Calgary boy's love of the D40LF bus gets Calgary transit on board for his 9th birthday bash

While some kids hold their birthday partiesat a swimming pool or playground, one lucky Calgary boy got his wish of a party ata Calgary Transit bus depot.

Alec Hamilton says hebecamefascinated bytrains when he was only two years old, buthis passion shifted to buses after an older model D40LFpicked him up from school one day.

So when Hamilton heard hisfavourite bus was being retired from service, hegot permissionfrom Calgary Transit to have his birthday party on that very same style of bus.

Don't make them like they used to

Now at nine years old, Hamiltonis a walking, talking encyclopedia of the Calgary Transitfleet. He's such a diehard fan that he's even gone as aC-Trainfor Halloween.

Standing in front of thesoon-to-be retired bus, Hamiltonpoints out some the features of the older style D40LFbuses that are so close to his heart, noting how the older bus is in the "old Olympic design."

Even his birthday balloons werein the blue and purple colour scheme that stretches down the sideof the older buses.

"Another thing is how the route display is green,"Hamilton said.

"And that window on the back,that's pretty rare on busesexcept for the Novabuses over there.And then also there's a curved exhaust pipe which are only on a few buses."

About a dozen of Hamilton's friends piled on to the bus and sang a round of Happy Birthday before digging intoa pile of presents, including a miniature version of a CP Rail train car.

Community outreach

Russell Davies, manager of the transit fleet, saidHamiltonis so knowledgeable about the fleet thatsome additional employeeshad to be called into answer some of his more technical questions.

"He wanted to come along and see the bus before we took it off the road and we just gave him that opportunity," Davies said.

"It's kind of incredible and he's got a job if he wants one, actually," Daviessaid with a laugh.

Davies said a uniqueevent like Hamilton's birthday reinforces the roletransit plays in the lives of the nearly 280,000 Calgarians who use public transit every day.

"We know how important we are to them and every so often we need to let them know that you're important to us," he said."It's not just 280,000 people, it's 280,000 Alecs or 280,000 grandparents."

As for Hamilton, he's says he is already eyeing up some new favouriterides once the old D40LFis taken off the road.

"This is my favourite in the whole fleet, but I have some backups when this one gets retired for a new favourite," Hamilton said.

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