Category: Our Vehicles

TMS has fourteen vehicles — far too many to accommodate in our Langley warehouse. So, some are stored in satellite locations in the Fraser Valley. They are not that visible and familiar to enthusiasts and public. This week we present two videos that’ll serve as a reminder as to how these buses look and sound.

First, we have 4276, our 1990 MCI Classic, photographed by Ewan Streit.

And then we have our 1947 Fageol Twin Coach, M852. It’s no longer stored in Langley, but in November 2023 while it was, Sue & Matthew Walker captured it being moved between bays. As a bonus, digging through our vaults, we have unearthed a video of it being driven on a test drive from Surrey Transit Centre. In November, 2014, Dale Laird and James Pearson tried to diagnose its well known gear change problem!

Lawrence Walker

I’ll start out with the first of the events on May 25th. The Hyack parade, sorry I only have a picture from Steve Gordon of Brian Goldie driving 4612 back from the parade.

Next also on May 25th, Angus took out 9753 to the Annual Salmonberry Tour.

On May 26th when all of us were attending our Strategic Planning meeting (which I count as an event), I had Anthony Sherst drive 4612 to the Museum of North Vancouver. I met him there at 10:30 and jumped back on transit to be at the meeting, leaving Jacquie Sherst, Oscar, Isaac,  and Rian.

On May 31st we had a Retirement party Shuttle Charter from Unifor that was canceled, so I pivoted the driver Ron Hoskyn to a charter request from TransLink. It was for a gentleman that wanted to take his wife on a surprise birthday charter. Pick up from home to a restaurant  on the west side.  She is a bus enthusiast.  I got Ron to buy some balloons and flowers from the Transit Museum 

On June first Sue Matthew and I met Milan and Ewan at the shop and joined Trev Batstone and Jennifer Norton on Trev’s last class 2 drive in the Pitt Meadows parade. He’s 79 and wants to quit with a clean record.  We had to see him off

And finally I had Evan drive 4612 to North Burnaby for Hats Off Day.  So there you go,  7 events in 8 days. Removed the front page of our schedule of events list in a bit more than one week! We won’t mention the months it took me to tie it together, (the entry form for the Cloverdale Parade alone was 8 pages long!)

It certainly does show the dedication and passion that our volunteers have and how lucky we are to have every one of them!  You’ll note that both Milan and Ewan Streit were at both evens on June 1st.

I wasn’t until I got home from loading 4612 for Car Free in Surrey last Saturday night that I realized what we had all accomplished.

Congratulations, everyone!  I doubt it’s a record but I still think everyone deserves a pat on the back. (As does, Lawrence for organizing these events!- Editor)

(Here are two pictures of the Surrey Car Free event on Saturday June 8^th, courtesy of Bryan Larrabee. )

He remarks “First to arrive on Saturday at Surrey Car Free Day at 7:30 am. Here we all are at the end of the long day at 8:30 pm.”

On Sunday, 26^th May, members of the Board of Directors and invited guests gathered to formulate a series of strategic plans for the future of TMS. It was organized by President Bryan Larrabee and Rhonda Larrabee.

After a quick and enjoyable “ice-breaker” (of which more later), the group was divided into two, each charged with discovering their top five topics concerning our future. The meeting then discussed the topmost area from each group: public recruitment/engagement and fleet maintenance.

Member Savannah Dewolf volunteered to champion the public engagement and recruitment plan – the aim is to make ourselves visible to more of our communities, with the aim of attracting more members, especially those with a mechanical or electrical aptitude.

On the subject of Fleet Maintenance, the group identified the need for a comprehensive survey of our buses – their deficiencies, strengths and weaknesses, and ease and cost of repair or restoration. With limited space and availability of personnel in Langley, with our vehicles scattered across three locations, there are significant challenges to accomplishing this task. Its implementation will depend of working through these issues.

We hope to release a full report for the membership in the coming weeks.

TMS Mechanic wins the Quiz!

As an “ice-breaker” to start our meeting, Bryan & Rhonds designed a quiz. The questions centered on transit and New Westminster. Richard Dyer emerged the winner, and received a $25 Tims card donated by Rhonda!