Trolleybuses in Adelaide
 Adelaide trolleybus no. 431, 1953. | |||||||||
| Operation | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Locale | Adelaide, South Australia, Australia | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| |||||||||
An Adelaide trolleybus system was part of the public transport network in Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia, for roughly 30 years in the mid-twentieth century.
History
During the Great Depression, Adelaide's Municipal Tramways Trust (MTT) needed to expand services, but finances prevented laying new tracks. A decision was made to trial trolleybuses, and a converted petrol bus began running experimentally on the Payneham and Paradise lines. The trial was a success, and therefore a permanent system was opened in 1937.
The permanent system began operations with a fleet of double-decker trolleybuses running to Tusmore. Extensions to Port Adelaide, Semaphore and Largs Bay were opened in 1938. Trolleybuses continued running in Adelaide until July 1963, when the last line was converted to motor buses.[1]
Fleet
- Green Goddess
Petrol bus 216 was converted to electric operation and ran from May 1932 to August 1934. It was the first trolleybus in Australia and become known as "The Green Goddess" by its distinctive livery. It seated twenty-three with room for twenty standing passengers.[2]
- A.E.C. double decker
Imported English trolleybus chassis were completed with bodywork by Lawtons of Adelaide in 1937, then numbered as buses 401 to 430. The A.E.C. trolleybuses seated fifty-seven with a crush load of eighty-four and were withdrawn in mid 1957, with a brief return to service in August 1958.[2]
- Leyland double decker
With chassis brought in from England prior to World War II, the MTT constructed buses 431 to 435. When put into service in 1942 the Leyland buses were the largest in the MTT fleet and remained so until withdrawn in 1958.[2]
- Leyland canton trolleybus
As part of the World War II supply effort, English bus chassis, with a final intended destination of the Guangdong province in China, were brought to Adelaide where they remained. The MTT built bodies for them from 1942 to 1944, as buses 501 to 530, with a seating capacity of thirty and a crush load of sixty. The became popularly known as cantons or wombats and remained in service until 1963.[2]
- Sunbeam trolleybus
Buses 501 to 530 were built by Lawtons of Adelaide on a Sunbeam chassis in late 1951. They seated forty passengers, had a crush load of seventy-seven and were used in services until mid 1963.[2]
See also
- Buses in Adelaide
- History of Adelaide
- Public transport in Adelaide
- Trams in Adelaide
- List of trolleybus systems
References
Notes
Further reading
- Australian Electric Traction Association. South Australian Branch (1962). The Facts about Trolleybus Operation in Adelaide. Tusmore, SA: Australian Electric Traction Association. South Australian Branch. OCLC 219956840.
- Jones, David (2000). Australian Trolley Buses : the trolley buses that once served Australian cities. Tawa, NZ: City Tramway Publications. ISBN 0-473-07118-5.
- Municipal Tramways Trust (1974). Development of street transport in Adelaide: official history, 1907-1974. Adelaide: Municipal Tramways Trust. OCLC 216845730.
- Patton, Brian (2004). Double-Deck Trolleybuses of the World: beyond the British Isles. Brora, Sutherland: Adam Gordon. ISBN 978-1-874422-50-1.
- Radcliffe, J C; Steele, C J M (1974). Adelaide Road Passenger Transport 1836-1958. Adelaide: Libraries Board of South Australia. ISBN 0-7243-0045-7.
- Simpson, Margaret (2004). On the Move: A History of Transport in Australia. Sydney: Powerhouse Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86317-101-4.
- Smith, Neville S (1998). Tramcars, Trolleybuses in and around Port Adelaide, also Cheltenham Line. Adelaide: Australian Electric Transport Museum. OCLC 222763342.
- Steele, Christopher; Wheaton, Roger (1978). Adelaide on the Move 1878-1978: Public Transport in a Changing Scene. Sydney: Australian Electric Traction Association. ISBN 0-909459-04-5.
- Wheaton, R T (1975). Destination Paradise: a technical and photographic review of the electric trams and trolleybuses of the Municipal Tramways Trust, Adelaide, South Australia (2nd ed.). Sydney: Australian Electric Traction Association. ISBN 0-909459-02-9.
External links
Media related to Trolleybuses in Adelaide at Wikimedia Commons
- Adelaide Tramway Museum, St Kilda, South Australia
| ||||||||||||||||
