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Annual BBQ

The Transit Museum Society wouldn’t exist without our great volunteers. Whether its working at our Langley facility, maintaining our vehicles, archiving our library assets or working on our online presence, we greatly appreciate your comittment to TMS!

To show that appreciation, we hold a “Season Wrap BBQ”. This year, forty-five volunteers and friends, were able to attend. The event was held on Sunday, October 4th. Volunteers were able to ride a free shuttle aboard 9753 from Patterson SkyTrain Station to suburban Langley! You could say she was a “guest of honour:” Inge, one of our points-of-contact with TransLink! So good to see you, and thanks for all your help throughout the year, Inge! We hope your enjoy the gift basket, a token of our appreciation.

We’d like to thank Angus and Shawn for their expertise with our BBQ’s, and Sue & Lawrence for organizing the event.

Sue Walker:

Most of the food was bought by Lawrence and myself, although we got some help from Save on Foods (big discount!). Wally Lee brought Hamburger buns from Cobbs Bakery, Shawn Benner brought Smokies from Bonetti’s Meats, Donna Chu brought three wonderful salads, drinks; Tanney who is Donna’s friend brought home baked cookies; Jason Sharpe brought cookies and ice; Anthony August brought Tim Bits; Suzanne Plummer brought cookie bars; Inge Bowles
brought assorted desert bars; Ron Hoskyn brought ice.

Special shout out to all my helpers:
Bernice,
Donna Cho
Inge Bowles and her sister Michelle, Suzanne Plummer

Lawrence and Matthew Walker for set up and take down and making sure that all ran smoothly; Bryan Larabee for getting all the gifts for the “Thank you Basket” for Inge Bowles, Richard Dyer for getting and returning the bbq and moving buses, Angus Macintire and Shawn Benner for cooking the hamburgers and smokies.

Special Thanks to Evan Russell who drove the bus to pick up our volunteers and then take them back from the BBQ; Sean Keeting and all other volunteers who cleaned the shop and helped to make the BBQ a success. Thanks to all our wonderful volunteers for helping in all different ways. If I have missed any one I am sorry.

The weather was fantastic!

Transit Museum Society recognized at Volunteer Appreciation event.

At a recent Metro Vancouver Transit Police Volunteer Appreciation dinner our TMS President Bryan Larrabee and TMS Director Evan Russell were recognized for their contribution and dedication.

The program is a youth leadership and Indigenous‑culture cadet program run by the Metro Vancouver Transit Police in partnership with Vancouver Police Department (Diversity, Inclusion & Indigenous Relations), Vancouver Aboriginal Policing Centre, Surrey Police Service, Surrey Schools, and Vancouver Police Foundation.

We at TMS would like to take a moment to thank Evan for his commitment to helping the MVTP with their Blue Eagles program. TMS provides transportation for the cadets to travel to various gatherings. Evan has driven the cadets to almost all of the events and has developed a strong rapport with them.

Pictured here are Risa Nakamura, Blue Eagles Coordinator, Bryan Larrabee, TMS President, Evan Russell, TMS Director and Constable Shiraaz Hanif from the Blue Eagles.

Now you don’t!

It is an unfortunate situation… we do not have sufficient covered space for all our vehicles. Some must be stored outdoors. As our budget permits, we are purchasing covers for those buses unlucky enough to draw the “short straw.” Our Triesel #2649 received a new cover before its trip back out to our storage in the Fraser Valley.

For its appearance at a private event, the trolley poles had been remounted. It was felt that the coach was being damaged by unattaching and remounting them, so we were able to source an extra long cover to fit over the overhanging poles at the rear of the bus. But first there was some necessary additions needed to prevent some sharp edges from damaging the cover.

Jason, Sean, Richard, Bryan and Anthony came up with some simple solutions to the problem.

Almost complete!

Done!

But this was a dry run… the next step was to take it off, pack it onboard, ready for 2649’s trip to the Fraser Valley.

This year was slightly different for the Transit Museum volunteers attending the fair: TransLink did not attend. But we provided a base for their Transit Volunteers to work from to publicise the transit authority. Sue Walker reports that that may have been the intention, but it was soon apparent that they and our volunteers were only distinguishable by their uniforms, such was the amount of mingling and helping each other out. Both groups enjoyed working with one another. Our combined operation was very sucessful.

“The Transit Museum Society, TransLink volunteers (and their organizer, Inge Bowles) were having a very good time working together. The volunteers really enjoyed learning the history of this bus and also more about the whole of the Transit Museum Society. It was unfortunate that TransLink did not have a bus at the PNE, but it was a great opportunity to for us all to work together.”

Sue Walker.

At the conclusion of the fair, Inge phoned her boss at TransLink, Dave Lewin, and told him that he had just bought pizza for everyone. He said great idea. Pizza was supplied by Urban Wood Fired Pizza on the PNE grounds . It was very good.

“Save On Foods from Scottsdale Mall donated 200 green grocery bags for us to give out at the PNE. We used these for any gifts, brochures etc that we handed out.

A gentleman from the PNE donated money to the Transit Museum Society  and received some memorabilia items.
Later on in the afternoon the gentleman came back and told us that he had lost his green Save On bag with the contents.”
One of our new volunteers and one of TransLink volunteers jumped into action and reported this to security. They also took his personal information in case we found  his lost bag.

With in an hour later the green bag and all contents were found and given back to the museum bus exhibit and the two ladies contacted the gentleman right away. Luckily he was still at the PNE. He was so happy that he made another donation to the Transit Museum Society.

TransLink and Transit Museum  Society working together. Love it…

Sue Walker

PNE August 22 through September 7 2026

A big “thank you” to:

Lawrence Walker, (Senior Scheduler), Evan Russell (Driver), Sue Walker, Stephen Goodman, Maxwell Chang, Isabel Herbert, Hubert Leong, Evan Russell, Anthony August, Aden Wong, Jason Sharpe, Aaliyah De Castro, Bryan Larrabee, Joshua Prado, Taiki Yu, Aurora Rose, Isabel Hebert, Daniel Dubas, Milan Streit, Rob Chew, Matthew Walker, Jeff Veniot, Tamer Elgher, Suzanne Plummer, Anthony Sherst, Jacquie Sherst, Oscar Kapsa, Conan Burr, Fred Bradley, Shawn Benner. Adrian Joyce, Ewan Streit, Jason Blond, and Angus McIntyre. (Apologies to anyone we have missed!)

Total Host Hours for the 15 days of the PNE 550.5

Total number of PNE Guests through Transit Museum
for the 15 days of the fair.
Total PNE Guests 2026 34,056 average 2270 per day
Total PNE Guests 2025: 29,401
Total PNE Guests 2024: 33,813

Many thanks to TransLink for another wonderful PNE, we all enjoyed working closely with the TransLink
Volunteers and their leader Inge Bowles.

Lawrence Walker
Senior Scheduler
Transit Museum Society

When talking “transit,” we can cover a multitude of modes: bus, streetcar, ferry to name but a few. The BC Electric Railway at one time also operated taxicabs, rental cars and carried freight onboard a fleet of trucks. But did you know the company even operated its own aircraft? If you didn’t, you are not alone! I didn’t until I was researching a completely different topic – on the same newspaper page from 1946 was an interesting item about a BC Electric airline.

Jerry Vernon, the President of the Vancouver Chapter, Canadian Aviation Historical Society, graciously provided much of the material here when I sent him a query about this.

For most people, information about the BC Electric airline would not be easy to spot: there would be no “BC Electric” designation. Rather it was called BNP Airways. The initials stood for the three companies that jointly owned & operated it: “B” was for BC Electric, “N” came from Northern Construction Company, while “P” was for Powell River Company.

So how did this airline come about? As the post World War 2 construction boom began, the BC Electric Railway Company resumed construction of its Bridge River Powerhouse project. This had been suspended in 1931 due to the economic downtown caused by the Great Depression. Civil engineering work was contracted to Northern Construction, a company well versed in heavy civil work. (Two of its most visible projects were the original Second Narrows Bridge in 1925, and the CPR Burrard Inlet Tunnel built in 1932.) While the electric power produced was largely consumed by customers in the Lower Mainland, a big customer was a pulp and paper mill in Powell River. The mill was owned by the Powell River Company which later was incorporated into MacMillan Bloedel Ltd. Common to all three companies was a need to access remote work sites; rather than each begin their own air services, just after the Second World War, they formed BNP Airways Ltd. In 1948.

The genesis for the airline though had begun a few years earlier in 1945, when a friend of Bill Boeing, Thomas Hamilton constructed the Malibu Lodge on Princess Louisa Inlet. To ferry in guests he formed Malibu SeaAero operating a Grumman Goose amphibious aircraft bought from the Royal Canadian Air Force. BC Electric and Northern Construction naturally had a relationship, but Powell River Co became involved because it was willing to charter a Grumman Goose that it owned to the two companies. But to do that, Powell River used Malibu’s charter licence. So the relationship between four companies with two aircraft was convoluted and intricate, and often aircraft were not available when one of the companies needed them. The three companies were unhappy with the arrangement. The answer was to buy out Malibu, and form BNP Airways. It operated out of one of the two early 1930s “arch” hangars at Vancouver Airport on Sea Island. One of these had earlier been the original Trans Canada Airlines (now Air Canada) hangar. There was a concrete ramp to allow the aircraft to access the Fraser River.

The Grumman aircraft were quite luxurious, having executive interiors with leather seats and custom amenities. The airline operated for over a decade, ceasing operations in the late 1950s. Over time, the BC charter airline business had matured; other companies such as Pacific Western Airlines and BC Air Lines began to offer custom air transportation service. Also, Powell River Company had merged with MacMillan Bloedel. That company already had its own airline operation. The era of dam construction by BC Electric was drawing to a close, to be superseded by local generating plants on Burrard Inlet and at Port Mann. The airline’s reason for existence was becoming less and less, and although BC Hydro when formed in 1962 inherited the BC Electric’s share of the airline, in 1964 BNP Airways was formally wound up. BC Hydro though did own one Goose and one Cessna on its own accord.

But the question about the newspaper clipping that started this trip down the rabbit hole still remains: in 1946, the BC Electric applied for a licence to operate aircraft in areas where it now serves with bus or trolley. “We applied to Ottawa for flying rights in the Fraser Valley and on intercity runs against the day when flying local hops is sufficiently advanced to become practical” explained Executive Vice President A. E. Grauer. (Vancouver Province, April 10^th 1946.)

A US Navy Grumman Goose G21 aircraft similar to those used by BNP Airways. USN – Naval Air Station Jacksonville photo CNIC 042527, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3433506

Flyer E800 (or is that D800?) #2649 is visiting the Vancouver area from our Fraser Valley storage facility. It is in town for a private function, but you may see it driving around Metro Vancouver! Because of space constraints it has unfortunately been stored outside, but appears that apart from a good scrub, it is ready to go.

So some may have already guessed that this coach is ex BC Hydro 2649, a 1976 delivered E800. Sometimes the best ideas don’t quite work out — this was the case with the previous 2600s. Take a new bus shell and install electrical equipment from Calgary Brills purchased especially for the surgery. What went wrong? Well, the linkage between accelerator pedal and motor control resistances was originally mechanical in the Brills. By 1976 the technology had changed and these E800s were designed with a hybrid system featuring an air connection to the pedal. Apparently this introduced a delay into the system which caught ex-Brill operators by surprise and many found it hard to drive without excessive jerkiness.

There were fifty in service but BC Hydro was uneasy about potential passenger injuries. The first solution was to rebuild them with modern (1980s) ‘chopper’ controls. Indeed one (#2602) had already been rebuilt with Brown Boveri Canada controls. But for some reason this was rejected, and it was proposed to order an extra 49 sets of chopper controls from Westinghouse as an add-on to the next forthcoming order of E901A/902 trolleys. After investigation this was rejected an 49 extra complete trolleys ordered.

The E800s were withdrawn from service, but then a fortuitous event happened. It was discovered the rear overhang on the 1973 deliveries of Flyer D700s was causing ‘ground strikes’ on the hills of New Westminster. Speculation was that this was damaging the rear frame area of the coach. Indeed one bus was so badly damaged that the rear axle departed the bus while travelling on Kingsway. (This may be folklore or just embellished, but that is why one coach became the Expo ’86 InfoBus.)

So on one hand BC Transit had 49 buses with no propulsion, and on the other, it had an equivalent number of low mileage engines and transmissions with no bus. Ta-Da! Inspired idea #2 — marry the two. Which is what was done, producing the ‘Triesel’.

The ‘Triesels’ were successful in the minds of the top BC Transit executives, though less so in the minds of the Operators who had to drive them. Though they were slow as molasses, they served their purpose of transporting people at low cost for over 12 years. But there was one more twist of fate for two buses (2649 and 2645, renumbered 1109 and 1110) both of which had been donated to TMS.

The new E40LFR trolleys delivered in 2006/7 had a feature that retracted the poles when they sensed they had dewired (and hence there was a lack of electricity flowing through them.) Unfortunately this condition was mimicked when there was ice on the line. Soon on a cold winter’s morning there would be many trolleys stalled on Vancouver’s streets because their poles had retracted because of the sudden lack of current. Until new overhead trucks could be delivered, one stop gap measure was to remount the poles onto the two retired triesels and equip them with deicing equipment. The fluid flowed up the poles and combined with special ‘cutter’ trolley heads, they cleared the lines of ice.

When restored, TMS also renumbered it back to its original 2649, even though technically it only ever carried the number before conversion.

None. It is the 1993 Ballard PEM Fuel Cell Phase 1 Prototype

This is the vehicle that introduced the transit world to zero emission fuel cell powered vehicles! In 2024 it was kindly donated to the Transit Museum by Ballard Power Systems. It has been in store in the Fraser Valley but appears to be none the worse for that, save for wanting a good power wash. (TMS member Bobb Williamson obliges.)

Well, maybe a few hundred at a time! TMS has inherited two major photo collections.

Norm & Dave Smith

When Milan Streit, Richard Dyer and Jason Sharpe purchased GM New Look 762 from Rick Norman, included was a collection of photos originally taken by his friends Norm & Dave Smith (Norm owned the sister bus to 762, 767.) Milan’s friend Mike Groberman has now digitized the collection. The photos, numbering approximately 500, were taken in the Victoria area. They will be indexed by Rob Chew and uploaded to our TMS gallery in the near future. Below are some samples:

Barrie Sanford

Barrie’s interests were mainly rail-based, but he also found time to photograph the province’s buses. His work with the Ministry of Transportation found him travelling all over. Barrie has donated these photos to TMS. Again, they will be digitized, indexed and uploaded in the near future.

You may have heard long time member and bus operator Angus McIntyre recount his early days driving trolleycoaches. You probably remember him telling that when he joined BC Hydro in 1969, coaches did not have a righthand rearview mirror. “If you wanted to change into lane 1, (curbside), you eased over gently. If you heard a honking, you backed off, and tried a little later,” says Angus. That was how drivers were trained to do lane changes!

While examining some documents donated by OTC Maintenance Manager Jimmy Wright’s estate, I noticed a diary that contained this entry: March 20th, 1970 Right hand mirrors fitted to all vehicles. In addition the entry also noted that this now allowed 4th-Oak buses to resume using the ramp from the Granville Bridge to Seymour St. Intrigued, I searched for an entry that detailed when 4th-Oak buses stopped using Seymour St.

I found it, dated January 30th, 1968.

SEYMOUR RAMP – effective this day, all transit services taken off Seymour ramp of Granville Bridge and routed via Granville, Davie, Seymour. This revision occasioned by traffic lane changes at the south end of the bridge which requires transit vehicles to operate closer to the centre of the bridge with a consequent hazardous lane changing manoeuver to the Seymour Ramp.

Was this incident the catalyst for fitting right-hand mirrors?

What we can say is that there was no legal requirement for BC Electric to fit right-hand mirrors to buses before 1958. The Motor Vehicle Act Regulations of 1958 codified the requirement that where an internal rear-view mirror was ineffective in providing a view of the roadway behind, outside mirrors must be fitted. Even the 1957 CD-52s were delivered without right-hand mirrors and had to be retrofitted. But there was no requirement to retrofit any of the Brill trolleycoaches because they were not motor vehicles. They were regarded as (street) railway vehicles. They did not even need licence plates! Only with the modernization of the Motor Vehicle Regulations and the establishment of ICBC in 1973 were trolleycoaches reclassified as road vehicles.

No matter what was the reason for the omission, one thing is clear: in the increasingly demanding traffic conditions of the time, the additional mirror reduced the stress level of the Vancouver bus operator.

Matthew Walker is continuing to work on his project to rewire the Hayes Teardrop. This Sunday he managed to remove interior panels from the front dome to expose wiring for the marker lights.

This photo ‘exposes’ a long lost feature of bus & coach construction: panel beating. General Motors and other automobile manufacturers were begining to introduce stamping dies in mass production. It was expensive and could only be justified when mass producing vehicles. But low volume production (yes, Hayes bus assembly was as low-production as you can get!) relied on manual techniques to shape metal.

The ‘panel beater’ was a highly skilled trade. Numerous techniques were used to bend metal to the required shape. Metal doesn’t naturally curve without be forced to change shape. So the craftsmen used leather ‘shot bags’ filled with sand or shot, hammering and mallets over wooden forms, and a device called an ‘English Wheel’. This stretches and smooths sheet metal between a flat upper wheel and a domed lower wheel, allowing the craftsperson to gradually form double‑curvature shapes like fenders and body panels.

The term ‘panel beater’ has now but all disppeared from the vehicle vernacular, replaced by bodyman or person. Panels are stamped, or many times replaced by fibreglass and straight box like structures that need very little bending.