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Old 09-26-2020, 06:05 PM   #1
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Clark's maiden voyage

Well it was time to hit the road. The wife and I had had enough of this covid lockdown and seriously needed a distraction away from everything. The bus is far from done but a good passenger seat, a bed and a bbq was all that was needed to get going. We finally got the registration and insurance issues sorted so a week cruising the southern Rocky Mountains seemed like the plan. We left The Fraser Valley early Sunday morning and headed for the little village of Rock Creek about 6 hrs east to meet up with some friends at the provincial camp ground. The bus handled the mountains far better than expected and pulled the big hills very well with us arriving in time for a late lunch and a few cold ones. The camp site was great but at the time the whole province was engulfed in thick smoke from the devastating wildfires in Washington, Oregon and California so with no sun and no opportunity to do any swimming or biking we decided to pack up and keep on going looking for new roads to try out. We ended up doing about 1900km on the trip exploring old mining towns and a few ghost towns from the 1800's silver rush. One of the highlights for me was a little town called New Denver that was a mining town and then used as an internment camp for the Japanese citizens displaced from the coast during WWII. A memorial plaque made reference to a smaller internment camp higher the in mountains called Sandon so off we went to find it. We arrived at Sandon and it was like an episode of Twilight Zone, an abandoned mine town filled with old buses and machinery. In its heyday Sandon was a major BC city and the first western Canada city with full power generation capacity. The original power generator from 1890 is still there and the two remaining residents keep it running.Click image for larger version

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Old 09-26-2020, 06:42 PM   #2
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what are all those old-looks? ghost town busses?
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Old 09-26-2020, 06:52 PM   #3
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what are all those old-looks? ghost town busses?
I was curious and did a little digging. They are former Vancouver, BC transit buses.
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Old 09-26-2020, 07:23 PM   #4
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So right after WWII the boom was on and 80 North American cities opted to use electric trolley buses. The Canadian company Brill was the major player building these until 1954. 15 cities in Canada used these buses and 20 were sent to Bogata Columbia. After Montreal ended their use of these buses a deal was made with Mexico City and a large part of the Montreal fleet was sent to Mexico and used for many more years. The Vancouver fleet of almost 300 was retired in 1984 and sold to a local scrap yard. The sole owner of the town of Sandon and a few other transportation buffs saved 15 from the scrap yard and have managed to save one from every Canadian fleet, they had a deal in place with a previous provincial government to have these restored and operated in Vancouver for the tourist season. Obviously the deal fell apart with changing governments and now they sit rotting away in the Rocky Mountains.Click image for larger version

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ID:	49336this is Sandon City Hall and Fire station, not much more remains of the town other than a few commercial buildings and the power plant due to several fires and major floods destroying the town.
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Old 09-26-2020, 07:34 PM   #5
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I'm curious if there's some nice antique fire apparatus still in the station.
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Old 09-26-2020, 07:44 PM   #6
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I'm curious if there's some nice antique fire apparatus still in the station.
We were only able to access part of that building which housed the jail and was being used as the information centre and for selling some tourist items. The current operator and owner of the town is a man in his late 60's who grew up there visiting his grand parents as a young boy. He became good friends of the owner of the mine company that owned the town and when silver prices tanked and they decided to abandon the mine he made a deal to buy it and try to preserve what he could.
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Old 09-30-2020, 05:52 PM   #7
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The original power generator from 1890 is still there and the two remaining residents keep it running.Attachment 49332
The Seasme Street song popped into my head with this picture...
"One of these busses is not like the other..."

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So right after WWII the boom was on and 80 North American cities opted to use electric trolley buses. The Canadian company Brill was the major player building these until 1954. 15 cities in Canada used these buses and 20 were sent to Bogata Columbia. After Montreal ended their use of these buses a deal was made with Mexico City and a large part of the Montreal fleet was sent to Mexico and used for many more years. The Vancouver fleet of almost 300 was retired in 1984 and sold to a local scrap yard. The sole owner of the town of Sandon and a few other transportation buffs saved 15 from the scrap yard and have managed to save one from every Canadian fleet, they had a deal in place with a previous provincial government to have these restored and operated in Vancouver for the tourist season. Obviously the deal fell apart with changing governments and now they sit rotting away in the Rocky Mountains.Attachment 49336this is Sandon City Hall and Fire station, not much more remains of the town other than a few commercial buildings and the power plant due to several fires and major floods destroying the town.
That is awesome! I'm going to have to add this to my road trip ideas when I retire next year! I could absolutely see retrofitting one of these 8.3 Cummins into one of those busses for a cool highway runner!
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Old 09-30-2020, 09:51 PM   #8
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Thanks Jack
Now I've got Sesame Street struck in my head
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Old 09-30-2020, 11:20 PM   #9
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We spent some time in BC and absolutely loved it there. The topography outside of the city limits is beautiful. Heck, BC is beautiful! I am sure it will become a destination for us once we get on the road.
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Old 10-01-2020, 12:57 AM   #10
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I have only been in southern Alberta where my daughter lives, but it is beautiful in the spring. Ventured up to Calgary to pick up another daughter from the airport, but it was after dark so not much to see. Well get there eventually, maybe cross paths with you when we do.
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Old 10-01-2020, 02:15 AM   #11
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I sure hope you mentioned to the owner of the town that there is a group of like-minded folks right here on this site that would love to own the buses should he want to unload a few.
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Old 10-01-2020, 10:12 AM   #12
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Nice report. Thanks. We need to do more of these.
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Old 10-01-2020, 06:51 PM   #13
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Hey JackE
Thanks again for the Sesame Street tune in my skull, hoping this will square us up. Haha Click image for larger version

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Old 10-01-2020, 06:55 PM   #14
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Nice report. Thanks. We need to do more of these.
Jack
Thanks Jack
Hope there's more to follow soon.
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Old 10-01-2020, 06:57 PM   #15
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I sure hope you mentioned to the owner of the town that there is a group of like-minded folks right here on this site that would love to own the buses should he want to unload a few.

I know of more than a few that would love to own those old-looks.. and restore them original and not convert them...
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Old 10-01-2020, 09:03 PM   #16
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I know of more than a few that would love to own those old-looks.. and restore them original and not convert them...
Hey Chris how you doing? Ya they sure are beautiful buses, would be a fantastic resto. When they thought they had a deal to get this project off the ground the initial estimate was $300,000+ per unit for restoration to put back in service for tourist trade in Vancouver. It would be so amazing to see these back on the road, my wife remembers dropping coins in them in Montreal 45 years ago.

Cheers
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Old 10-01-2020, 09:07 PM   #17
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I sure hope you mentioned to the owner of the town that there is a group of like-minded folks right here on this site that would love to own the buses should he want to unload a few.
I made sure they knew there would more bus nuts crawling up that mountain to have a look. Amazing people doing a great thing trying to keep that towns memory going. They even have a few camping sites around the town to rent out for a couple bucks a night. Great way to spend a couple days exploring.
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Old 10-01-2020, 11:01 PM   #18
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New Denver is Beautiful! We miss being able to come up to BC and look forward to coming back up when we get or SH_T together down here. I was fortunate to do a backcountry ski trip just North of there in Nakusp last winter before thing went sideways. Drove up and back in a whiteout at night with snow berms taller than buses on each side of the road
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Old 10-02-2020, 12:53 AM   #19
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Hey JackE
Thanks again for the Sesame Street tune in my skull, hoping this will square us up. Haha Attachment 49513
That’s pretty rude!!! I don’t partake of adult beverages, but if that tastes anything like the real thing, it’s probably a good thing I don’t! There would be too many cold Canadian nights being warmed by that bottle!

One trip goal with the bus is to get to Nanaimo for some genuine Nanaimo bars.
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Old 10-02-2020, 09:42 AM   #20
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New Denver is Beautiful! We miss being able to come up to BC and look forward to coming back up when we get or SH_T together down here. I was fortunate to do a backcountry ski trip just North of there in Nakusp last winter before thing went sideways. Drove up and back in a whiteout at night with snow berms taller than buses on each side of the road
Yes it is such an amazing area to see, so glad we took the opportunity to take the roads less traveled. We spent the night in Nakusp before heading to Sandon and ended up camping on a pull out on the side of the highway as all the campgrounds were still full even mid September. I really hope we can get all this behind us, get the border open and you can get the Rosa bus up there cruising soon.
Take care and stay safe
Curtis
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