History of the bus
Ex-Edmonton Transit is a 1969 GM T6H4521, delivered to Edmonton Transit in a order for 15 of these buses numbered from 11 to 25. When this bus was delivered, it originally had a different style front and side destination sign and was painted in a red and white livery, as shown above in the photo of #2. The reddish/orange and white livery was used on this bus up until the late 1970's when it was repainted into it's current paint scheme of a plain white body with the sliversides, a black front, and the blue and yellow reflective stripes.
In 22's final years, it was in and out of storage, one of it's last times being stored before retirement was the summer of 1998. In the above 3 photos, the first photo shows 22 parked beside Brill 191 and GM's 24, 15, and Flyer trolley bus #224 taken in 1986, and in the second and third photos, 22 is shown being stored on August 2, 1998 just about a month and a half before the last time it was used..
The last day this bus was used in revenue service was September 17, 1998 as of the last date on the transfers in the transfer cutter still in the bus. 22 operated a morning extra as a Route 30 - Southgate/University and a Route 32 - Southgate/University as an interline. Although this bus was parked shortly after, there were other buses of the same age that still operated as late as the summer of 1999, a year after 22 was retired. Since the bus was retired, it had sat in the centre of the Ferrier compound mixed in with some retired TDH5301's, TDH5303's, T6H5307N's, and stored BBC HR150G trolley buses. The above photo shows 22 about a month after it was retired, photographed in October 1998. At this point, the bus was kept in storage until later on when it was marked as being retired.
By December 1999, Edmonton Transit taped a sign in the windshield that read "Retired - Leave Intact" and the bus still sat there until sometime around 2002 when it got moved to the back of the Ferrier Compound in the SE corner. It had missed two major bus auctions, one in May 2000 where approximately 20 buses were sold and the big bus auction on September 15, 2001 where approximately 55 GM T6H5307N's mainly were sold, along with 2 TDH5303's. The above photo shows 22 on December 23, 1999 after the bus was marked for being retired and mixed in with a few more buses. At this point, Edmonton Transit had moved all but 3 of the BBC HR150G trolley buses out of the yard to make way for the retired buses.
Then in 2002, it became one of the last 5 35 foot buses to remain on roster with Edmonton Transit, although it was in storage. A1 Auto Salvage purchased the bus, along with the 4 remaining 35 foot buses (#12 was the only other T6H4521 that remained on property too, 30, 32, and 34 were T6H4523N's that were part of the "last 5") and had brought the buses to their yard in late 2003. The two shots above shows 22 parked in the SE corner with the remaining 5 35 foot buses on November 11, 2002.
Originally for a restoration project of a 1969 GM T6H4521 from Edmonton Transit, I had purchased #21 to do the restoration process to, but because of it sitting for a longer period of time than 22 and that 22 was more accessible to bring home, I decided to trade off 21 for 22. A photo of 22 is shown above on February 2, 2004, shortly before this bus was offered in trade of 21.
On April 8th, my friends from Canadian Premier Charters and another friend of mine came up to Edmonton to help me with getting 22 prepared to run for the first time in a number of years. Most of the fun was trying to get fuel through the system, including filling fuel filters and filling up the fuel tank. After a bit of trouble to get it running again, 22 roared to life for the first time in ages. After we got the bus running, I signed over the paperwork to take ownership of the bus. The 4 above photos were shot on April 8, 2004 at A1 Auto Salvage when I took ownership of the bus, including the interior shots too. I later had the bus delivered to me at 2:28PM on April 20, 2004.
Special thanks goes to Peter McLaughlin for providing the two photos of 22 retired inside of the Ferrier Compound in October 1998. More drawings and photos can be found at Peter's website at www.busdrawings.com
Special thanks goes to Mike Dasher for the photo of 22 taken in July 1986 stored inside of the Ferrier Compound
This page last updated on May 21, 2005