Current Fundraising
Restoring the Electric Age: Reviving the Trolleybus Experience
We have secured £272,000 from the DCMS/Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund to restore historic trolleybus network and bring electric transport back to the Museum.
To complete the project, we now need to raise a further £120,000 by March 2027.
This ambitious project will restore three locally built trolleybuses, renew essential overhead infrastructure, and extend the route through the Museum's 1940s-60s High Street - creating the only experience in the UK where historic trolleybuses operate within a fully immersive mid-20th century streetscape.
Visitors will once again be able to travel through the Black Country's past aboard authentic electric vehicles, passing landmarks that once part of their original route including the Elephant & Castle Pub. Dudley Weighbridge and Burgins Newsagents.
What the project will deliver:
The project will:
• Restore three historic trolleybuses to full working order
• Renew and replace essential overhead infrastructure
• Extend the route into the 1940s-60s High Street, reconnecting the vehicles with an authentic streetscape
• Safeguard a nationally significant piece of Black Country transport heritage
• Support sustainable transport using zero-emission electric vehicles
• Help secure the long-term future and resilience of the Museum
Built in Wolverhampton and Walsall, these vehicles represent the Black Country's important contribution to Britain's transport and manufacturing history. Without urgent restoration work, key parts of the network risk permanent loss.
How you can help
This is a rare opportunity to restore not just vehicles, but a living heritage experience for hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.
With your support we can bring the story of electric transport vividly back to life and preserve this unique part of the Black Country's heritage for future generations.
