However the manager of the undertaking Mr E H Edwardes found the trackless trolleybuses of the time slow and rough-riding and deemed them unsuitable.
By 1928 infrastructure renewals on the South Lancashire Tramways - including the doubling of single and loop tram track and new tramcars - were indicated.
Advances in trackless trolleybus design such as lower overall body height and foot controls meant that its tramcar ancestry was much less evident.
The remainder of the system was converted thus: On 21 March 1934 the Nottingham Evening Post reported that the South Lancashire Transport Company was the second largest in the country with 27 miles of route and 46 vehicles[5] Although Atherton could be considered the hub of the South Lancashire Trolleybus network, this was an unusual and atypical trolleybus system[6] in that it primarily provided long interurban routes rather than the short urban routes with frequent stops which would come to constitute accepted trolleybus practice[7] in the United Kingdom.
These long routes on the SLT system connected somewhat scattered mill and mining towns and villages as well as some isolated collieries on the South Lancashire coalfield.
Additionally, on Saturdays from 23 December 1933[9] to early September 1939, the Atherton to Farnworth route was extended beyond Atherton to Leigh making it for a time the longest regular through trolleybus route in the country at 17.1 miles Leigh to Farnworth (Saturdays only)[10] In addition to the main services, there were daily shift and rush-hour associated "extras" as well as short workings (known to platform staff and local people as "Jiggers")[11] between the following destinations: The short workings at shift times and the "jiggers" therefore provided periods of intensive service over sections of the main routes.
Since the inception of the South Lancashire Tramways trams, all stops - both compulsory (Board of Trade) and request - being indicated by a white band painted on the green traction poles.
Local practice dictated that the stop was observed on both sides of the road even when there was only one traction pole with a bracket arm.
However during the blackout in the 1939-1945 war and as the white bands faded, Bus Stop signs and flags became necessary and were provided by the company.
This unmetalled section still included the tram rails around which the only paving was the statutory requirement provided pursuant to the Tramways Act 1870 (33 & 34 Vict.
For example some span wires were secured to convenient trees in the Boothstown area after the failure of traction poles through rust.
Occasional use of live but insulated DC trailing cables (jump leads) in the street supervised by SLT staff when trolleybuses had to be manoeuvred or turned short of their usual terminus during Whitsuntide religious processions was also confined to this company.
From its very first days as a tramway operator, the South Lancashire company had been obliged to provide electric street lighting along all of its routes at no cost to the local authorities.
In 1945 [19] the councils of Abram, Ashton-in-Makerfield, Hindley, Worsley, Westhoughton, Ince-in-Makerfield, Haydock and Tyldesley were in negotiation with the SLT as to apportionment of costs for installation and improvement of street lighting which was by then considered "deficient".
These tests sometimes included experimental vehicles presenting as a chassis with traction equipment and a rudimentary driving platform but no bodywork.
included the experimental and innovative Massey-bodied Leyland trolleybus in 1935 which was years ahead of its time, including as it did low step access, rear entrance and front exit ahead of the front axle, and overall low height but with improved seating.