Derby Trolleybus Destination Blind

The Derby trolleybus system closed on 9 September 1967. I think it was on the following Monday that I purchased this front blind from Ascot Drive depot. I regret to say that I have no idea from which vehicle the blind was taken. It does however bear a stamp showing that it was manufactured by "Norbury Brothers Ltd., Altrincham, Cheshire, Dec 1959". The blind differs from the side or rear versions, in that most of the displays are two-line with large type at the top and smaller type below, whereas the side and rear blinds just showed a one line destination. Although Derby maintained a network right up to closure, quite a few routes had been abandoned before 1967, and by the end only seven of the displays seen here (apart from "Depot") were in regular use. The route numbers remaining at closure were 11, 22, 31, 41 and 60 - the first four forming an elaborate sequence of routes joined end to end that started at "Kedleston Road, Allestree Lane" and finished at "Morden Green via Ashbourne Road" having passed through the town centre twice at "Market Place" and "Victoria Street". A round trip from Allestree Lane to Morden Green and back again must have taken over two hours - perhaps more interesting for the crews than the 60, which just thrashed up and down Osmaston Road between the Market Place and Shelton Lock.

Stephen Ford
12/2011

If you put your mouse over the show area it will pause.

03/12/11 - 07:16

That's a wonderful post Stephen! I'd been meaning to post recently when mention of Chesterfield Corporation was made because being brought up half way between Derby and Chesterfield, I have memories of both municipalities and I've always tended to make comparisons. I think Chesterfield had more interesting and much longer routes and a more varied fleet. Derby's routes were rather boring to me, just trundling back and forth to the Borough boundary. The blind highlights one very important factor though, that in those days there were several cross town services, today there are none and Derby is much poorer for it! The point that everyone, councillors and operators seems to miss is that with Derby having a Railway Station some distance from the centre, there aare many people from areas such as Ashbourne Road, Henley Green, Allestree who would love to be able to get one bus to the station without having to change (and walk between changes!) Now that the City Council has given Derby what it thinks is a wonderful new bus station (in fact the reverse is the truth!) some of the journeys which the blind brings back memories of seem even less likely!

Chris Barker

04/12/11 - 10:25

Thanks Chris, but Peter must take much of the credit. I merely took a few photos of the blind laid out on our living room floor. He linked everything together, straightened out the parallax effect, corrected the lighting level and made it scroll. I agree about the cross town services. They gave additional journey opportunities and increased convenience. I suspect they may also have improved efficiency by reducing the number of terminal pauses. Both Derby and Nottingham did it - especially but not exclusively with trolleybuses. I might put together an article describing one or two of the relays of services that I mentioned.

Stephen Ford

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