D. DeLarge

Word is, many Canadian transit agencies didn't take much to the radical RTS design, so GM introduced what was basically an upgraded version of the NewLook, the Classic, for the Canadian market (some US buyers purchased them too). And even then, a few agencies opted to continue buying NewLooks as late as 1986.

That Orion I appears to be a 35' suburban model, 01.505. There weren't too many buyers of those, including among others a pair of Charterways units (sold to Transit Cape Breton in 1986) and a ton for Grey Goose Bus Lines out of Fort McMurray AB (which would be my guess). https://www.angelfire.com/ca/TORONTO/builders/orion1.html There's a Vaughan-area limo operator that owns a very similar looking 35' suburban unit (also of unknown origins), but that's 100% not the same unit.

There’s two there: 210 by the road, and the other 217 is buried behind the school partially blocked by a tent. There is security on site though, watching during off-hours.

I have a CN track diagram showing a siding there for Domtar, so it was likely an old Domtar factory when built. City of Toronto aerial imagery shows it under construction in 1971. A lot of industrial buildings there were built in the 60’s-70’s clustering around the new CN Toronto Yard (later renamed MacMillan Yard). Aerial photos suggest the same basic building was retained, but received renovation work to turn it into a bus garage (there’s Google Earth imagery from 2009 showing much of the roof missing/open). EDIT: before I forget, it was built to replace the old SW home base of operations at S&N Diesel/Tokmakjian garage (now TOK Performance), which was getting so crowded they had to park many buses in an overflow lot at a nearby logistics warehouse on Creditstone. S&N/Can-ar (both owned by the Tokmakjian group, which also had the YRT SW contract at the time) had 1) their own fleet of Can-ar coaches to maintain and store, 2 ) the YRT SW fleet to maintain and store, 3) they did lots of general heavy diesel work and 3rd party/contract repairs for other agencies and groups (GO, Mississauga, Burlington etc buses showed up often, along with other coaches, various fire trucks from local municipalities, etc). The new region-owned and built transit facility on Keele allowed YRT to get away from most of that and have their own dedicated building for storing and maintaining their fleet, and the 3rd party contractor operating SW would operate out of that facility.

Wonderland reopened in early July, so chances are those plans were communicated to York Region well ahead of time, giving them enough time to close up the Wonderland drive-thru site in mid-June. Someone on another forum reported two of the Wonderland units, 210 and 217, popped up at another vaccination site in Vaughan.

It’s “Retired from regular service”, which would be a more accurate description of 2252’s status. That’s usually what people mean when they say a vehicle or fleet is retired, especially in a transit context where an active vehicle can get sent out for service to haul passengers at any time. Chances are, 2252 won’t be putting in any appearances on the 19 (6) Bay or 90 Vaughan to handle rush-hour crowds like it used to. It’s all semantics anyway. Similar to the H4’s which were all “retired” (from revenue service) years ago despite some being retained as work cars and seeing very regular use on the TTC in work car duty.

The 20 had some odd shenanigans with it in the past. When the four SW 1900-series XD40’s were new (1903-1906), after shakedown runs they were pretty much exclusively assigned to the 20 along with the VanHool artics, and very rarely made it into any other route (except the PM 461 that became a 20 run after, which was also the only other SW route you could regularly find an artic on before the pandemic struck). When the 2000 XD60’s arrived, the 1900’s became free-runners and could easily be found on other routes (incidentally, someone shot a 2000 training on the 461 last year, but none have ever appeared on it in service to date). I believe I’ve shot one or two Novas and D40LF’s on the 20 last year, but the XD40’s seem to be their 40’er of choice.

2001 in service on the 20 today. Get your 02xx shots while you can...

Viva Orange has been running at least one artic on the route all week mixed in with the usual 40'ers. Today, all the units on Orange are artics. Earlier in April, they had been noted as running training runs with artics on Highway 7.

A source mentioned they saw 4024 heading north on Guelph Line today, likely bound for HCRY. Did they pick up another car, or are storing another for someone else?

Those look like they could be replacement units for the 23 YRT 200-series Van Hool artics. The fact that the VIVA 7200's might not be downgraded to YRT units could mean that the Van Hool artic fleet is on the way out.

1903 (SW-assigned) noted out in service this evening on the 165 Weston, its first day in service.

Negative, you're likely correct. In addition to 1902 being on the Rt.1, North-assigned 1907 (Rt.52) and 1908 (Rt.57) are out this morning (probably their first times in service as well). The Southwest units (1904-1906 so far) appear to be getting assigned the 20 on an almost exclusive basis, similar to how the SW 1800's always seemed to be assigned the 88 until not too long ago.

Both 1905 & 1906 (SW-assigned) are out on the 20 Jane this AM.

No clue, I figured it might have been a test code or exposure as its last location was the SE garage yard. YRT 1902 Rt.900 07-29-2019.bmp

Not sure if it's its first day in service, but 1904 (Southwest assigned) is on the 88 this morning. Someone else also noted 1901 (Southeast) out last week operating on the 99 Saturday (27th), apparently its first day in service(?). 1902 (Southeast) last traced to a Rt. 900 (?) on Monday (29th).

Much, much smaller - all the units other than the three scrapped (18537, 18538 & 18554) are accounted for going to other owners, with the exception of 18539. Not sure if that one was also scrapped, or if it's sitting somewhere parked. NC Dot and Larry's Truck & Electric got the bulk of the RB Leasing F59 fleet.

The source you're thinking of may not be the same source where the information came from. But, I'm sure someone will give them a look-see in time to figure out which is which... I'm not aware of any of the ex-GO units being scrapped en-masse except for the 3(?) that CAD Rail scrapped. Unless you mean the five that NC Dot had turned into cab control cars.

Sources indicate they are ex-AMTK 317 & 394 (which is which is yet to be determined, both previously rotting away at NRE), with the work done by NRE Mount Vernon shops. Most of the ex-GO F59 units that RBRX was leasing out seem to have found second homes by now (with the few remaining as leasers on Metrolink sold to LTEX a few years back for continued leasing), so obtaining some of those now would probably be a no-go. They'd likely cost much more than a pair of F40 hulks anyway.

I think D40LF 333 might be pooched, it hasn't shown up out in service for a good while now. 546, 547 and 623 likely done as well, as those have been MIA over the past little while (I suspect retired when the other remaining 500's were). EDIT: after a good long absence, 333 appears to be back in service (as of March 13th).

1819 (SW) showed up on the 85 Rutherford this PM. 1824 (SE) on the 303 too.

Brand new YRT XD40 1817 on its first day in service, Feb 1st 2019: https://cptdb.ca/wiki/index.php/File:York_Region_Transit_1817-a.jpg

YRT Promaster 1897 noted driving around today, so there's at least 8 of them in that series if not more (1890-1897).

Noted out today: YRT 1879 (plate 612 7BK) YRT 1893 (plate AX 57147, operated by Tok Transit Ltd) Are these for expansion or 2011 Arboc replacements?

New Arboc 1878 and Dodge 1895 were spotted out in service today. No operator data noted on 1895, but 1878 shows "Tok Transit Limited": https://cptdb.ca/wiki/index.php/File:York_Region_Transit_1878-a.jpg https://cptdb.ca/wiki/index.php/File:York_Region_Transit_1895-a.jpg