Charlie Brown wants historic Thunder Bay trolley buses preserved

A Thunder Ban man who spearheaded the restoration of a pair of historic trolley buses will press the newly-elected city council to keep them protected.

Charlie Brown, who is making a deputation at city hall on Monday Dec. 8, said the two Brill buses built in the Thunder Bay area need to be sheltered, and placed in the publics view.

The buses are currently stored in the city's transit garage. City administration is recommending they be removed because they're taking up space.

I'm hoping that the city ... saves the Brills and we get to store them until we [decide on] some other alternate display site, whatever that may be.

Space is tight at the citys transit garage, the manager of fleet Services for Thunder Bay said. With the city's acquisition of Lift Plus services (formerly HAGI Transit), the city garage houses an additional 25 buses.Jim Suffak says that's meant a lot of shuffling of the seasonal equipment the city actively uses.

Suffak added the transit division doesn't have a business need for the Brills and there's no budget within the city to build a dedicated facility for them.

'Everybody loves these things'

The buses were manufactured in Thunder Bay (Fort William) until 1954 at what is now the Bombardier plant.A total of 1,100 trolley buses were made.

The city has offered the two Brill buses to various local museums and facilities including Bombardier as well as museums and displays in southern Ontario and elsewhere in Canada, but there hasn't been any takers, Suffak said. The buses size and the cost it would take to display them are the main reasons for the lack of interest.

But Brown said the buses are an important piece of the city's history and need to be preserved.

Ultimately, we will get these Brills displayed. The public needs to be on these, he said.

Everybody that I've seen that gets on these things loves these things. They're absolutely fantastic.

Brown hopes a heritage committee can be struck to look at ways to preserve and celebrate transportation history in the Thunder Bay area.