The Walsall trolleybus system once served the town of Walsall, then in Staffordshire, but now in West Midlands, England. Opened on , it gradually replaced the Walsall Corporation Tramways network.
By the standards of the various now defunct trolleybus systems in the United Kingdom, the Walsall system was a medium-sized one, with a total of 6 routes, and a maximum fleet of 60 trolleybuses. It was also one of the last to be closed, on .
In its final years, the Walsall system had a very diverse fleet of trolleybuses, many of which had been acquired secondhand from already closed trolleybus systems elsewhere in England.
Three of the former Walsall system trolleybuses are now preserved in their pale blue Walsall livery. Two of them are at the Trolleybus Museum at Sandtoft, Lincolnshire, and one is at the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley. One of the vehicles bought from Cleethorpes is also preserved at Sandtoft, where it will revert to its Grimsby-Cleethorpes livery.
History
Walsall Corporation had run an electric tramway system since 1901, when it took over of electric tramway which had been constructed within its boundaries by the South Staffordshire Tramways Company. In 1911, when the first two trolleybus systems in Britain were opened, at Leeds and Bradford, they looked at the possibilities of using trolleybuses to feed traffic into the tramway network, and in 1914 obtained the powers necessary to do so, but no routes were constructed. The next significant move was enshrined in the Walsall Corporation Act (1925), which allowed them to run trolleybuses on any of the existing tramway routes, on some other roads within the borough, and to run services outside of their area to Willenhall, Shireoaks and Brownhills. Again, nothing was done immediately, but the tramway to Willenhall met the Wolverhampton tramway at that point until 1926, when Wolverhampton replaced their trams on the route with motorbuses. On 15 May 1927, they replaced the motorbus service with trolleybuses.
Walsall continued to run trams to Willenhall until 1928, when they were withdrawn and a joint motorbus service was introduced between the towns. However, they soon decided to extend the trolleybus wiring from Willenhall into the town centre, and on 22 July 1931 began operating their first trolleybuses, though only as far as Willenhall. To run the service they bought two three-axle double-deck vehicles from Associated Equipment Company (AEC) and two from Guy Motors. Wolverhampton had used singe-deck vehicles on the route, because there was a low bridge at Horseley Fields, but this was reconstructed to allow a through service to run from 16 November 1932. Conversion of the tram route to Walsall Wood, to the north east of the town, had been considered in 1927, but because the roads were affected by mining subsidence, the trams were replaced by motorbuses when they ceased in 1928.
That left just the tramway northwards from the town to Bloxwich, which already had trolleybus wiring along half of its length, since the depot for both the trams and trolleybuses was at Birchills. The final trams ran on 30 September 1933, with the trolleybus service starting the following day. A batch of 15 three-axle double-deck vehicles were ordered from Sunbeam Commercial Vehicles for the start of the service, and were supplemented by another six similar vehicles between 1938 and 1940. The possibility of creating a circular route running through Wednesbury and Darlaston was considered, but because it would have involved a number of sharp turns and running along narrow streets, it was deemed to be unsuitable. During the Second World War, traffic levels rose, and to meet the demands, the Corporation managed to obtain 12 utility-bodied Sunbeams between 1943 and 1946. Bournemouth saw reduced traffic levels at this time, and loaned 30 of their vehicles to six other operators, two of which operated in Walsall between 1943 and 1945.