Outside the new South Yorkshire Transport Museum at Aldwarke
Photo: Mike Greenwood

Introduction to the South Yorkshire Transport Museum	Vehicles on Display
How to find the Museum	Hiring a Vintage Bus
Special Sunday Open Days	How to contact us
Sheffield Transport Rally	Links to other bus and trolleybus sites
Photos of the Rally	Early experiments with a diesel engine

Introduction

The Sheffield Bus Museum first opened in 1987. Up until the end of 2006 it was housed in part of the former Tinsley Tram Sheds. It has now moved to a new location in Aldwarke, near Rotherham. And it has a new name: the South Yorkshire Transport Museum.

How to find the Museum

The new Museum, now renamed the South Yorkshire Transport Museum, is situated just off the A6123 on Waddington Way at Aldwarke. First Group's X78 service provides a frequent service from Sheffield, Rotherham and Doncaster to the Mushroom Roundabout. From there it's about a 20 minute walk to the Museum. For up to date travel information we recommend you telephone South Yorkshire PTE's "TRAVELINE" on Rotherham (01709) 515151, or visit the Traveline Yorkshire Journey Planner. (Make sure you have cookies enabled to use the Journey Planner, otherwise it refuses to play.)

This site also includes a couple of maps to help you reach us: one shows Aldwarke and the general area of South Yorkshire, the other is a more detailed map of Aldwarke. (Use your BACK button to return to this page.)

Hiring a Vintage Bus

Without a doubt our Most Frequently Asked Question is, "Can we hire one of your buses for our wedding?" For now the answer is unfortunately still No - but we are setting up a new operating company that will allow us to do exactly that. The plan is to set up a new company, provisionally named "Sheffield Heritage Buses". As many readers of this site will know, several dates for starting hire work have come and gone with nothing happening. This is largely due to continuing faults with vehicle no. 687, which has now been sent away for specialist repairs.

Those of you who can't wait to get married are advised to contact one of three other Yorkshire concerns that do hire out vintage buses. Keighley Bus Museum have a splendid 1956 half cab double decker in Halifax colours. Yorkshire Traction, based in Barnsley, have an even more elderly half cab single decker. And Wilfreda Beehive in Doncaster also have a vintage double-deck bus available for wedding hire, painted in Wilfreda's original livery (which is not unlike Sheffield's).

If you don't mind downloading a big Windows Media file (nearly 1 megabyte), you can see and hear the Museum's oldest resident in action. This is a Leyland Titan, dating from 1939, and previously used by Alexander's in Aberdeen. Click here to see and hear the full story (© 2001 Nova Television Sales - many thanks to our long time friends at Nova for permission to use this clip).

We are keen to encourage more people to join the Sheffield Bus Museum Trust. Members have free access to the Museum on "Special Open Days", receive a quarterly newsletter keeping them in touch with Museum developments and they also have the opportunity to take an active "hands on" involvement in vehicle restoration, fund raising or the many varied jobs that are essential to the Museum's smooth running. Other members join the Museum Trust simply to add some financial support through their membership fees. All are very welcome and anyone interested is warmly invited to complete the application form below.

One of the Museum exhibits, Sheffield 116, after restoration   Photo: Mike Greenwood

Special Sunday Open Days

Our first Open Day in 2008 will be Easter Sunday, 23rd March. Other Open Days scheduled for 2008 are 13th April, 11th May, 25th May, 8th June, 13th July, 10th August, 24th August, 12th October, 9th November, and 14th December. These dates are all Sundays. For 2009 we are intending to have at least one Open Day every month (normally on a Sunday), except during January, February and March.

Sheffield Transport Rally 2008

The highly popular Sheffield Transport Rally will be held once again at the Meadowhall Shopping and Leisure Centre Coach Park on Sunday 14th September 2008. This year's Rally Organiser is Dr Gordon Brooke, and you can write to him at 8 Holt Rise, Leeds, LS16 7QF, or telephone him on 0113 267 8506, or e-mail him.

This site includes some photos of the Rally in recent years.