2006 Goals with 22:
-Decide whether or not to change the restoration of 22
to it's original 1969 look
-Install antique Main farebox and acquire a Motorola Micor CB Radio for the bus
-Install new ETS logo of either the 1969 look or the 1978 look
-If the look of 22 restored is going to be changed to the 1969 look, acquire new
destination signs to be printed and install the original sign mechanism
-Find or make a complete set of red seat bottom cushions to complete the look of
the bus
2006 Progress
January 24, 2006:
The first run of my bus for the year was bringing it out for a bit of "Show and Tell" time. With a couple of friends of mine, we took 22 on a 100-kilometer trip around Calgary to show it off to friends of mine who got a chance to see my bus. The first stop along the way was at Sunridge Mall as we took a break for lunch after washing the bus down.
After our lunch stop, we took the bus over into the Deerfoot Industrial area to wait for the Route 32 to pass us by to have a photo of a Calgary Transit bus next to my bus. It seems like each attempt of trying to photograph a Calgary Transit GM "Fishbowl" next to my bus fails (November 29th, 2005 we tried to photograph 22 with 1103 passing by), so I had to settle for a New Flyer D40LF passing us by. Calgary Transit 7610 was the bus that we were able to arrange to have posed next to 22. A friend of mine happened to be behind the wheel of 7610 when we met up to his bus.
Shortly after the above photos were taken, 22 was posed for a photo inside of the Greenview Industrial area on 5 Street NE at 46 Avenue while posing with Route 3 - Thorncliffe on the destination sign. That used to be a Calgary destination before they changed it to read Route 3 - Sandstone. Edmonton Transit used to have a Route 12 - Thorncliffe back in the late 1970's.
The next stop for the day took us up in to the Huntington Hills area to stop by a friend of mine's house. Taking the opportunity to photograph 22 here, we were able to get a few shots here, including one of the serial plate on 22.
While cruising around, we had to make a stop near McMahon Stadium, a football stadium that is used for concerts, Calgary Stampeders Football Games, The location of the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1988 Winter Olympic Games that were hosted here, and more. The place where we stopped for the above photos was between Banff Trail Station and McMahon Stadium in the bus zone for LRT Shuttle service when they have to shut the system down for repairs. In the last photo of the series, it shows a close up of the bus stop sign using 22 as a background.
When we found another sunny spot to pose 22 for some photos, we stopped along Royal Oak Drive at Royal Birch Road NW in one Calgary's newest NW Community. This series of 4 photos was taken before the trip continued on.
After touring around Royal Oak, we stopped for a photo and snack break at the London Drugs - Royal Oak location for a few minutes while capturing this sunny photo in the parking lot.
The final stop for photos was along Hidden Creek Way at Hidden Creek Tc. NW along the Route 427 - Hanson Ranch off of the end of Beddington Trail NW.
January 30, 2006:
On this occasion, 22 was brought out for another trip around Calgary. This time we stopped by to show a couple of other friends what I've done with 22. The above 6 photos were taken during a surprise snowfall that started approximately around 10:00PM and lasted until 12:30AM. 22 is shown parked along 6th Avenue at 10 Street SW while I was waiting for some friends to come back out to the bus.
Later in the evening, 22 was posed for a snowy photo in the parking lot of a local Wal-Mart store again. After the store closed, the parking lot filled with a wet snow combination that make the parking lot slippery. The best part of coming to a Wal-Mart at midnight on a fresh snow fall is being the first person to drive in this snow. The snow was approximately an inch or two thick there as we took the photos. When these photos were taken, the bus looked like it was fighting a hard snow fall.
February 14, 2006:
Since the last time I had worked on my bus, I decided to start changing the look of the restoration to the 1969 appearance. During the months of February and March, I had worked on removing the fleet number plate on the front of the bus and drew up a template for making the silver ETS logo that would eventually go on the sides of the bus. Also during that time, I acquired a Main farebox off of eBay to install on the bus, along with a Motorola Micor CB Radio as I wanted to put them on the bus for restoration. The three photos above shows 22 parked in the yard with the fleet number plate removed from the front (It used to be on the right side of the GMC name plate) and the interior photo showing the speakers that I had installed on the bus for using during tours and stuff. The speakers were acquired from Ex-Edmonton Transit 368 that was scrapped earlier in the month of February.
April 4, 2006:
Well, after a long wait, 22 finally got the decals installed for the ETS logos for the sides of the bus, along with the small number 22 above the ETS logo. The bus was brought out to have cleaned for the charter it would run later in the week. 22 is shown in the above photo posed in the yard as it was being cleaned up that night.
April 6, 2006:
Today was day one of operating a shuttle service with my bus, the first official charter of the year where my bus was rented for hire. It was operating a hockey charter running between the Don Hartman NE Sportsplex in the NE and the East Calgary Twin Arenas in the SE. The bus ran for the following 2 days as well on the same charter. It was a pretty foggy day out for doing photos, but I came up with some pretty good photos. Abovce, the first 3 photos shows the bus at the Don Hartman NE Sportsplex, the next two photos shows the bus at the East Calgary Twin Arenas. The 6th photo above shows the destination bulkhead about 2 weeks before I changed the destination sign back to it's original style. In the 7th shot, this photo was taken as a "Fisheye" photo showing the bus at the Don Hartman NE Sportsplex again, followed by the last shot that was taken heading Northbound on 36 Street NE at the Rundle LRT Station.
April 7, 2006:
As with the previous day, my bus once again ran on the hockey shuttle service between the Don Hartman NE Sportsplex and the East Calgary Twin Arenas. Today's photos shows my bus in the first photo on 68 Street near just north of Applewood Drive SE while stopping for a washroom break and the second photo shows the bus heading northbound on 36 Street NE at the Marlborough LRT Station.
April 8, 2006:
The final day of the hockey charter was the busiest day of them all. The routing for the charter my bus was operating on had changed and was also being used on a charter from the hotels where the hockey players were staying at out to the two arenas. The rest of the day, the bus basically operated on "on demand" service where it would operated between either the two hotels and the arenas or just between the arenas only. The first photo from today shows the bus parked at the Best Western Hotel off of 19 Street and 19 Avenue NE, the second and third photos show the bus unloading passengers at the Don Hartman NE Sportsplex, and the final photo shows the bus heading back up 36 Street NE at the Marlborough LRT Station.
April 16, 2006:
Today's big task was working with my destination sign that I had for installing in the bus. After considering to restore my bus back to it's 1969 look, I was fortunate enough that I had held onto the old front roll sign from a 1967 GM TDH5303 from Calgary Transit. I originally acquired the sign in November 1995 as a piece of Calgary Transit history as I knew roll sign buses (a nickname that was given to buses with roller type destination signs instead of a digital or LED destination sign) would disappear from the streets of Calgary one day. It took me about an hour to swap out the two signs, wire up the new one, and install the new spacers on the destination sign glass to block in between the different parts of the sign. After working with the destination sign, I continued with removing some decals from the old E Transit logo on the silversides, removing the fleet numbers I had installed above the front door, driver's window, and the front of the bus, and installed the new fleet number for the front of the bus. Now my bus looks almost like it would have back in 1969 again.
In the photos above, the first three shows the bus missing the old destination sign from the bulkhead, the new destination sign resting against the farebox, and the old destination sign laying on the floor of the bus after it had been removed. The next three photos shows the bus from the exterior progressing with no destination sign being shown, second photo shown with the sign in place missing the rolls and the spacers on the glass, and the third photo showing the bus with the rolls and spacers in place. The 7th photo of the set shows my bus out on an industrial road as it displayed Route 6 - Killarney 26 Avenue, a Calgary Transit destination. And the final 7 photos shows the bus back at the yard featuring several Calgary Transit destinations including Route 53 - Centre Street North (A route that no longer exists), Route 40 - North Hill Centre, Route 13 - Mount Royal, Route 20 - Northmount Drive, Route 27 - Glenmore (Another route that no longer exists), Route 111 - Blue Arrow Glamorgan (A route that was discontinued in favor of the Route 108 - Richmond Road and the Route 112 - Sarcee Road), and finally Route 2 - Killarney 17th Avenue/Mount Pleasant. Eventually one day I will have a new front curtain made or splice in the destinations for Edmonton Transit for the 1969 sign the bus originally carried, along with acquiring a side destination sign that has the original destinations on it too.
This page last updated on May 21, 2007