Category: Our Vehicles

Currently, Coast Mountain buses have a system called TMAC (Transit Management and Communication designed and manufactured by Cubic) installed. This system presents the Operator with route details, including on-time performance, control of destination boards.

Data for this is culled from Trapeze, software which includes features like route planning, timetable creation, blocking, runcutting, and rostering.

In the era before mobile communications, data was compiled from mainframe computers, and printed on paper. This was inserted in a polythene sleeve. Known as the “paddle”, it is still used, and taken to every bus when leaving the yard, though today, it is there just in case the TMAC malfunctions. (Although in cases of diagreement between it and TMAC, the paddle is considered correct, mainly because being paper, Road Supervisors can easily scribble notes and comments on the sheets.) Today, in this sleeve are various additional information pages, which add rigidity. In the past, that wasn’t the case, and a strip of cardboard was inserted for that purpose. That is in most depots — North Vancouver had a unique solution, as Jason Sharpe and myself discovered when archiving some paddles. Clerks at NVTC cut up expired plastic car card advertisements! Jason collected some of these and intends taping them back together to recreate the period ads!

(Back when CN provided passenger rail service, this car card appeared on buses.)

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)

1976, that is.

1976: Some photographers still used B&W monochrome film. It was an era where your prints were returned from London Drugs or other drug store, surrounded by a white border, sometimes with a distinctive “deckle” edge. Recently I met with Jeff Shantler – his brother Richard had sadly passed. Richard was an avid transit fan; amongst the items Jeff donated to TMS was a collection of photographs. Many were taken in the mid 1970s, and all but a few were shot in B&W. Over the next few weeks, I will upload them into our gallery — in the meantime here’s a few to whet your appetite. 1976 was a year of change for the trolleys in Vancouver. “New” Flyer E800s were beginning to appear, signalling the end of the wire for the first, small, Brills, the T-44’s.

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.

As Summer 2014 draws to a close, we’ll look back at the events we attended in our next newsletter. Meanwhile, here’s a brief reminder of two: PNE and Port Coquitlam Car Free Day, photos courtesy of Martin Wu.

More than 626,000 people attended this year’s edition of the Pacific National Exhibition — the 114th. On September 17th we attended the 2nd Car Free Day in Port Coquitlam.

Recently, David & Hannah wanted an extra special touch to their wedding day. They decided to transport their guests in our 1964 GM ‘Fishbowl’ coach!

They write:

Good evening All,

Just catching our breath after a better wedding than we could have ever dreamed of!

Wanted to drop a line to you all and say a big thank you for being such a wonderful addition.  The bus was the talk of the town as I’m sure you are used to by now and we will forever remember it as such a unique part of our wedding.

Thank you again and keep fighting the good fight to preserve this special part of history.  Hope to see you guys and the bus around the community sometime soon.

Thanks again, and take care.

Davin & Hannah 

Our fully licenced bus is available to charter for any occasion. We charge for a four-hour minimum, starting at $150/hr. Contact us for further details and availability*.

inquiries@transitmuseumsociety.org

*Time billing begins at our Langley depot. Because our vehicle is an antique, we may not be able to accomodate requests for travel on very hilly routes — for that consider our 1996 low-floor bus. Not quite as nostalgic, but it has a more powerful engine!