East Anglia Transport Museum
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The East Anglia Transport Museum is an open-air transport museum, with numerous historic public transport vehicles (including many in full working order). It is located in
Carlton Colville Carlton Colville is a seaside town and civil parish in the English county of Suffolk. It is south-west of the centre of the town of Lowestoft in the East Suffolk district. The area lies along the A146 Lowestoft to Beccles road. Carlton Colvi ...
a suburb of
Lowestoft Lowestoft ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish in the East Suffolk (district), East Suffolk district of Suffolk, England.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . As the List of extreme points of the United Kingdom, most easterly UK se ...
,
Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...
. It is the only museum in the country where visitors can ride on buses,
tram A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...
s and
trolleybus A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or troll ...
es, as well as a
narrow-gauge railway A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter cur ...
.


History

The museum was founded on its present site at Carlton Colville in 1965, following the rescue in 1962 by four enthusiasts of the body of an old Lowestoft tram (number 14), which had been used for a number of years as a summerhouse. The site was formerly a meadow, donated by the founder and first chairman of the Museum Society, Albert Bird. The first buildings on the site were constructed in 1966, and the museum opened to the public on 28 May 1972. Full tram and trolleybus operations began in 1981, following the construction of a suitable roadway. The Museum's narrow-gauge railway, known as the East Suffolk Light Railway, opened in 1973. It was some long, running along the northern edge of the site, and the -gauge track was constructed from materials obtained from a sand quarry at Leziate, from
Canvey Island Canvey Island is a town, civil parish and reclaimed island in the Thames Estuary, near Southend-on-Sea, in the Castle Point district, in the county of Essex, England. It has an area of and a population of 38,170.Office for National Statistics. ...
, and from the Southwold Railway. Signals were obtained from several locations in the vicinity. The museum also owns a van body which once ran on the Southwold Railway. In 2016, the museum acquired some land adjacent to the main site. Waveney District Council granted planning permission for the museum to extend its site, as the museum was beneficial to the local economy. The plan was to lengthen the tramway, the trolleybus route and the narrow gauge railway, and to nearly double the site area, at an estimated cost of one million pounds. A new exhibition hall was to be built devoted to Eastern Coach Works, a major builder of bus and train bodywork in nearby
Lowestoft Lowestoft ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish in the East Suffolk (district), East Suffolk district of Suffolk, England.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . As the List of extreme points of the United Kingdom, most easterly UK se ...
until it closed in 1987. A new tram depot and trolleybus depot were to be built. Twenty vehicles in store at
Ellough Ellough is a civil parish in the East Suffolk (district), East Suffolk district of the English county of Suffolk, located approximately south-east of Beccles. The area is sparsely populated with a mid-2005 population estimate of 40. The parish, ...
near
Beccles Beccles ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the East Suffolk District, East Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . The town is located along the A145 r ...
were to be moved to the Carlton Colville site where they could be viewed. The East Suffolk Light Railway, which originally terminated near the woodland tramway, was first extended, including construction of a flat crossing to allow the trains to pass over the tramway. In April 2023 the tram depot opened, with space for six tramcars, three in each lane. It accommodated the top deck of Glasgow 488, Brush cars 625 and 627, Double-deck Streamliner 726 and a stamping point for the museum's stamp trail.


Exhibits

The museum has many exhibits ranging from a 1904 Lowestoft Corporation tram to a 1985
Sinclair C5 The Sinclair C5 is a small one-person battery electric vehicle, battery electric Recumbent bicycle, recumbent tricycle, technically an "electrically assisted pedal cycle". It was the culmination of Sir Clive Sinclair's long-running interest in el ...
. Tram rides are available on a route passing the museum's trolleybus depot and up to a terminus at Woodside. Originally, the trolleybus route extended as far as the trolleybus depot where passengers could change for a ride on the museum's 2 ft gauge railway to Chapel Road (the other end of the tram route), or they could stay on the trolleybus whilst it performed a 3-point turn and returned to the museum entrance via the same route. A muddy field was
tarmacadam Tarmacadam or tarmac is a concrete road surface, road surfacing material made by combining tar and macadam (crushed stone and sand), patented by Welsh inventor Edgar Purnell Hooley in 1902. It is a more durable and dust-free enhancement of simpl ...
med as the Back Road, and renamed as Herting Street, after the donor who supported these works. On 12 July 2008 a loop created along the Back Road, linking in with the existing overhead wiring near the museum's entrance, opened, Britain's first trolleybus extension for many decades. Exhibits include No. 1521, the last trolleybus to operate under its own power in London, which had had the world's largest trolleybus network. It was one of a batch of 150 L3 class vehicles built on chassis made by Associated Equipment Company (AEC) and Metro Cammell Weymann in 1939–40, and made its last journey in the evening of 8 May 1962. The following vehicles are displayed:


Trams

* Blackpool Corporation VAMBAC enclosed single-decker No. 11 built in 1939. Operational. * Lowestoft Corporation Tramways open topper No. 14 built in 1904. Undergoing restoration. * Blackpool Corporation Standard Class enclosed double-decker No. 159 built in 1927. Operational. *Amsterdam Tramways enclosed single decker No. 474 built in 1929. Operational. * Glasgow Corporation Tramways enclosed double-decker No. 488 built in 1903. Undergoing restoration. * Sheffield Corporation enclosed double-decker No. 513 built in 1950. Operational, on loan from
Beamish Museum Beamish Museum is the first regional open-air museum, in England, located at Beamish, County Durham, Beamish, near the town of Stanley, County Durham, Stanley, in County Durham, England. Beamish pioneered the concept of a living museum. By di ...
* London Transport HR2 No. 1858 built in 1930. Operational. * Blackpool Corporation Double Deck Streamliner “Balloon” No. 726 built in 1935. Awaiting restoration. * Blackpool Corporation Brush Car No. 627 built in 1935. Undergoing restoration. * Blackpool Corporation Brush Car No. 625 built in 1935. Not operational.


Trolleybuses

* 1 Henschel
Solingen Solingen (; ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, 25 km east of Düsseldorf along the northern edge of the Bergisches Land, south of the Ruhr. After Wuppertal, it is the second-largest city in the Bergisches Land, and a member of ...
(privately owned) * 5 Garrett 1926
Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...
* 34
Sunbeam A sunbeam, in meteorological optics, is a lightbeam, beam of sunlight that appears to radiate from the position of the Sun. Shining through openings in clouds or between other objects such as mountains and buildings, these beams of light scatter ...
1947 Hastings Corporation * 52 BUT 9611T 1953 Maidstone Corporation Transport * 87 BUT 9612T 1956 Ashton-Under-Lyne Corporation * 202 Sunbeam 1935 Bournemouth Corporation * 224 Sunbeam 1953 Derby Corporation (away from museum undergoing restoration) * 237 Sunbeam 1960 Derby Corporation (Privately Owned) * 246 Sunbeam 1958 Belfast Corporation * 260 AEC 1936 London Transport * 286 Sunbeam 1959 Bournemouth Corporation * 313 BUT 1951 Portsmouth Corporation * 628 BUT 1950 Newcastle Corporation * 1201 Leyland 1938 London Transport * 1521 Chassisless Construction by
Metro-Cammell Metro-Cammell, formally the Metropolitan Cammell Carriage and Wagon Company (MCCW), was an English manufacturer of railway carriages, locomotives and railway wagons, based in Saltley, and subsequently Washwood Heath, in Birmingham. The co ...
using AEC components 1940 London Transport * 578 Nottingham City Transport built in 1951. * 105 Ipswich Corporation built in 1948. (On loan from
Ipswich Transport Museum The Ipswich Transport Museum is a museum in Ipswich, Suffolk, England, devoted principally to the history of transport and engineering objects made or used in its local area. The museum collection was started by the Ipswich Transport Preservat ...
)


Motorbuses

* 21 AEC Regent II 1947 Lowestoft Corporation * LL408 Bristol 1948 Eastern Counties * LFL57
Bristol Lodekka The Bristol Lodekka is a Front-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout, half-cab Lowbridge double-deck bus, low-height low-floor bus, step-free double-decker bus built by Bristol Commercial Vehicles in England. It was the first production bus design t ...
1962 Eastern Counties * 4 AEC Swift 1969 Lowestoft corporation * 85 AEC Reliance 1964 Great Yarmouth * VR385 Bristol VR 1972 Eastern Counties * 13 Mercedes-Benz 608D 1987 Lincolnshire Road Car * 66 Leyland PD2/1 1949 Great Yarmouth Corporation * 62
Dennis Dart The Dennis Dart is a Rear-engine design, rear-engined single-decker bus, single-decker midibus chassis that was introduced by Dennis Specialist Vehicles, Dennis of Guildford, England, in 1989, replacing the Dennis Domino. Initially built as a ...
1995 Great Yarmouth Transport * 8 AEC Regent V 1963 Lowestoft Corporation * RTL 1163 1946 London Transport * RT 3125 1950 London Country


Locomotives

There are four locomotives which operate on the gauge East Suffolk Light Railway (ESLR). All of them have four-wheel chassis, with diesel engines and mechanical transmission. One was made by Ruston and Hornsby of Lincoln and three were made by Motor Rail of Bedford. The frames of a fourth Motor Rail locomotive were used to form the chassis of a brakevan.


See also

* List of transport museums * List of trolleybus systems in the United Kingdom * The Trolleybus Museum at Sandtoft *
Black Country Living Museum The Black Country Living Museum (formerly the Black Country Museum) is an open-air museum of rebuilt historic buildings in Dudley, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is located in the centre of the Black Country, west of Birming ...
- also with trolleybuses and trams


Gallery

File:K1 Telephone Box, Lowestoft Transport Museum, 13th June 2009.JPG, K1 Telephone Box, Lowestoft Transport Museum File:RAC roadside Telephone Box, Lowestoft Transport Museum 13th June 2009.JPG, RAC roadside Telephonebox


Bibliography

* * * * * * *


References


External links


Museum website
{{authority control 1965 establishments in England Bus museums in England Lowestoft Museums established in 1965 Museums in Suffolk Tram museums in the United Kingdom Tramways with double-decker trams Transport museums in England Trolleybus transport in the United Kingdom