Heritage rolling in for planned bus museum
New Flyer donates two vintage buses to group
By: Geoff Kirbyson
29/10/2009 1:00 AM |
Comments: 3
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New Flyer Industries is donating a 1958 Model T-40.
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And a 1956 Scenic Cruiser.
The Manitoba Transit Heritage Association hopes the donation of a pair of vintage buses -- including one used in the recent Don Cherry movie filmed in the city -- will help serve as a springboard to establish a bus museum.
New Flyer Industries will present the MTHA with a 1956 Scenic Cruiser, a one-and-a-half deck bus, and a 1958 Model T-40, a more traditional highway bus, at a ceremony at the bus manufacturer's Transcona headquarters Thursday morning.
"Our members are incredibly excited," said Alex Regiec, president of the MTHA, a non-profit group comprised mainly of bus-loving volunteers and current and retired employees of Winnipeg Transit, Beaver Bus Lines and Greyhound as well as bus enthusiasts among the general public.
The two fully-restored buses, which have been appraised at $165,000 for the Scenic Cruiser and $107,000 for the Model T-40, will be displayed at various community events from the spring through the fall beginning next year. Also in MTHA's stable are six other operable vintage buses, including a 1937 coach and a 1950 electric trolley.
"The next step for us is to start contacting foundations and private sector partners to begin looking for a building and establishing a bus museum in the next five years, similar to the London Transport Museum in London, England. A museum could not only show off our province's bus history but it would draw a connection to how public transportation contributed to the growth of the city," he said.
Both buses have driven hundreds of thousands of miles since they first hit the road around the time Elvis Presley was taking the world by storm.
The Scenic Cruiser was originally purchased by Thiessen Bus Lines in Winnipeg and subsequently sold to Grey Goose Bus Lines, which used it along Manitoba's highways for about 25 years.
The Model T-40, more of a standard highway coach, was used by the Royal Canadian Air Force in the 1950s and '60s and later serviced the Flin Flon area for Northern Bus Lines.
Neither one has been on the road for years but the Scenic Cruiser was used earlier this spring in a number of scenes in the Don Cherry Story, a movie documenting the life of the one-time hockey player who garnered fame and fortune as a coach and broadcaster.
It took two years to restore the buses to their original lustre, with much of the work being completed by New Flyer employees, said Hans Peper, its executive vice-president of customer services. This particular Scenic Cruiser is one of only four made by New Flyer's predecessor firm, Western Flyer Coach.
"In 1956, there was a trend to make buses a half-deck higher so passengers could sit at the back and have a more grandiose view. It's a style unique to that particular time in the bus world. Two (of the other Scenic Cruisers) might still be alive but we don't know at this point," he said.
Paul Soubry, president and CEO of New Flyer, said the company decided to donate the buses because the MTHA could make the best use of them, and it presents a great opportunity to share New Flyer's past with Manitobans. The company dates back to 1930, and even though it's the largest manufacturer of transit buses in Canada and the U.S. today, it's still a "bit of a secret" in Winnipeg, he said.
"Today, everybody flies everywhere; but back in those days, bus transportation was the primary way people moved around the country. We've been a big part of that," he said.
Soubry said the company has manufactured more than 23,000 buses since its inception and more than one-quarter of all buses on the streets in Canada and the U.S. are made by "this little company in Winnipeg." New Flyer employs 2,400 people, including 1,300 Winnipeg and the rest in St. Cloud, Minn.
geoff.kirbyson@freepress.mb.ca
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 29, 2009 B2