Opening the hood of our TDH4512 coach, #730, it has been evident for some time that there is an oil leak somewhere. We have tried to monitor the situation, and keep it under control. But it has become worse, so we have decided the time has come to investigate and hopefully rectify the cause. TMS Mechanical Advisor Sean Keating and TMS President Bryan Larrabee estimate it could take up to 10 weeks to diagnose and fix. For the last few remaining “Car Free Days”, TDH4519 #4612 has been pressed into service as a substitute for #730.
It is not ideal — 730 is our museum bus, but the reaction of people seeing the replacement “Fishbowl” 4612 is overwhelming positive, mainly we suspect because many remember the classic GM bus from their youth. This bodes well for our ongoing project to convert big-sister “Fishbowl” #4107 into a new museum display bus.
TMS will begin exploring the possibility of acquiring a third “Fishbowl” — this time a 1976-build T6H4523N. Coach #5631 was delivered to Kensington Transit Centre, and then bounced around to Oakridge, Surrey and Burnaby. Our database has a note to say this bus was the first repainted into BCT colours. It became #5509 in the 1996 remunbering scheme. It’s unclear if it ran for TransLink: around 1999 it passed to VECTOR, an organization of amateur radio volunteers as a mobile operations centre. Its’ role at TMS is undecided as yet. Initially the plan is to use it as a storage facility at one of our satellite depots in the Fraser Valley.
Finally, a note about upcoming “fan-trips” and excursions: we’ll be offering a unique Halloween tour aboard #9753 on October 26th. Christmas Lights Tours are scheduled for Dec 13, 14, 20, and 21st. Coach #9753 is our 1996 New Flyer D40LF.