MEET JULIE OXENFORTH, OUR ARTIST IN RESIDENCE
6th August 2025
Welcome to the Museum’s Artist in Residence
The Museum has its first Artist in Residence! We will be welcoming Julie Oxenforth to all our open days, starting with the Blues & Twos Weekend at the beginning of September and ending with Twilight Trolleys on 1 November.
Julie graduated from Sunderland University in 2005 with a distinction in MA Fine Art and since has exhibited locally and internationally. She produces artworks by recycling objects she finds together with images and various materials to create something new and is constantly seeking connections flowing through seemingly disparate thoughts and themes. It is no surprise that on her visits to the Trolleybus Museum Julie has found discarded objects that create new inspirations.
Julie’s appointment is thanks to one of the first grants from the North Lincolnshire Cultural Futures Community Grants scheme. Julie will be offering artist workshops at our open days and it is also her intention to create a piece of sculpture by the end of the season.
ARTS COUNCIL ENGLAND AWARDS TROLLEYBUS MUSEUM FULL ACCREDITATION
1st March 2025
Arts Council England (ACE) has notified us that our submission for renewal of our Accredited Museum status has been successful and we’ve been awarded full accreditation. The awards panel recognised the strength of the Museum’s application and particularly commended the organisation’s strategic alignment with ACE’s Let’s Create strategy.
This is a fantastic achievement and involved a lot of work, since many of the requirements have changed since our last renewal. One consequence of this has been that the Autumn edition of Sandtoft Scene has had to be delayed. We’re hoping to get this out soon – thanks for your patience.
30th November 2023
OUR PLAYTRAM ARRIVES AT SANDTOFT
Blackpool tram 708 arrived at the Trolleybus Museum on Tuesday evening (28th) and was safely unloaded yesterday onto a plinth with tram rail kindly donated by our friends at East Anglia Transport Museum. 708 is currently a bit grubby, having been in undercover storage at Rigby Road tram depot in Blackpool since 2008, but once spruced up it will be fitted out as a Playtram (the only one in the UK!) to form the centre of our new children’s area.
FIRST ACCESSIBLE TROLLEYBUS IN THE UK LAUNCHED
3rd June 2023
We launched the first Accessible Trolleybus in the UK on Saturday 27th May using our new wheelchair lift.
The bus is 82, a 1963 BUT that ran in Wellington, New Zealand. The adaption to the bus has not involved any structural changes; two seats have been removed and replaced with a wheelchair backrest kindly donated by Stagecoach East Midlands. Here’s the first passenger alighting after her ride!
We’re also preparing a front entrance Bradford double deck trolleybus in a similar way.
MUSEUM AWARDED GREEN AMBASSADOR STATUS
27th April 2023
As you can see from the sidebar on this website, the Trolleybus Museum is proud to have been awarded Green Ambassador status by Visit Lincolnshire. This recognises our commitment to promoting sustainability, by monitoring and reducing our carbon footprint and safeguarding the environment. As part of this we will soon be undertaking an audit of our energy usage and reducing the amount of waste we send to landfill.
ROAD RESURFACING WORK STARTS
7th March 2023
As regular visitors will have noticed, the surface of the “Back Straight” of the trolleybus running circuit has been deteriorating for some time and by the end of the 2022 season the area near the Museum’s front gate was in a very poor condition
– the concrete is 80 years old after all! On Tuesday 7th March the contractors moved on site and planed the old surface prior to laying new tarmac. All being well, the work will be completed in the next couple of weeks.
INTRODUCING THE TROLLEYBUS DRIVING EXPERIENCE GIFT VOUCHER
13th February 2023
Looking for a really different present? Why not surprise someone you love with our new Trolleybus Driving Experience Gift Voucher?
Full details are on the Trolleybus Driving Experience page!
DAVID CROFT DEPOT HANDED OVER
6th October 2022
The new David Croft Depot, named after a much-missed volunteer at the Museum who died in 2016 and left the Museum a substantial legacy, has now been completed and handed over. On Wednesday 5th October the first four vehicles were moved in, all of which are oversize. Two of
them were previously stored outside because of this, but now all our collection is stored undercover. The remaining spaces will soon be
occupied although some vehicles will continue to be stored off-site. The first entrant was Edmonton 189. Moving 189 off-wire isn’t easy and she is pictured in her new home with some members of the towing gang.
CLEETHORPES ON THE MOVE
31 August 2022
We’ll be at the Cleethorpes On The Move exhibition at Cleethorpes Town Hall on Friday and Saturday, 9/10th September. This is a major exhibition showing how transport shaped the town into how it is now. See you there!
LONDON 1812 RETURNS TO SANDTOFT
27 August 2022
London Transport trolleybus 1812 went on loan to the London Bus Museum in 2015, and when that ended last year underwent a full mechanical overhaul. It returned to the Museum on 23rd August and following a thorough inspection and brake test by our engineering team was recommissioned into service today, the first day of our three-day London Weekend – commemorating the 60th anniversary of the capital’s last trolleybus in 1962.
You can read more about 1812 here.
SPECIAL WEEKDAY OPENING AND LONDON EVENT UPDATE
15 August 2022
For the first time the Trolleybus Museum will be open to the public on weekdays!
As an experiment, the Museum will be open Monday to Friday, 22nd to 26th August from 10:30 to 4:30. All our usual attractions except motorbus tours will be available and one trolleybus in service every day (due to staff availability some attractions may be open for limited periods). To help cash-strapped families we are not making an admission charge but requesting a donation of £3.
And, because of the cost of living crisis we’ve decided that the London commemoration at the Bank Holiday Weekend will no longer be a Trolleyday Plus event – so normal admission prices will apply and eligible for our 12 month free re-admission offer!
HELP THE TROLLEYBUS MUSEUM AND YOU COULD WIN £25,000!
5 July 2022
The Trolleybus Museum is now registered with the Lincs Lotto. It’s a weekly draw with a chance to win £25,000 every week and 50% of the ticket price goes to your chosen good cause with a further 10% to other registered causes.
For more information see our Supporting Us page
BBC’s BARGAIN HUNT FEATURES THE TROLLEYBUS MUSEUM
26 May 2022
Last October a BBC production team descended on the Museum to film a segment for the latest series of Bargain Hunt. They arrived at 7am and spent a chilly 4 hours at the Museum. This episode is due to be screened on BBC1 on Monday 6th June 2022 at 1215, and will be available on iPlayer afterwards.
The photos show presenter Natasha Raskin Sharp alighting from London trolleybus 1348 and interviewing Museum President Bob Rowe beside the Cedes Replica.
NEW DEPOT BUILDING PROGRESSES
17th March 2022
Despite a setback with wet weather, the steel framework of the new Depot Building is going up.
TROLLEYBUS MUSEUM CONTRIBUTES TO THE QUEEN’S GREEN CANOPY
19th February 2022
We’re proud to be taking part in the Queen’s Green Canopy. At an informal ceremony recently, Liz Denton, our mentor from Museums Development Yorkshire, planted the first tree of our contribution.
CONSTRUCTION OF NEW DEPOT COMMENCES
17th February 2022
As the first stage of our Development Plan, work has started today (17th February) on our new depot building. An earth mover has arrived at the Museum and marking out has begun.
The first new depot to built at the Museum in 40 years, it should be complete by early Summer 2022, allowing 8 trolleybuses currently in temporary storage to be brought back to Sandtoft.
DEVELOPMENT AT THE TROLLEYBUS MUSEUM
We are happy to share our plans for expansion on the Trolleybus Museum at Sandtoft site! Click on the link above for more information!
NOTTS & DERBY 353 LEAVES SANDTOFT – TEMPORARILY!
Our resident Notts & Derby trolleybus number 353 (seen attached) is seen being prepared to be moved for storage offsite to make valuable space in our Depot.
353 arrived at Sandtoft in 2016 after being offered to the Museum by the West of England Transport Centre where it had been stored since 2011. First purchased for preservation when it came out of service in 1967, 353 has had several homes in that time, spending most of its life in the south of England.
