Publications
Hastings Trolleybus System, 1928-1959, by K. S. Donaldson, published 1981 in Sussex Industrial History (No. 11, article, pp.9-14) accessible at: The Keep [LIB/506525] Download PDF
Abstract:In July 1927 the Hastings Tramways Company obtained the Hastings Tramways Company (Trolley Vehicles) Act 1927, which authorised the replacement of 65 four wheeled tramcars by trolleybuses, and began implementing its plan to open the first system of trackless trolley omnibuses in Sussex. In addition to the engineering and organisational difficulties that had to be overcome there was the opposition of the Hastings Corporation, and the proceedings at the Annual Meeting of the Hastings & District Electric Tramways Co., Ltd., held at 1 Queen Victoria Street, London EC4 on Tuesday, 15th May, 1928, record a particularly vitriolic attack by the Chairman (who was also Managing Director of the Company), Mr. Gerald P. Moody, on the Corporation for fighting the Bill in the House of Lords.
The Corporation wanted motor buses because these did not require traction poles and overhead wiring to be strung along the extensive sea-front whereas the Company with substantial investment in generating equipment and wiring for trams wanted to stay with electric traction. The Act having passed however, the Company went ahead with the conversion of the tramways system to a trolleybus system which opened on 1st April, 1928, when trolley-buses replaced trams on the route between Hollington and the Fishmarket via Bohemia Road. The vehicles operated were Guy BTX 60, six-wheeled trolley-buses with Dodson open-top double-deck bodies with open staircases at the rear. There was seating for 26 passengers upstairs and 31 downstairs. These vehicles were the first of their kind in the country and indeed for many years were the only open-topped double-decker trolleybuses operating anywhere.
The Corporation wanted motor buses because these did not require traction poles and overhead wiring to be strung along the extensive sea-front whereas the Company with substantial investment in generating equipment and wiring for trams wanted to stay with electric traction. The Act having passed however, the Company went ahead with the conversion of the tramways system to a trolleybus system which opened on 1st April, 1928, when trolley-buses replaced trams on the route between Hollington and the Fishmarket via Bohemia Road. The vehicles operated were Guy BTX 60, six-wheeled trolley-buses with Dodson open-top double-deck bodies with open staircases at the rear. There was seating for 26 passengers upstairs and 31 downstairs. These vehicles were the first of their kind in the country and indeed for many years were the only open-topped double-decker trolleybuses operating anywhere.
Trams in Hastings, by K. S. Donaldson, published 1982 in Sussex Industrial History (No. 12, article, pp.33-38) accessible at: The Keep [LIB/506525] Download PDF
Abstract:The conversion of the Hastings Tramways Co., to trolleybus operation was outlined in Sussex Industrial History No. 11. The modernisation had taken place over the year 1928/1929 under the auspices of W. Vincent Edwards AMIEE., General Manager and Engineer of the Company. G.L. Gunday writing in Tramway Review about ten years ago states that the Company was quite prosperous, charging higher fares than many municipal tramways and citing the 6% dividend paid in 1917 from a profit of £12992. Nicholas Owen in "The History of the British Trolleybus" also about ten years ago states that it was clearly a penny pinching system and that the general manager was known as a martinet with an unforgiving nature! Whichever view is correct, and in more than fifty years of operations there is ample scope for both prosperity and penny pinching, the Company was no stranger to controversy. The change from trams to trolleybuses had been preceded by intense public argument, followed by similar debate, and a 'save our trolleybus' campaign, thirty years later on the introduction of motor buses. The birth-of the Company in 1897 had been heralded in like manner with a poster worded as follows:- Ratepayers! Beware!