M. Parsons

Nope. Rumor is a lot of retirements. Covid... Network Redesign that some just might not want to deal with... TransEd might well be looking to poach people from ETS too, assuming that they don't end up integrating their need for operators with ETS somehow. I had heard 125 originally, I was kind of shocked when the posting came out for 325.

VIN plates on Edmonton's Proterra's show a model of CAT40DP. Doing some research on units tested at Altoona, I found this: December 2016 40' bus has a model of Catalyst E2. April 2014 40' bus is a model BE40 June 2017 35' is a Catalyst 35, although, the model on the page is given as Catalyst 35 FC. This bus was tested in June 2018. In January 2019 another 35' bus was tested as well. This bus was only 5 serial numbers difference from the June 2017 test bus, but, includes this note: "Proterra represents that the CAT35PD is a Proterra platform model designator moving forward. The CAT35PD denoted the platform family, length and drivetrain. In this example CAT(Catalyst) 35(35ft length) PD(ProDrive). Also, as such, the CAT35PD is the same platform as the “Catalyst 35ft E2”, “Catalyst 35-foot E2”, “35-Foot Proterra E2 Catalyst” and “35-foot E2 Catalyst. For further clarification, “E2” designates 440kWh of on board energy." Also in the report: "The FTA noted in their determination letter, dated October 1, 2018, that “To achieve a Catalyst 35ft E2 configuration from a Catalyst 35ft FC platform, two underfloor Fast Charge packs will be removed (pack #1 & 2) resulting in four mounted Fast Charge packs in the same location as the two [physically larger] E2 packs.” Accordingly, an additional 2,300 lb. of ballast was mounted on the rooftop and an additional 1,212 lb. of ballast was mounted at the floor level inside the vehicle to the existing hard points on the test bus" So sometime between June 2018 and January 2019 Proterra moved to the CAT##XX model numbering. Personally, I think it is worthwhile including the battery capacity designation, such as "E2 Max" even if it is not apart of the model on the VIN plate, as that generally indicates the charging method and the battery capacity has quite a few options available and is a pretty significant feature. Proterra used to use that information themselves in the models it seems. For Barp, we've decided to call Edmonton's buses CAT40DP E2 Max.

Can you get her to sit down and read an article maybe? https://www.startribune.com/kitchen-fires-burned-by-bad-habits/100696189/

Real sources are better than anonymous sources. Any future electric bus purchases will most likely need funding from other levels of government. Given that the October 2019 Provincial budget removed provincial funding for a portion of the Proterra order and Edmonton had to redirect future bus purchase funds to cover the shortfall, that's not a high hope there. Federal, hopefully. City funded entirely? I suspect that will be tougher due to Covid. And even without Covid affecting budgets, more or less doubling the cost of a bus when a 40' diesel could do the same job might not fly well with taxpayers. Sure, they could buy less buses, but get them as electrics, for the same money, but then your fleet isn't being replaced. I believe Proterra offers an option to lease the batteries, which causes the base cost to be similar to a diesel bus. The theory is that the fuel savings from the electric bus pays for the battery lease. Definitely a compelling option. I'm pretty certain we will see additional orders of diesel buses. Indeed, the 46 could actually be that next order.

There's a reasonable chance that New Flyer's press release is just referencing the 2020 component of the current order being delivered which includes 2019 and 2020 funding. Perhaps even as a response to the large amount of Proterra/ ETS press in the last few weeks.

Yes it was.

853 and 854 are retired at and Michener Allen for their next industrial auction.

First time I spotted one. Not a great shot, but better than nothing.

8004 and 8007 are now the first in the blue to hit the road, 8007 during the AM peak, 8004 during the pm peak. Total of 6 electric runs today, 2 AM peak, 1 midday, 3 PM peak. A total of 6 buses have seen service, 8008 has only done one block so far. Only 7 buses are in the blue and silver of the first 21 delivered. 8004 and 8007 in blue. 8007 at 101 St and Jasper, the heart of the former trolleybus system. All routes passed through this intersection. Speaking of electric traction... a number of battery electric vehicles in this shot. Artsy fartsy low angle on 8017 at Government Centre.

'nother interior.

I'll be damned if I can remember how to log in! Anyways, a few errors on this page: https://cptdb.ca/wiki/index.php/Edmonton_Transit_System_Historic_Vehicles Leyland #5 is a 1939 unit, not 1932. #2001 was never a part of the historic collection, it was always a piece of working equipment while with Transit. The comments about the locomotive only being in the ERRS? possession on paper make no sense either. The locomotive was stored at their carbarn in Fort Edmonton and it was most certainly in their possession. I guess with that in mind... this page needs to be fixed: https://cptdb.ca/wiki/index.php/Edmonton_Radial_Railway_Society The claim is there as well that 2001 was never on ERRS property.

You sir are so very right. Every production list I've seen has VIN ranges grouped together. So much cleaner and easier to look at and digest. Can you image sifting through 6200+lines of data on this list if everything was by individual bus? http://omot.org/roster/GMList/tdh5303.html And I get that the at the time serial numbers were a lot simpler back then, but, full VIN data is still available on a bus by bus basis on the specific transit agencies page for that particular series.

2 Proterra's out in the am peak... 8008 and 8017. 8002 came out midday on the same block as yesterday. 8003 and 8017 came in the pm peak. Caught 8002, 8003, and 8017 today. Pics at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/barpca/ Model on the VIN plate is CAT40DP.

@smallspy and @ghYHZ thank you both very much! It was a great help! I've found the car sides I need in N scale, so, perhaps one day in the next decade or two I will maybe actually get one or two of them modeled.

8002 pulled out of Centennial Garage just before 11:00am today to run on block 15-06 and restart the electric bus era on Edmonton streets. I caught up with the bus at Century Park when it was running as a 74. To the best of our knowledge this was the only electric bus to run today, however, due to a Smart Bus issue that occured sometime around 8 or 9am drivers couldn't log into their runs, and hence there were a lot of ghost buses on T55. It's possible another electric bus escaped, but, it's also quite likely no others did. Comments in the media from this morning seem to indicate they'll ramp up the buses 3-4 at a time each day. I guess we wait and see what hits the road tomorrow. The comments also made it sound like Andrews wasn't quite ready yet. That would limit the number of buses on the road anyways since Centennial has limited chargers.

A bit of a historical and obscure question. Does any one know how many ex CN fluted side cars made it into VIA's livery? The cars that made it into VIA livery have similar stripes to those used on the RDC's originally. My copy of Rails Canada Vol. 4 is still packed away after 2 years but I don't recall seeing any photos of them in there. So far, I have only been able to find photos of: 1192 Greendale (Custom painted HO scale model, so I assume it is based on a prototype) 1193 Green Harbour http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1849272 1700 Windigo 1701 Manitou http://images.techno-science.ca/searchpf.php?id=231208&lang=en Of interest to me in particular was the photo 1193 in Jasper on the Super Continental as that means they did pass through Edmonton. Thanks for any help!

I really couldn't see them doing rail grinders. If I would hazard I guess I could see some sort of overhead measuring/ maintenance type rig. Possibly track measurement as well, either in one unit or separate units. I'm thinking along the lines of something like Calgary Transit's Scout.

That's not so much an article as it is the Proterra and/ or ETS press release verbatim. As for why the DuoPower version, if you look up the spec sheet, you'll see the likely reason why. The dual motor version actually has a greater range than the single motor Prodrive with the same size battery pack. The dual motor version also apparently weights less. The dual motor version does handle grades better. Edmonton only has a few grades in and out of the river valley, but, they are steep ones in locations.

A few considerations. Metering mode. I keep mine usually on spot or center weighted metering. A lot of what I shoot are blue buses or black locomotives. I find evaluative metering will cause an under exposure of the vehicle I'm after, so, I prefer to meter off of what I'm shooting as opposed to the whole scene. How well does you camera handle ISO and noise? Mine does well easily up to 1600 ISO. I'm not taking photos for a book or anything a publication. They might make it to the Internet. So I don't sweat the small stuff and I'll just use the higher ISO. I do also bracket my shots +/- 0.3 with a burst of 3 images. I don't like dicking aroud with RAW images so usually one of the 3 has the perfect exposure and I just delete the other 2. A lot of the time when it comes to choosing ISO/ F stop combinations it comes down to intuition and experience. I also don't stick with F8.0. My 16-50mm F2.8 lens is quite decent at F2.8 and my new 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 is quite good as low as F4.5, so I'll usually open the aperture and then increase ISO. Off the top of my head, I'd say I probably do 400 on sunny days, 500-640 on a cloudy bright day, 640-1000 on a cloudy day for moving vehicles. Stationary vehicles will always get 400 and F8.0. I try not go below 400 ISO. I don't want to run into a "oh shit" situation when I realize my ISO is completely wrong for the scene. At least at 400ISO on a cloudy day I can salvage a shot by quickly hitting the thumbwheel and opening the aperture all the way.

Sounds more like shoplifting rather than a robbery. Security is largely a deterrent. Contracted security in my experience is usually very limited in what the company wants them to do. Internal loss prevention employees can have the power to arrest, but, often are not authorized by their employer to use force, either to prevent shoplifting, or to effect an arrest.

The foot print is probably fine. I forget how many trolley circuits it could power. It's size doesn't look much smaller than some of the SLRT substations. Something could be shoehorned in if they wanted.... however... I don't think the best decision, whether or not it is Edmonton, would have been to repurpose a substation building built in the 1930's (ie building codes of the time etc) to power a modern LRT over 400m away. And who knows where the substations are even planned on the VWLRT. It could be that this substation is upwards of 1 km away from the ideal location for a new substation. Doesn't make sense to pay for the extra feeder cable, infrastructure and even line loss, simply to reuse an outdated structure that once powered electric transit.

Suspected to be none of the above. The 4 747 units were offsite when no other XD's were, at a location no other buses have been seen at before. Would have needed new luggage racks as the existing ones wouldn't have been compatible with an XD.

I think it's safe to say if there is a known issue with the app not working you'll get a free pass. If it's because your phone isn't working for what ever reason, then personally, I'd say tough shit. If a customer hasn't made sure that they will have a device capable of displaying the fare media when required, that's on them. It would just be like if I tried to tell a fare checker that I have a bus pass and I forgot it at home. Could be 100% true, but I'd still get a fare evasion ticket because how many times have they heard that excuse? Certainly, if you're a daily rider whoe usually catches the same bus with the same driver they could give you a break and even give you a transfer, but on LRT, that's not going to be the case. And how many times in a day do fare checkers encounter someone without a validated fare but they have unvalidated tickets on them and try to pull that excuse?

Took some work Googling but it would appear this was originally CN MLW S-4 #8018, later to Canada Starch. Paint matches the pic in the source link below, as does the time frame that it was listed as retired by Canada Starch. They did list the Hull, Chelsea & Wakefield as "stillborn" which certainly wasn't quite the case. http://www.trainweb.org/oldtimetrains/industrial/ont/casco.htm

I rediscovered some slides in my collection recently. I'm not 100% certain if they are originals or duplicates, but, they are colour streetcar slides so I'm not complaining! Dates on all of the streetcar slides is September 1947. Below are 4 scans from this set. #14 with a trailer. I suspect this was at the barns. #27 at the barns. #58 somewhere in Calgary. Note that trolleybuses and streetcars are sharing positive wire. #426 at the 4 St NW/ Blackthorn loop in 1969.