Last post, our mechanical consultant, Lawrence Walker, gave a few details about the maintenance of our eldest bus (indeed, BC’s eldest functioning bus), the 1937 Hayes ‘Teardrop’.

For this post, I talked with him about the project. He kindly filled in a few more details. Despite the “star” status of the vehicle in our collection, we have not had the time or resources to fully maintain it. As it was not being driven, little harm was done. But that is about to change. It will be its 90th birthday in 2027, and we would like it to hit the road again.

The project, sparked by TMS President Bryan Larrabee, seems to have found its catalyst in Lawrence, though he will strongly deny that. We can only hope that he’ll recognize his role!

Not so much work done, more exploring because
we have no manuals for the bus. (Lawrence Walker)

Lawrence admits we have to take this slowly — we only have one manual for the coach, and that’s for the clutch. So for now, the “work” is just examining the bus to see what work is needed — and exploring how to do it! As we pointed out in the last blog, Lawrence has realized that the steering box will need some maintenance, but gaining access may be difficult.

This week he told me that on further examination, he could see fluid leaking from the box. Now you may think that was a bad thing, but no! Lawrence says that may make the overhaul easier: the presence of fluid shows there may not be major damage due to the hardening of fluid. And, he has now discovered the presence of a grease nipple and tube attached to the box.

The front wheels of the coach will have to be removed: both king pins show wear. Our maintenance team will then move onto the drums, brakes, rear differential and electrical wiring. Lawrence says the underside of the bus is ‘more of a truck than bus.’ He has reached out to the BC Truck Museum for help with the Hercules YXC engine and Timken axle.

Mostly (we) need a corporate sponsor or rich benefactor to help fund people to do the much needed work or help us invent a time machine to bring some one back who knows something about this bus. (Lawrence Walker)

Halloween Tour

Also this past Saturday, we operated our second annual “Halloween Tour”. The route was planned by Maxwell Chang and Milan Streit.

Sue & Lawrence Walker acted as hosts, while coach 9753, suitably decorated by Milan Streit, was driven by Austin O’Keefe. Fantastic organisation guys! Twenty five “Wanderhaunts” were treated to a three hour tour of Surrey’s best decorated houses and buildings. (Tour photos courtesy Jacob Rubin.)

How do you overhaul the steering box?

In our technical library are many hundreds (if not thousnads) of service manuals, technical documents and how-tos for the vehicles we own (and some we don’t!). But there is one bus for which we have almost no documentation: our 1937 Hayes-Anderson ‘Teardrop’. And so when our mechanical advisor Lawrence Walker was asked “how to remove to steering box for overhaul”, he knew there would not be a simple answer.

It had been determined that there was no access available from underneath the vehicle. Lawrence then removed the radiator grill and road-side headlight to view the positioning of the box. His theory? the body was built around the steering box. Not good news. But he noticed that on that on the engine firewall in the driver’s compartment was a oddly positioned access panel. He believes that another unlucky mechanic had been tasked in years gone by with overhauling the steering box. Did they cut the panel? Were they successful in overhauling the box? Or was the panel cut and then it became evident the steering box was still unaccessible? That is for Lawrence to find out!

(Above from left: the steering box can be seen through the cutout to the right of the radiator. The view from the headlight opening. 2nd/3rd row: The panel in the firewall.)

This episode is probably the first of many as we prepare the Hayes for its 90th birthday in 2027. The bus can be driven, but it is not roadworthy. TMS would very much like to put the bus on public display during the celebration. Would you like to help accomplish this?

We are looking for someone who can oversee the restoration. Only a partial mechanical assessment of the coach has been completed. We have identified issues with steering, front end, oil leakage, and electrical wiring problems. Our goal by mid 2027 is to be able to drive the bus to shows and events in the Metro area (avoiding high speed running on freeways.)

The scope of the volunteer restoration manager would include assembling a small team of advisors; assessing the mechanical problems; proposing an action plan; sourcing parts or find machine shops able to fabricate parts.

Passionate about Hayes trucks? Or have project management experience? Please contact the TMS President, Bryan Larrabee (president@transitmuseumsociety.org)

You can read more in this document

Thank you for reading! Long live the oldest (operating) bus in BC!

Last Saturday, October 25th 2025 was the premiere of a documentary film entitled “The Bus Driver.” You may recognize the operator concerned – long time TMS member Angus McIntyre!

“(The film) tells the story of an extraordinary man who dedicated his life to his passion for buses. From an early age to this date his interest has not changed. Besides his passion for driving the buses he also documented the changes in
transportation history through the lens of his camera. His motto was to preserve the moment in time and space that will not be repeated.”

Hossein Fani & Milos Jakovic (Filmmakers)

MILOS JAKOVIC and HOSSEIN FANI are awards winning independent documentary filmmakers, story tellers and urbanists that have been in love with urban and architecture inspired topics. Their documentaries engage, educate
and impact audience in a knowledgeable way.

“We are trying to give broader space for audience to re-think the reality and get academic knowledge on subject matter. We believe there are an infinite number of urban subjects to explore, and we are determined to continue creating the art of urban observation.”

Hossein Fani & Milos Jakovic (Filmmakers)

The event was attended by TMS President Bryan Larrabee with TMS Member Rhonda Larrabee.

“There was quite a large crowd in attendance. And the film was awesome. So proud of him.”

Rhonda Larrabee

The film is available on DVD. Contact micatonac@hotmail.com for details!

TMS member Angus McIntyre retired from Coast Mountain Bus Co. in 2010. His career as a bus driver spanned forty-one years. During that time he witnessed many changes in Metro Vancouver’s transit, its organization, its equipment. Not to mention the myriad people he helped live their lives, some through notable and memorable episodes.

Now, Angus recounts his experiences in a new documentary film by Hossein Fani & Milos Jakovic. The premiere takes place on October 11th at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre Auditorium. Admission is free, but you must reserve your seat!

John Day writes about the BC Transit Society which was a predecessor of our Transit Museum Society.

Before the Transit Museum Society, there was the “BC Transit Society”. We even attempted to incorporate it but the name was not allowed as you cannot use “BC” in a name if it might be confused for a government entity. This was long before BC Transit came into being.

The club was quite active though with very few members as it was not really a “thing” to be a bus fan in the 60’s. We did put out a fairly decent monthly magazine “Canadian Coach”, which morphed into Transit Canada when it was discovered that there was another “Canadian Coach” magazine dedicated to athletic coaches. Publication of that magazine moved to Toronto after no-one in Vancouver was willing to take it on; some of the players from that day are still active in the CTHF.

And we did fantrips. One of the simpler events was a visit paid to the 39th & Cartier firehall one day to have the Hayes rolled out for us. Yes, THE Hayes in her old incarnation. Had it not been sold to the fire department there is no doubt it wouldn’t have survived.

 

The club also attempted to save a vehicle or two, without success I’m afraid. We did acquire M.89 (aka 3189), the very first of the post-war Twin Coaches delivered to BCER and the very first bus to wear the all-over cream livery (predating even the trolley coach No. 2001). Storage was an issue, we moved from gas station to gas station and struggled to find the $25/month rent. Eventually it was moved to a farm on Sea Island but the locals found it and thoroughly trashed the bus, which was sold for scrap.

Our members included Brian Kelly, Peter Cox, Wally Young, Ian Graham, Angus, myself.   Peter was the master photographer in the group and he taught the rest of us quite a bit.

This past weekend, we received a collection of transit artefacts. After a family member passed, relatives cleared out a storage locker. We are still cataloguing the items, but there were some 35mm slides. I have digitized them and I am posting some here. The views I have chosen are of Larwill Park Bus Terminal which was at the intersection of Dunsmuir and Cambie Sts, across from the rear of the Queen Elizabeth theatre.

“The Larwill Park bus terminal in Vancouver was opened in 1947. It was constructed by Charles Bentall of the Dominion Construction Company and was considered the most modern bus depot in Canada at the time. The terminal served Pacific Stage Lines, Greyhound, Squamish Coach Lines, and others until it was closed in 1993, when operations moved to Pacific Central Station.” (They Paved Paradise and put up a Parking Lot: Larwill Park | Eve Lazarus)

Unfortunately, the transparencies are in very sad shape — the colours are faded, perhaps the result of the poor storage conditions. Why post them? Because they show the terminal in its final years. And I believe this is the first time I have seen the beautiful flooring which includes the Pacific Stage Lines logo, Pegagsus, the flying horse. I guess that is one vestige of Pacific Stage Lines it wasn’t possible to remove!

The day was quite the success, with consistent foot traffic throughout the day, quite a few fellow transit enthusiasts swinged by the bus enjoying the event as well. Sales were hot also with all the Orion heritage tour hats being sold off. As day turned to night. It only got busier. With the echoes of tunes from the stage down the block. Good people, good conversation, good times.

(Ewan Streit, who also provided photos of our mobile museum, GM #730)

Lawrence Walker reports that 1975 people visited 730 during the event on September 20th 2025. Special thanks, as always(!) to our volunteers: Anthony Sherst (Driver), Milan Streit , Matthew Walker, Michael Penco, Teddy Sun, Rian Fatemi, Steve Goodman,  Anthony August, Ewan Streit, Aden Wong and Martin Wu.

A special visitor was Anita Zaenker. She dropped off a donation. She says: “I won it in a silent auction a few years ago but no longer wish to keep it. ” Thank you, Anita! For now, it’ll hang on the TMS office wall.

And in closing, we would like to pass on this item from Milan Streit: As part of on-going research with the transmission of our 1964 GM TDH4519, we replaced the transmission oil pan gasket and cleaned the check valve in early March. Unfortunately, the cork from the gasket is starting to distinregrate, allowing some automatic transmission fluid (ATF) to seep through. When the bus returned from the Fraser fan-trip, Jason noticed Rainbow puddles and we immediately checked the dip-stick which showed “low”. Myself, Jason and our maintenance advisor added around three liters as a temporary measure. The leak only seems to intensify when the bus is in motion. On Sunday, September 21st, we drained the ATF, cleaned the pan and replaced the gasket on the transmission oil pan.

You can see the oil pan under the transmission on 4612, looking from beneath, in the lefthand photo. Looking from the top, the oil pan would be near the red filter. (Milan Streit)

For bus aficionados, it was a fantastic weekend: on Sunday September 14th saw TMS’s museum coach 730 attend “Car Free Day” on Main Street. The Canadian Transit Heritage Foundation had organized a fan trip aboard two CMBC Orion Vs the day previous, and also on Sunday TMS operated a fan-trip aboard 1964 GM ‘Fishbowl’ 4612.

The Canadian Transit Heritage Foundation (CTHF) and the Transit Museum Society (TMS) were planning a heritage tour utilizing an Orion V suburban bus from Coast Mountain Bus Company (CMBC). The Orion V buses, built in 2008, are the last high floor buses in Canada operating for a public transit system. In the event, the tour was so popular that two Orions were chartered. The six-hour heritage tour covered some of the suburban routes (White Rock, Tsawwassen, etc.) where the buses were normally used. (CTHF).

The were many out-of-town guests for the Orion tour. So TMS operated a fan-trip aboard 4612 the following day. The trip covered some scenic spots along the Fraser River, including Westerham Island. It was organized by Milan Streit and Angus McIntyre (who also drove). Milan reports:

Happy to report all smooth sailing on our “Fishbowl along the Fraser” Excursion. All our stops were a great success, and we kept fantastic timing the entire time. We had 29 guests aboard. Some of the reviews coming back to me are fantastic, the out-of-towners were beyond excited for the opportunity and commented on the great look and restoration of the bus.

Over 4600 visitors climbed aboard our Musuem Bus, #730 at the Main Street Car Free Day. Our attendance was organized by Lawrence Walker (with help, no doubt from Sue!) It was a wet day, but that didn’t dampen the enthusiasm to visit the coach. Thanks to driver Evan Russell, and hosts Matthew Walker, Sue Walker, Oscar Kapsa, Hubert Leong, Teddy Sun, Michael Penco, Aden Wong, Martin Wu and Maxwell Chang.   

Thanks also to our photographers, Rob Chew, Aden Wong, and Lawrence Walker.

That’s a wrap for another year. We had 29,401 guests visit our museum bus, 730. (This was slightly down from last year’s 33,813. It is inline with the drop in PNE attendance.) The average visitor count per day was 1960.

One more stat is impressive. Total volunteer hours for the PNE: 492. We would like to thank our incredible volunteers: Aden Wong, Aedan Smyth, Angus McIntyre, Anthony Sherst, Aurora Powell, Bryan Larrabee, Rhonda Larrabee, Conan Burr, Evan Russell, Ewan Streit, Fred Bradley, Hubert Leong, Jacquie Sherst, Jason Blonde, Jason Sharpe, Jeff Veniot, Lawrence Walker, Matthew Walker, Maxwell Chang, Michael Taylor-Noonan, Milan Streit, Patrick Damian, Rian Fatemi, Rob Chew, Ron Hoskyn, Steve Goodman, Sue Walker, Taiki Yu and Wally Lee. My apologies if I have missed anyone. A special shoutout to Milan and Lawrence who organized the volunteer shifts, and to Bryan & Evan who drove 730.

The TMS volunteers were joined by Kevin Quinn and family (next to Lawrence with his hand up) on the last day of the PNE.

It’s that time of year again!

Bryan Larrabee greets the first visitors of the day on Wednesday, 20th August.

Once again we and our mobile museum visit the Pacific National Exhibition. We are at the same spot in between the Coliseum, Rollerland and Agrodome. Why not stop by and visit with our volunteers? The PNE is open everyday till and including Monday 1st September from 11am.

This year, pick up your “Next Stop” Summer” TransLink passport. With three stamps (all of which you can get by visiting us and the TransLink displays) you can get a free hat and some candy, as well as a chance to win some Compass passes!

Happy PNE!