Category: Our Vehicles

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!

Mechanic Sean Keating aided by Richard Dyer (left) and Milan Streit (partially hidden) did adjustments on 4107’s front brakes after repacking. Next the process will be repeated on the rear wheels.

Earlier in the week, at the May Director’s Meeting, the attendees discussed likely candidates amongst our vehicles for future maintenance. The session was organised by TMS President Bryan Larrabee, aided by Rhonda. The meeting broke out into discussion groups to determine which of four vehicles we should concentrate our efforts on: 3106 (1991 New Flyer D40), 4276 (1990 MCI Classic), 3334 (1982 Flyer D901) and 2649 (1976 Flyer E800 converted to Diesel).

In preparation, Bryan provided each group with a short of history of work performed on each coach, and a list of known defects. Bearing that in mind, each group then discussed the merits of each vehicle and finally ranked the vehicles in preferred order for maintenance work. Bryan then assigned a point value, which when totalled, gave an indication of the feelings of the members toward each bus.

 

(photo: Rhonda Larrabee)

To some surprise, 4276 came out on top, followed by 3106, then 3334 and finally 2649. We should note that all coaches require work – participants were reminded that a bus with many defects of a nature that we could fix in-house may be preferred over one with fewer defects that needs to be sent out for heavy maintenance. Such may be the case with 4276; it has had much work performed on it but work on the transmission would probably need to be done by a company expert in working with Voith transmissions. Most of 3106’s needed work could be performed in-house at much less cost. So, while members may prefer to have 4276 on the road again, we may end up with 3106. Bryan has indicated that the bus chosen will likely become our backup commercial coach to 9753.

The exercise was valuable in focusing our attention on work to be performed in the longer short-term and provide feedback from the members be used in an upcoming strategic planning session (also organised by Bryan.)

This past Sunday (April 28^th), Jason Sharpe replaced the ‘stop’ lights on Low-Floor 9753. The replacement units contain more LEDs and so are very much brighter than the originals. Kyle Little took the close-up photo of what Jason found after removing the fittings. When BC Transit repainted the bus, the lights were not removed, so TransLink blue is clearly visible. But when the BC Transit stripe decals were then applied, the lights were removed!

And speaking of painting… Bob Webster, who has donated a large collection of transit photos from the 1940s and 50’s, also gave us a fantastic album of vintage postcards. The connection with painting? Well most from the early 1900s were originally black and white. They were then meticulously ‘hand-tinted’ to approximate colour scenes. The printing process was just as involved: each colour required a different printing plate. This gave the postcards their visual appeal – a limited number of vivid, almost unnatural, colours.

The hobby of collecting postcards is called deltiology. And Bob was known as a deltiologist. He stored his postcards in a beautiful album which we have added to our archives. As part of the process, librarian John Parento scanned each card – those with a transit theme have been added to our online gallery for you to view and enjoy. Search our Photo Albums – Transit Museum Society Enter ‘postcard’ in the search box.

(Looking down Londale towards ferry dock in 1919)

 

Hastings Street.. with no Marine Building and what appears to be the CIBC building at Granville

Also there is a view of the Lions Gate bridge, complete with a Pacific Stage Lines IC-41 Brill

The collection includes other views that do not feature streetcars – John will post those online on social media for others to enjoy.

November 2022. It seems a long while ago…but really its only approaching 18 months since we moved into our new home. Unit 808, 20381 62^nd Ave was the former home of Ninja Sports Club. It specialized in “Ninja Training” and Parkour. The two closely related sports involved participants travelling between two points in the fastest and most efficient manner. Ninja Warrior training also incorporated traversing the obstacle courses seen in popular tv shows like “American Ninja Warrior”. The club had chosen not to renew its’ lease and relocated to Kelowna. TMS member Ewan Streit noticed the photographs below on the club’s website, and decided to re-create the views.

Work continues on 4107… last week we showed you the beginning of work to clean off old grease from wheels and brakes. This past Sunday, Richard Dyer was completing the task. You can clearly see the difference between the “before” and ”after” views of the king pin, and the amount of material removed. Meanwhile Milan Streit cleans the brake drums and shoes.

April Director’s Meeting

The Director’s meeting was held at the Anvil Centre on April 5th. All members are welcome to attend — it’s a chance to catch up on the activities of the Society, and to hear and comment on our plans. But perhaps the most important aspect is the opportunity for the social “chit-chat” (as Sue Walker, who took these photos, calls it.)

(Appearing in the pictures: Michael Taylor-Noonan, Oscar Kapsa, Rob Chew. Centre: Angus Macintyre chats with Robert Farringer. Bottom: Ewan Streit and Dale Laird)

It was bath-time for 4612 this past Sunday. Ewan Streit gave it a scrub down in preparation for its appearance at this year’s Cherry Blossom Festival (Big Picnic). That’ll be held Saturday March 30th, 10:00a to 4:00p in David Lam Park at Homer and Pacific. And…. Could there be a fan-trip in its future?! Stay tuned!