Doncaster once ran these very efficient pollution free buses from 1928 until 1963. After some attempts to retain them by the new transport manager Mr T Bamford from Maidstone. Two new route extensions took place, but a third was abandoned not a good sign. In 1961 the Councils Transport Committee decided to replace the trolleybus operation with motorbuses. The Hyde Park and the Hexthorpe routes were the first to succumb to this change over. Very quickly more routes followed until only the Beckett Road route was left. The date of the 14th December 1963 was set for the very last trolleybus to operate.       

With a good excuse to go into Doncaster for an "About and About" visit we duly parked up the car at Oversley Road on Sunday 14th December 2008  to board a bus to commemorate the sad event that took place some forty five years previously.       

Our bus pulls into the Oversley Road bus stop. A quick jump backwards and forwards in time when we return back to 1963 shows a trolleybus having set off from the Oversley Road bus stop. Forward again to 2008 the same location with a motorbus making the journey into town. In 1985 a brand new trolleybus was put on trial in Doncaster with the possibility that four motorbus routes in Doncaster were to be converted to trolleybus operation but this project fell through. 

Hopes were high for a return to trolleybus operation in Doncaster as this motorbus was converted to a trolleybus this was to be only vehicle delivered. The order for another 18 was never realised. By 1992 the wires and the poles were cut down and the vehicle now resides in the nearby Trolleybus Museum at Sandtoft. Not all the trolleybuses of the 1960's were broken up, twenty were to have their bodywork transferred to a motorbus chassis. 

A journey further back in time to about 1955 as a trolleybus makes a start on its journey out of town on the Beckett Road route (photograph from the collection of the late Walt Ashton). A contrast on the right, already this photograph taken on the 14th December 2008 may be historic as the Woolworth's neon signs may be soon switched off for the very last time. This section of St Sepulchre Gate is now a pedestrian precinct. From time to time I have been asked if the trolleybus will ever return to Doncaster? I think almost 100% unlikely as I doubt if First Buses have the remotest of interest in using the modern vehicles we are increasingly seeing in New Zealand, Europe, America and most recently Castellon in Spain . There is just one chance for the UK Leeds.
I will be making the same Out and About venture to Doncaster to commemorate the 2009, again I suspect other than my wife who made the most of our venture for some Christmas shopping I shall be the only one to recall that day in 1963 when the last trolleybus disappeared off the streets of Doncaster.