Not to new members (although quite a few have recently joined after discovering us at our numerous summer events!), but to a new bus! Yes, TMS is now the proud owner of a truly “milestone” historic vehicle — the first Hydrogen Fuel Cell powered bus built in BC by Ballard Power Systems. It’s a heavily modified ENC National RE. We will have more about the vehicle in the coming weeks, but for now, we’ll just say that people at Ballard reached out to us to offer the coach to us. They needed the space it occupied for plant expansion, but they did not want the bus to go to the scrapper.
Bryan Larrabee writes:
“We arrived at Ballard shortly before 9am in the pouring rain. Facilities Manager Joel took us to where the bus was parked and showed us around. Ballard put one fuel cell back in the bus as a sample. I believe he said there were normally 18 fuel cells in the bus. They punched holes in the hydrogen tanks so that the bus can’t be fueled. The bus doesn’t have an air system so no air brakes or air bags. The emergency brake operates off the transmission and it was disabled so the bus can be pushed easily.
The tow truck was an hour and a half late so we took refuge in the lobby as we were all cold and wet. The tow truck driver was familiar with the bus but still had a bit of trouble hooking up. We didn’t leave the Ballard yard until well after 11:30am. We went out to the valley to meet the bus when it arrived. The tow truck and bus got there around 1:30pm.
Ballard will provide historical documents and anything else they can. They will also pass on the name of the person who made this bus his personal project. What’s next? We discussed it on the way back and we would like to go back out there with a crew and clean up the bus. We thought that we could pin up the sagging ceiling panels as well. Our idea is to do a video tour of the bus and add historical information to the narrative. We thought that we could interview the employee from Ballard who drove the bus at media events and test runs and see if he has any stories or anecdotes about the bus. We could post all this on our website so that bus fans will have a virtual experience.
There are a few people at Ballard who are very happy and relieved that we saved it from the scrapper. We are too!
And the “Ballard Bus” may not be a our only new acquistion! We are in preliminary discussions about acquiring 5509, a 1976-built T6H4523N, now owned by VECTOR. VECTOR is a organization of amateur radio operators. The coach has been converted into a mobile command centre for use in emergencies. Stay tuned.
(Ballard bus photo: Ewan Streit, 5509 Aden Wong)
