Tramways in Bolton

Most of the first generation tramway systems in the South Lancashire area have been the subject of tramway histories with the exception of Bolton. A considerable amount of material has been gathered over the years, notably by the late Alan Ralphs who sadly died before he was able to put it into publishable form. The mantle has been taken up by Tony Young and Derek Shepherd, the former being persuaded by the latter that much of the research had been done by Alan.

Derek is an acknowledged authority on Bolton trams having driven them in his youth and restored Bolton 66 which now runs in Blackpool. Tony is an experienced transport historian and author. This is his third tramway history book - the first was ‘Tramways in Rochdale, Steam, Electric and Metrolink’ published by the LRTA in 2008 and the second ‘Tramways in Bury’ published by the LRTA in 2017. Tony admits that he could not have written this book without Derek’s enthusiastic knowledge and expertise.

The result is a detailed and comprehensive history of Bolton’s tramways, which closed over seventy years ago in March 1947.