Author: larrabee

In July of 1999 – TMS acquired 1957 Canadian Car Brill CD52A #3404. Along with it’s mate #3405 it was retired from BC Hydro and later became a Vancouver/Victoria Free Shopper bus. The buses were rescued by Scott McCormack and Norm Smith at Saanich Historical Society and donated to TMS.

#3404 is painted in the white livery with BC Hydro blue and green stripe and BC Hydro logo. It has made many appearances in movies and TV shows over the years.

In the fall of 2022, we moved #3404 to storage in the Fraser Valley and protected it with a good RV cover. The cover was very successful in keeping condensation and mould out of the bus. Last summer we removed the RV cover to bring it back to Langley for repairs after it was torn in a windstorm.

On Saturday, we needed to move the bus over about 2 metres to make room to store another bus. The bus has not been started in 2 ½ years. When we moved out of our Burnaby Rosedale shop, we had to transport the bus by “flat deck/landoll” trailer. To drive it onto the trailer, we had to cut the muffler and tailpipe off the bus. You can imagine how loud the bus was.

In preparation for our trip last Saturday, we needed to bring 2 large (8D) bus batteries and two jugs of 40wt motor oil. Our crew consisted of our Mechanical Advisor Sean Keating, Langley crew members Milan Streit, Richard Dyer, myself and Angus McIntyre. Angus actually drove the old Brill Diesels when they were in service, and he knew the odd quirks that this bus has for starting and getting in gear.

When we arrived after an hour drive from Langley, I was dismayed to find that the inside of the bus has a bit of mould and condensation already. We brought the RV cover with us intending to cover the bus after we moved it but it was raining on Saturday, so we just left the cover inside the bus to wait for a few days of sun. We will bring a crew back in a few weeks to clean the interior and put the cover over the bus.

The guys hefted the batteries out of Sean’s truck and installed them in the bus. We checked the oil and added both jugs of 40wt that we brought with us.

The engine in #3404 is a British made AEC Diesel and it’s located in the middle of the bus. Access is from a hatch inside the bus in the centre of the aisle. The shift cable is disconnected so you need to open the engine hatch, reach in to put the bus in gear by pushing the shift lever on the engine.

We were ready to give it a try. Angus reviewed his starting procedure, pushed the button and the old AEC engine started first try! There’s a knack to put the bus in gear as you have to shut down the engine and know when to put the bus in gear. The opposite applied to putting it in reverse. Remember I said the muffler had been removed? The bus was loud. Angus had to wait as the bus warmed up and the air compressor raised the suspension. He also had to be sure the oil pressure was sufficiently high to keep the engine running. As Milan put the bus in gear, Angus slowly moved the bus forward. The first time it had moved in 2 ½ years! We had to jockey the bus back and forth to position the bus properly.

After that, we turned to our 1976 E800 Flyer (Triesel). TMS acquired this bus in September of 2002. The “Triesel” was originally delivered as a Trolley Coach and in later years was converted to diesel. The trolley poles remained on the bus to be used to de-ice trolley overhead. When we got the bus, it was numbered #V1109 and we had it repainted in the yellow and orange livery and re-numbered it back to the original #2649.

In June of 2023 we had Cullen Western Star do an assessment for us on the condition of the bus. I drove the bus from Port Kells back to storage in the Fraser Valley and that’s the last time the bus had been started.

On Saturday we needed to move the bus over to make room for #3404. This required removing the two heavy batteries from #3404 and installing them in the Triesel. After a bit of repositioning the shifter, the bus started on the second try. It was parked on softer ground and over the past year and a half, the bus had sunk a bit into the ground. Angus had to rock the bus back and forth a bit to get it out of the soft spot. Otherwise, the bus was easy to move.

Now we had enough parking space between #3334 and #3404 to park a 40 ft bus so since we were already here, we decided to fire up #3106 and move it into that spot.

We actually had to purchase #3106 from a broker as TransLink had a policy in place that wouldn’t allow the direct donation of any decommissioned buses. #3106 is a 1991 New Flyer D40 and it cost TMS $4,144. This took place in April 2010.

We had high hopes to use that coach as our main commercially licensed bus to raise funds through charters and excursions. The bus served us well for 10 years but eventually we had to take it off the road to deal with rust remediation. We also ran into a problem finding certain brake parts. The bus has been stored for 3 years and hasn’t been started since then.

Oddly, the newest bus was the hardest to start. The guys hefted the batteries from the Triesel to #3106. After a few futile tries, Sean and Milan finally got the bus started from the rear. As Angus put the bus in gear and gave it a bit of throttle the bus wouldn’t move until we heard a “clunk” as the rear brake shoes finally decided to release. This bus has a very strong engine and transmission and sounded great!

With a bit of manoeuvring back and forth we got #3106 backed into place between #3334 and #3404. After that, the guys retrieved the batteries so we could bring them back to Langley. It was time to relax and take some photos.

We are making a promise to ourselves to return in 4 to 6 weeks, wash all the buses and put the RV cover back on #3404. We might even take one of the buses for a road test. Possible story for another blog in the future.

An employee at Burnaby Transit Centre found a bus token among his father’s memories of his time as a driver at Oakridge Transit Centre in the mid-1960’s. He knew that Jack McKenna has an association with us, so he asked if Jack could find out about the token. Jack sent me the accompanying photo. I had seen one before but had no idea about the history.

Whenever I get a request to delve into transit history in Vancouver, I immediately turn to Michael Taylor Noonan, Rob Chew and Angus McIntyre who are all interested and involved in the collection of archives that we have at the museum. Angus drew Dale Laird into the conversation, and we ended up with an interesting tidbit about the bus tokens that circulated at that time.

There will probably be a newsletter article in the near future as quite a bit of history was discussed. I’m only giving you the “tip of the iceberg” here. Some of my information in this blog is from the discussions that followed and I may not have all the dates correct.

In 1959, BC Electric, which operated the transit system, decided to modernize by installing Grant Fareboxes (aka Grant Money Meters) in the buses. These new fareboxes could count the coins as they were deposited by assigning a different sound for each coin denomination. Along with this innovation BC Electric introduced bus tokens that could be purchased at a discount. There were only two types of tokens: one for regular adult fare and one for students that could only be used during school hours.

In 1965, BC Hydro became the operator of the bus system and they wanted to review the idea of fare zones and concession fares. At that time these blue plastic tokens were introduced. You can see a very small letter “C” on the token and those tokens became the first concession fare for children. More about the age restrictions and the cost of the tokens in a later TMS Transfer Newsletter article.

My question was “why plastic?”. They were a bit like poker chips and made no sound when they were deposited in the Grant Fareboxes. They also didn’t fit in the driver changers. They were sold in a small paper bag with four tokens. Was it because the fareboxes couldn’t be programmed with a special sound for a 3rd bus token?

I was able to report back to Jack McKenna that the plastic blue token was from 1965 and that it was for a child fare. It was very interesting to see the email discussion among our four historians. They uncovered a lot of memories of what it was like as a driver handling money while BC Hydro experimented with fare zones and concession fares over the next decade into the 1970’s.

We are proud members of Heritage BC

Heritage Week is an annual event that takes place during the third full week in February. It celebrates and showcases local heritage across the province.

This year, Heritage Week: Pastimes in Past Times celebrates the many ways people spent their leisure time throughout history, exploring how these activities have contributed to the cultural fabric of today. February 17 – 23, 2025

https://heritagebc.ca/events-activities/heritage-week/pasttimes/

We are very proud of our association with the TransLink Police Blue Eagles Community Cadets which is a program for kids between the ages of 12 and 15. They learn about Indigenous Culture and policing as well as life skills.

Pictured here with Evan Russell (second on the far left in the visi-vest) who is our liaison with the group on one of the many outings where we provide transportation. You’ll notice that we even programmed the name of the youth group on the destination sign on #9753.

When we acquired our 1996 New Flyer D40LF bus (#9753), we quickly found out that different generations of that bus might look identical but in fact they are quite different in many ways. Parts are not necessarily interchangeable. Those buses came with many variations of powerpacks and wildly different electronics.
Over the years, we have always taken up the opportunity to get bus parts if they are offered, especially if we could access buses that are designated for scrap. Over the years we have referred to these occasions as “Parts Raids” which sounds nefarious but is always done with the permission of the owners.
Our New Flyer D40LF is now 29 years old, parts are difficult to find and in fact we can’t even buy many of the parts we need from the original bus manufacturer. We were very lucky and grateful to Coast Mountain Bus Company last summer when they gave permission for Parts Raids on the final generation of the D40LF’s. We were able to get seats, body panels and glass but engine parts, electronics and accessories were not compatible with our bus.
We were particularly interested in heater fans. There are 8 fans in the roof unit that feed air for the bus heaters and defrosters. During the Christmas Lights Tours we discovered that only 2 fans were working on #9753. None of the later generations had compatible fans.
Enter Sue Walker. From our network of bus spotters, she found a New Flyer D40LF (former CMBC #7432) at the Vancouver Fire Department Training Centre. A compatible bus! However, it was in really sad shape as the Training Centre used it for rescue and victim extraction exercises. After some research, Sue found a contact at the Fire Department and after many follow-up emails and phone calls she got permission for a Parts Raid. We are very grateful to the Vancouver Fire Department for the opportunity. And it wouldn’t have happened without Sue’s unique way with people.
Sue turned the project over to Jason Sharpe who arranged assess to the bus. He talked to the Training Centre about “ground rules” for going on VFD property and what parts we were allowed take off the bus.
We were given February 3rd for access, and we were greeted by the first winter snowstorm of the season. Every window on the bus had been smashed and most of the interior was thrashed. It was minus 3c that day as Jason and I arrived at 9am. We worked on the bus for 6 hours and patiently removed electronics, front and side destination signs, two sets of seat frames half of the rear door and the most important haul: all 8 heater fans off the roof. As the wind blew snow flurries throughout the bus and our feet and hands nearly froze off, I think we got what we needed. To give you a good idea of the condition of the bus, when the VFD Training officer first showed us the bus he said “As you can see, we like to wreck stuff”.
We are very grateful to the VFD for their assistance. This Parts Raid will help keep our 29-year-old bus on the road for many more years.

John Day talks about the acquisition of the Flyer D700 buses and the beginning of the “FastBus” service. John was a consultant for the Transit System at the time:

The Flyer D700’s were ordered by BC Hydro pretty much at the time that the first NDP government was elected in August 1972. The new government didn’t have its transit plans started at the time of the order; Hydro management just went and bought 60 of them. There was some thought that it was to curry favour with the new government.

Why were these buses bought when the fleet was already big enough to serve the existing system? It was to make a start on converting the trolley coach lines to diesel operation. Whoa, said the government, not so fast. The Bureau of Transit Services was created early in 1973 and that idea was stopped. Instead, the new buses were used for service expansion into unknown territory, starting with the Tri-Cities area and the eastern part of the District of North Vancouver. The new buses bounced around the system a bit, including a few assigned to Pacific Stage Lines, but eventually all ended up in Kensington depot, which served the new Coquitlam/PoCo/Port Moody routes for many years before the PoCo depot was built.

The D700’s had a relatively short life on the system as they tended to fall apart. The power units from these buses were later moved into the bodies of the prematurely-retired Flyer E800 trolley coaches, to create the “triesels”, which created new-ish buses out of old. 2649 preserved by TMS was one of those.

Looking back, it is amazing that the buses were delivered so promptly, as were the buses ordered by the Bureau for the suburban expansion, these being the “FastBus” units from GM. These were transit specifications (T6H5308N) souped up for highway operation with Super-V transmissions and comfortable, forward facing bucket seats. The first suburban routes were implemented in August 1973, just one year after the government changed, which was quite an amazing feat considering equipment lead times as well as scheduling and even bus stop construction requirements.

Okay, even more for those that don’t know. The FastBus concept was a little different from today’s RapidBus routes in that the FastBuses usually did local work on some part of their route, usually the outer ends. The idea of routing limited stop services via a series of nodes (focal points) was a new one. It was a sneaky precursor, on purpose, to the rail based system we have today, with major focal points being established in locations which now house busy stations (e.g. Lougheed). Some FastBus routes (e.g. 980 Barnet) replaced Pacific Stage Lines routes while others (e.g. 933 Lougheed) were entirely new routes, running where BC Hydro had not.

I was personally involved in the design of some of the first routes. The Coquitlam local service was designed one Saturday afternoon after I drove around the district and jotted down some notes (though to be fair we had a pretty good idea beforehand as to where the routes should go). The routes have changed considerably as the area has become more populated and developed, but we had to start somewhere.

Photos kindly provided by TMS

TMS was represented by Bryan and Rhonda Larrabee and Evan Russell at the Transit Police Blue Eagles Christmas Celebration where Evan was awarded the Exceptional Support Award. Evan is our point person with the Blue Eagles as TMS provides transportation to the youth group. Evan schedules the drivers and works out logistics with the Transit Police. It’s a working relationship that we are proud to be involved with. Congratulations Evan, the award is well deserved.

The event was their annual Christmas Celebration at Britannia Community Centre in Vancouver. In attendance were members of the Blue Cadets youth group, family members, sponsors and volunteers. A delicious turkey dinner was served with a celebration cake and gift bags for everyone as well as a surprise visit from Santa.

The Blue Cadets are youth between the ages of 12 and 15 that have an opportunity to develop leadership skills while learning about Indigenous culture and policing through the Metro Vancouver Transit Police Blue Eagle Community Cadets program. Led by Indigenous Liaison Officer, Constable Kirk Rattray, the program gives young people the opportunity to:

• Work in a team environment
• Help their community
• Explore various career options
• Take part in a variety of activities
• Strengthen physical and mental health
• Meet strong Indigenous role models
• Increases physical fitness and confidence

Partners include: Vancouver Police Department’s Diversity, Inclusion, and Indigenous Relations Section, the Vancouver Aboriginal Policing Centre, the Surrey RCMP, Surrey Police Service, Options Community Services, Surrey Crime Prevention Society, Surrey Schools, and TD Canada.