Talk:Trolleybuses in Ipswich

Closure year 1962 or 1963?

Did this system close on 28th August 1962, or on 28th August 1963 ? At least two sources, the World Trolleybus Encyclopaedia and the British Trolleybus Society's online list give the year as 1962, while various other sources say 1963 – e.g., the 1986 Ian Allan-published book, British Trolleybus Systems, and this online list (dated 29/4/2000 and originally one of this article's citations). The Heydey books also say 1963. Clearly, in some cases authors have unknowingly copied an error from another source, but which is the error, 1962 or 1963? Does anyone have definitive info (maybe from material published at the time of closure)? SJ Morg (talk) 04:21, 23 April 2011 (UTC)

Interesting. The date was originally quoted as 1962, with two refs, including Short on the British Trolleybus Society website, which was accessed in 2011, but which now says 1963. I have searched on the wayback machine, and the archive copy of the list saved on 11 September 2011 says 1963, as do all of the subsequent archive copies that I have checked. Did the British Trolleybus Society's online list give it as 1962 prior to 11 September 2011, I wonder? I have searched the British Newspaper Archive, but that does not come up with anything. However, an article published by the Ipswich Star in 2016 here, as well as quoting 1963 has a picture of "A trolley bus at the junction of Duke Street (right) and Fore Hamlet (behind the bus) in April 1963. (Photo by Alan Valentine)." A similar article in East Anglian Times here also from 2016, includes other photos by Alan Valentine, including" A trolley bus approaches a stop in St Margaret's Street, Ipswich, in February 1963" and "A trolley bus in Crown Street, Ipswich, near Egerton’s garage .... This bus was ... in service in Ipswich until 1963." While they could have copied the closure date from elsewhere, the likelihood that the dates on three photographs are wrong, when they are not concerned with closure at all, is small. Just to illustrate the problem, Lockwood (2011) p.222 has a picture of the crew of the final trolleybus journey standing next to the vehicle, which it captions 23 April 1963, whereas the main article in that monumental work quotes 23 August 1963. On balance, I think 1963 is correct, since only the World Trolleybus Encyclopaedia quotes 1962, all other sources now quote 1963, and the photographs are unlikely to all be dated wrongly, when the dates are incidental to the article. Bob1960evens (talk) 22:48, 26 April 2020 (UTC)

I agree; 1963 is definitely correct. Although I cannot find record of it at the moment, I recall that back in autumn 2011 I mentioned the discrepancy to friends in the UK, and the BTS list (which definitely had said 1962 at the time of my 2011 post here) was changed to 1963 not long thereafter. I was also told that the editor of the World Trolleybus Encyclopaedia was aware of the error and it would be corrected when and if a second edition of that book is ever published. SJ Morg (talk) 19:53, 27 April 2020 (UTC)