A bus to join the National Tramway Museum collection?

It appears that the Tramway Museum Society is set to diversify its collection at Crich Tramway Village, home of the National Tramway Museum – with plans now afoot for the first ever bus to join the permanent vehicle fleet! No, this isn’t a ridiculously early April Fool joke, and in fact it may make a lot more sense than it initially appears…

A collection of very early British motorbuses owned by Mike Sutcliffe have featured in various events at Crich over the years, but now one of them may be set to move to Crich on a more permanent basis. Barnsley & District 5 of 1913 has a number of tramway connections: not only was it owned by a tramway operator (British Electric Traction), but it was also built by Brush, just like many of the trams at the museum, to a design not too dissimilar from the ‘combination’ cars employed by a number of tram systems, and represented in preservation today by Manchester 765 at Heaton Park. This particular bus has been seen at Crich a few times already but an appeal is being launched to raise funds to enable it to join the collection, representing a different type of public transport available at the heyday of British trams. This vehicle is of particular interest for the aforementioned connections with tramways, and could provide a welcome addition to the museum’s period street scene on a regular basis. It should also be noted that the bus has received extensive restoration work courtesy of its current owner and is believed to be fully serviceable, however as he apparently wishes to reduce his preservation activities he is now looking to relocate some of his private collection. Interestingly, Mr Sutcliffe has (or certainly once had) a York tram body located in his garden where it was being used as a shed – could this be another potential future addition to the Crich fleet?

The one concern this likely new acquisition raises is, as usual, that of storage space. As the TMS have often hailed a lack of covered accomodation as a reason to reject some important trams, it remains to be seen how and where this bus will be fitted in at the museum. There will almost certainly be plenty of critics but this is certainly a most interesting and surprising development for the TMS to take and we await further news with considerable interest and an open mind!

The Barnsley bus is no stranger to Crich, having visited before, including in the summer of 2008 for a major Leyland vehicle gathering. It also stayed for that year's Edwardian weekend, when it was seen on the depot track fan. (Photo by Tony Waddington)

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3 Responses to A bus to join the National Tramway Museum collection?

  1. Nigel Pennick says:

    Perhaps Heaton Park will get a Leyland Titan to replace 765 on route 53 like they did back in the 1930s. Joking aside, vehicle preservation is undergoing retrenchment with the National Railway Museum deaccessing (i.e. giving away) three steam locomotives, and the Electric Railway Museum closing down. How long before Crich starts deaccessing trams? (never I hope).

  2. Andy B says:

    dear all,
    Perhaps a bit more explanation about why and how this bus fits within the museum. As mentioned above, the body was built by Brush and is of contemporary tramcar construction of that time. What is more important is that it was one of 20 ordered by Barnsley and District of which several went on trial at other BET group members. This one went to Reading and there is a photo of it in service. Because they were successful, BET decided to go down the route of expanding their empire with buses and replacing the trams. So it tells the story of the downfall of British tramways.
    Nigel, no worries about Crich deaccessing trams.
    Regards
    Andy

  3. Nigel Pennick says:

    If they are going along the road of showing what replaced trams, then a trolleybus that can run with a skate in the rails is required, and, of course that Leyland Titan which replaced the first major city tram route, Manchester’s 53. But it’s a slippery slope and Crich is, after all a ‘National Tramway’ museum, albeit reassigned as a Village. The again a bus from Clifton showing how trams replaced buses routes in 2015 in Nottingham could be exhibited! Where will it all end?

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