhead wires and crashed into the roadside standard, that the ageing pole had snapped off at the base bringing trolleywires down to the ground with such dramatic effect.

It took a while for the Fire Brigade to arrange a power switch-off which naturally had the immediate effect of cutting off power to ten other trolleys in the area, and disrupting the evening rush hour as London Road was the main thoroughfare from Ascot Drive depot into town. Traffic chaos ensued, diversions put into place. As the Derby Telegraph pointed out in its 1965 article, “This is the second time in a week that a trolley pole has snapped off at its base. Last week it happened in Ashbourne Road”.

So what had gone wrong with the system? In 1931, 34 years before, planning had been detailed and meticulous, and implemented using only the best equipment available, replacing a worn out tram system that would have been too expensive to modernise.

Indeed the special Corporation sub-committee working party had wholeheartedly recommended that Derby’s main road tram routes should be converted to trolleys on the grounds of cost, existing expertise and, above all, powered by electricity generated by the Corporation itself.

Indeed, for every mile run, the Corporation made 5.5 old pence profit, allowing them to pay off capital charges and cover the losses created by the old tram system.

Initially all the trolleybus drivers had been recruited from tram drivers with years of experience and dewirements were not regarded as a problem.

During the initial development period 1932-1938, most main roads out of town saw the stringing of trolleywires and residents in the suburbs witnessed new ‘turning circles’ hacked out of the countryside in areas such as Shelton Lock and at Uttoxeter Road on the border of Mickleover.

Trolleybuses dominated mileage clocking up 100.600 in 1932 against just 17.764 for motor bus services. Trolley vehicles were regarded at the time as a huge improvement on the rather uncomfortable trams, which had pitched and swayed along track that had seen better days.

They were described in a contemporary report as being “roomy and comfortable, with special attention given to the simplicity of cleaning and maintenance”. Loads averaged out at 50-60% of potential capacity. Indeed on the Alvaston route a 16 week comparison was carried out between tram and trolleybus receipts, showing a 19% increase in takings for the new vehicles. Conversion to trolleys was accelerated on the grounds of profitability and improvement in image and goodwill.

If not euphoric, the Omnibus Committee was certainly satisfied with its investment, but even by 1938 a dichotomy was beginning to develop. On the one hand trolleybuses were popular and profitable, but on the other hand Derby was changing. Estates were being developed within the borough that would look to the Corporation for bus services but whose roads followed an intricate pattern with numerous twists and turns within their infrastructure.

Motor buses had been intended for the ‘lightest’ routes and since 1929 that role had been largely fulfilled. So, significantly, when council house building in Chaddesden developed in the late 1930s, the only viable form of transport was motor bus not trolley bus. There were practical problems associated with the provision of electricity to power trolley buses. Too far away from a generating substation, then the current would be insufficient to maintain motive power. Too tight a curve and the trolley poles would come off! Easier to supply a motor bus.

All these fundamental problems were put on the back burner during World War 2 when Derby rejoiced in the fact that it had electric buses, wartime demands on oil causing a dramatic reduction in motor bus mileage. Indeed the War Ministry had given the go-ahead for the Corporation to extend their wires to Sinfin Lane to help with war related ‘works services’ in the area in 1943.

Optimism remained high in relation to trolleybus use throughout that decade and 1946 saw the greatest use of public transport ever in Derby, in an era when most people did not have their own cars and home entertainment was limited to the radio. Indeed, despite much opposition from local residents who were critical of the environmental impact of trolleywires in their sylvan suburb, services were extended to Kingscroft in Allestree in 1947.

The 1950s however, proved disastrous for the long-term feasibility of trolleybuses in Derby. John Frith, the Omnibus Department manager, quite rightly identified expansion of the network as the only way to maintain its long-term viability.

However, as early as June 1950, the first abandonment of a trolleybus route occurred when services to Chaddesden were reorganised, the Max Road motor bus service now routed via Chaddesden Park Road, making trolleybus service 60 redundant.

Despite a successful extension of electric services to part of the new Mackworth Estate in 1952-3, which by the way only represented a very small part of Corporation ambitions in the area, doubts began to creep in about the network's future. Indeed, when John Frith presented expansion plans at the Public Enquiry on 15 April 1955, his department was given a mauling by counsel acting on behalf of Trent and Blue Bus.

The General Manager wanted to expand services along Chain Lane, in order to link the Burton and Uttoxeter Road services. Local residents definitely did not want the ‘trollification’ of rural Derbyshire and proved there was no need for any Corporation expansion. Frith and his colleagues lost badly and it became clear that the moment for trolleybus expansion had passed. This was, in reality, the beginning of the end.

Despite the ‘Indian Summer’ at the time of Suez, when oil once more was in short supply, all service extensions were now by motorbus. Roosevelt Avenue, Chaddedsen, Bracknell Drive, Alvaston, Scarborough Rise, Breadsall all welcomed the motor bus. The Austin Estate service to Browning Circle was no longer adequate for residents in an expanding residential area and not surprisingly its route extension in 1960 to Sunny Hill Avenue was by motorbus, leading to the dismantling of overhead lines from the Cavendish and Derby Lane. Despite being profitable, trolleybus networks generally, not just in Derby, were looking vulnerable.

National trends are difficult to ignore. Back in 1948, the Labour government had nationalised electricity production, taking the power station, in Full Street away from Corporation control. Thereafter, the concept of the council paying for its trolleybus power from its own suppliers (from one pocket to another) was obsolete.

In addition question marks had been asked about trolleybus inflexibility in cities undergoing radical changes to their street patterns where traffic control and pedestrianisation were ideas launched for the first time. Indeed, London had decided to scrap its trolleybus system, last services operating in May 1962.

In an era of full employment, the Corporation was sometimes forced to take on staff who lacked experience in the subtleties of trolleybus driving, as personally witnessed when as a student I worked as a conductor on the trolleys in the years 1963-1966.

Such gung-ho attitudes were in direct contrast to those demonstrated by experienced and long serving employees. The Corporation’s image in the eyes of the public was not helped by delays when system failures occurred, such as the one described outside Clifton Motors.

Despite being cheaper to run in terms of vehicle costs per mile, trolleybuses could cost the operator more in the long run. For example in March 1966, over 20 trolleybuses were stranded in St.Peter’s Street when a broken half shaft of a lorry outside Saqui and Lawrence Jewellers, prevented vehicle movement. The cost in lost revenue and inconvenience to a disgruntled public was significant. Trolleybus inflexibility meant that they couldn’t divert and solve traffic blocks.

In Derby, the early routes were thirty years old by the early sixties. Nottingham Road in particular, the first route wired in 1931, services having started in January 1932, was now in need of major investment as trolley standards, wiring and crossovers were in need of renewal.

Those old enough to remember the demise of the trams, would have heard the same arguments all over again. “Is it worth investing in the infrastructure of a system that is obsolescent?” There was little doubt that the answer would be “no” so in November 1962 services to the Creamery were replaced by motorbuses.

One year later the council would announce a total abandonment of the trolleybus system quoting redevelopment of the town centre (making it impossible to get a bus from one side of town to the other) plus the demise of trolleybus suppliers and spare parts, as system after system closed. The last system, Bradford, survived until 1972, partly by buying up vehicles withdrawn elsewhere.

The abandonment programme in Derby was destined to last for approximately four years. The first route to be replaced by motorbuses during this phase was Kingscroft to Burton Road in 1964, followed by Sinfin Lane, Wyndham Street, Uttoxeter Road, Midland Station to Cavendish and New Normanton in 1966, with Allestree Lane coming off in February of the following year.

The final changeover date was published as September 9, 1967, by which time only Morden Green, Shelton Lock, Osmaston Park Road and Harvey Road trolley services remained. The last day was marked by special services running over abandoned sections, enthusiasts arriving in town for rides and photos, and drivers intent on staying out as long as possible. Trolleybus 236, one of the 1960 Sunbeam F4A’s, managed to stay out until after midnight on September 10, 1967, bringing an end to Derby’s second attempt at wired based electric transport.

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