How did you become obsessed with transit?

[STO_1601]

My obsession for transit started when I was about 6 years.

I was always fascinated that some of our buses at OC Transpo were the same models but with different style exit doors (e.g. GM Fishbowls, GM/MCI/Nova Classics, Orion-Ikarus)

I also loved the sounds they made. I would always try to recreate them with some items and lay them on the floor and try to imitate the sounds they made.

and now that I'm older transit obsession as been with me ever since.

[captaintrolley]

The bus running through the neighborhood provided a lovely diversion from playing with toys or playing with other kids in the neighborhood. So I started to ride the bus steadily increasing the number of round trips and getting to know various drivers. Drivers enjoyed having someone to talk to, and I learned how to read running boards (paddles) and how to change the signs. Routes and schedules fascinated me, and I loved how routes connected at various timing points etc. I was about 8 y/o then. I began to discern between the different types of buses and realized I had a real affinity for trolleys, so I set out to ride them more and learn more about them, to the point where diesel buses held little interest for me. My keen interest in routes, schedules, and shift design followed me into adulthood, where after my son started school full time I reentered the workforce and landed a job with Edmonton Transit.

[Wayside Observer]

Obsessed is probably too strong a word.  Definitely interested though.

Back when I was young, back in the old "Toronto - The City That Works" days, the TTC was going through a major transition between the old and the new.  There were a ton of different kinds of PCCs but CLRVs too.  They still had couplers.  How many people out there today even know they're multiple unit cars?  There were tons of Gloucesters mixed in with M and H cars.  All the trolleybus lines were still going.  There was a mix of various buses painted in red and cream and a mix of various buses painted in the CLRV colours.  The Scarborough RT was opening up and it was supposed to be fantastic space age progress.  Nobody, at least not publicly, knew about the shortcomings with ICTS yet or what a basketcase white elephant of an orphan line it was going to become.  There were still three Peter Witt cars grinding around downtown on the tour tram.  It was a fantastic eclectic mix of old and new and I couldn't help but be interested in how and why the vehicles were so wildly different from each other.

I've been watching "Black" on Netflix and honestly, if I suddenly got bounced back to 1986 for a couple of days, I'd have a blast enjoying it all over again!

[Downsview 108]

Same here^. 1989 was the best year for transit fanning on the TTC IMO. The most variety. Every type of subway car except T1s.

[Wayside Observer]

21 hours ago, Downsview 108 said:

Same here^. 1989 was the best year for transit fanning on the TTC IMO. The most variety. Every type of subway car except T1s.

I think 1989 was the last good year but things were starting to get a bit thin so maybe we should think about nudging it back a couple of years for best though.  Here’s the reasoning:  If we back it up a little bit to 88 or 87, we still have the first few H6 and ALRV cars but before enough of them arrived to start seriously decimating the G and PCC fleets.  If we bump it back to 86, those fleets were barely touched and Carlton was all PCC all the time!

[Downsview 108]

46 minutes ago, Wayside Observer said:

I think 1989 was the last good year but things were starting to get a bit thin so maybe we should think about nudging it back a couple of years for best though.  Here’s the reasoning:  If we back it up a little bit to 88 or 87, we still have the first few H6 and ALRV cars but before enough of them arrived to start seriously decimating the G and PCC fleets.  If we bump it back to 86, those fleets were barely touched and Carlton was all PCC all the time!

Right. Plus there were more 3xxx series GMs back then. I started getting interested in transit in 87 but was obviously too young to experience all of it. So I only remember being into the trolley buses, the GMs in the old colours, the D700s and the Gloucesters. I was also very much into the d40s for some reason. I remember the GM slinkies too.

[Community Shuttle]

CMBC's route 413 (then C93) was the first bus I've ever taken and only one for quite a while. I started taking it when it was still being run with diesel GMCs instead of gas Chevys, and there wasn't a single low-floor unit (except for the occasional conventional school special) to be seen on the route.

I didn't care much about transit for the longest time. Sure, I knew different bus makes like Prevost, Novabus, New Flyer and Orion, but that's because I was (and still am) an automotive enthusiast, and it was just natural for me to figure out who made what and which model a certain vehicle was, if that was indicated anywhere on the vehicle itself (so I didn't know bus models other than ones like MCI J4500 or Prevost H3-45).

Everything changed when I moved during high school and started taking the 407 to and from school. After about half a year of taking that route, I noticed that the after-school Gilbert run was always driven by the same operator. It got to the point where he could actually recognize me, so I decided to have a conversation with him during his layover in Steveston, where I was living at the time.

We had many more conversations after that and let's just say that through our conversations, he sent me down the transit rabbit hole and now, here I am.

I learned a lot about buses and CMBC from him, so as a transit enthusiast, I'm only really interested in buses, anything from a shuttle to an articulated double decker. Being my local system, CMBC/TransLink is definitely the system I'm most familiar with, although I enjoy exploring other systems and their buses too. Got myself into TRAMS last year and even though I don't plan on working in transit, I'm working on getting my class 2 so I can drive buses for any reason. Most recently, I've gotten into the motorcoach enthusiast game after discovering the world of Prevost LeMirage and Astral series coaches.

I don't actively go out and photograph/film buses or do anything like that; I like going online to discuss transit, riding buses to experience them myself (not to record them for others), and representing TRAMS at community events as a volunteer to talk transit with all kinds of people.

Sadly, the drivers of that particular run changed during my senior year in high school and it's honestly been impossible for me to find the operator who got me into transit again, as much as I'd like to see him and converse with him.

[Transitfan39]

I first got obsessed with transit when I first started walking, I would sit at the window of the MR-73 and watch the train move in the tunnel, and I would sit at the front of the buses and watch the bus driver drive (I still do that on STM/RTL LFS 2nd gens), and when I lived in Ottawa I was obsessed with the classics and would go out of my way to take it because I loved the whine of the engine.. I got obsessed with filming my rides by watching retroolschool on YouTube 

[Nico Sander]

I first became a transit fan when I was 4 years old. Throughout my childhood, I researched all the ETS vehicles on many photo websites. When I was a teenager, already having acquired all the general information of the fleet many years beforehand,  I researched other North American agencies to collect more info. Eventually, I became a transit photographer, collector of transit merchandise and parts and a builder of detailed, scratch built models made from paper.

[J. S. Bach]

On 12/17/2019 at 10:06 PM, Nico Sander said:

 ...snip... a builder of detailed, scratch built models made from paper.

Some photos, please. Models always interest me, especially 1/48 scale.

[Nico Sander]

1 hour ago, J. S. Bach said:

Some photos, please. Models always interest me, especially 1/48 scale.

I built this ETS Glaval Easy On last year. It’s made entirely from paper and tape.

[tomsbuspage]

For me, I've been a transit fan as far back as I can remember, which would be around 1980.  Back then, transit fleets were almost entirely GM Fishbowls, and I would constantly compare the oldest TDH-5301 buses along with the newest T6H-5307N buses.  Living in Ottawa, I would also compare the red-and-white OC Transpo buses, with their pinkish/orange seats and push-type or step-activated exit doors, with the blue-and-white Outaouais buses, which had blue and orange seats and MacKay gates.  Then, in 1981, my family took me on a vacation to Toronto, with maroon-and-cream buses and nearly-new CLRV streetcars.  In 1982, OC Transpo acquired 21 GM articulated buses, or caterpillar buses, as my grandfather called them.  After that, I was hooked!

[OC Transpo/STO Fan]

My obsession with transit started when I was five years old in 2007-2008. I recall this was a time where almost all of our 1989 and up OC Transpo high floor buses were still in service, as well as quite a few 1987 Classics but OC also had all their Inveros, D60LFs, and Orion VIs in service as well.

 I used to look up OC Transpo buses on my computer. I've also watched lots of videos of OC buses at Transitway stations and ride videos. Ever since then, I've found that I was hooked. However, my transit obsession was basically dormant from 2011-2015 save for a few times where I would catch up on OC Transpo's newest purchases, decisions, etc. I found that from 2016 on, my transit obsession started to slowly evolve in that I was actively doing research on the different types of buses we had. 

I found this board in 2016 although I did not join until mid 2017. Ever since I joined this board, I've found that my knowledge kept evolving, especially of older OC buses. 

2008 me is so different (and much more idiotic) from 2020 me. For example, I thought that our Classics in the red stripe/white body livery were different buses from the ones in the maple leaf livery. I also thought that OC Transpo somehow specified the maple leaf livery on all D40s and 1991-1992 Orion Vs when delivered but inconsistently delivered our Classics in a bunch of schemes. On my eighth birthday in 2010, I tried looking for fishbowls (my dad took me on six bus rides that day) but did not find any and eventually gave up. Little did I know, they were retired since 2007. However, there were still a handful of Classics in service and I should have been looking for those instead. I actually didn't know they were being retired at the time. I don't know what I was smoking back then.

Edit: Actually, I remember consciously looking for buses as far back as when I was only three. I even recall which ads were on some of the buses (I have a long term memory that is very good) that I saw back in 2005 and 2006. Don't know why I'm like that. I also vaguely recall my first rides being two D60LFs, one Invero, and one MCI Classic (possibly a 1989 in the stripe livery). I think I also rode what I thought was a D40 or 1992 Orion V back in 2006. I recall the bus having pink/orange seats inside it.

[MatthewB]

I've been a fan of transit, and other forms of municipal infrastructure, for as long as I can remember. I'm autistic, so it's just one of those interests that I latched on to. For a few summers when I was a kid, my grandparents would drive me to 'the big city' (I lived in a small city ~40 minutes away from Edmonton, Alberta). There, we would ride the entire length of the LRT line - of-which Edmonton just had one at the time - and on our way back down the line, we'd get off at a stop and board the nearby volunteer-run historic streetcar line. That is one of my fondest childhood memories, and it forever changed how I perceived local transit. Edmonton's LRT network has expanded a great deal since then, but I can't go down that old stretch of the Capital Line without reliving my time with them on those beautiful summer days; even more-so since my grandpa passed away a few years ago.

[GTAmissions1]

For me, it is pretty much taking transit 5 days/week from high school and back to home with a monthly pass. Especially since there was no such thing as online learning or internet connectivity with the fast speeds of today. Sometimes I would take a different route to see where it goes. 

This was roughly almost 15 years ago. Now I take transit where I can even when I travel. Of course, the smaller areas like New Orleans (one area I travelled out of my area) was more challenging than a city like Washington DC or New York City which operates with a lot more transit such as subways in the mix. On top paying a fixed cost and having to plan around the schedule. A lot has definitely changed depending on the agency and their structure. 

I did acquire a lot of learning such as how transit levels and services are planned. You can't always expect frequent service in a small area because there is only so much of a budget available along with the users to support such service. Especially even when very few routes/lines operate very profitable levels to support other areas of the business plus metrics. It is a public service, but also has to operate like a business too. 

[Transitfan2022]

i became obsessed with transit after my first bus ride on a 1998 d40lf back in 2010 when i was 1 

look at me today

[Transitfan2022]

i have built out of paper 

Currently built: 

2019 ADL enviro 500 R19425

2018 Novabus LFS surbuban R18438

2001 Orion V 9230

Cruely retired:

every bus in translink (im slowly starting my collection again after all my buses got destroyed by my friend and i after a "bus war"

[nadin45]

interesting information

[MCIBUS]

i was 5 years old(1969) when "Bus Bug" hit me. Just fell in love with them. Remember going downtow on the GM Old Looks GM New Looks the old Flyers to Rideau(Before the Rideau Center was built Pre-1980's. Remember the odd ime riding the First Gen TeleTranspo buses MERCEDIES, REKEE-VEE, Twin Coaches, Internationals the Reek-Vees where the vary bizarre in how the seating was, if I reall they had couch  style seats facing the asile at an angle and wooden paneling for the interior and only had one door behind the front wheels. The Orions I where real cool to ride especialy 8816 as was the only 35' OC had.(They did have demo in 1986 when one of the Orion-Ikarusses was sent to Vancour for EXPO 86). The GM Artics where fun to ride, remember riding the to High School in the early-mid 1980's, then came the Orion_Ikarusses they where fun to ride in the winter the back end would always slide side was when the roads where slippery when thee bus would turn a corner.

 

Some 50+ years now since I started collecting bus models(over 300+ various scales HO(1:87), O-Gauge(1:50), :43, 1:64 and still counting(many in OC Transpo, TTC, GO Transit, Gray Coach, Greyhound, Trailways. Tones of bus slides, many OC bus schedules from just before Covide to 1990's(I think), tones of OC flyers & maps. OC & other bus buttons, belt buckles, T-Shirts. I even got two OC Driver Uniforms one with a OC Drives Cap(not baseball although got two of those's, but one of the old original capds drivers use to wear with their uniforms).

 

Spent a lot of money amassing my collection, from the time I started collecting till now I spent well over $10,000 buying my collection.

 

And before anyone asks nothing is for sell at the present time, but that's not to say I won't be selling off things in the future, I will be just not at the present time, but that's not far away less then 10 years. A few things are already spoken for to a memember here on the forum, but after that the few things I want to keep for myself and the ones spoken for, everything else is up for grabs.

EDIT: Forgot to mention during the 1972-73 Colour change on OC Buses along with Fleet #'s went from OTC colours & fleet #'s to OC Transpo colours & fleet #'s. Also every ear from 1973-1982 I would wait to see if there where any changes to the GM New Looks, remember various versions of roof vent/emergency hatch, alone with the rear doors from single door to double doors. The funnies ones when we got 12(I think) ex-TTC 1960 GM New looks with the auto doors(Floor panel) and seeing people jumping  up and down on the 1980 GM New Looks to get  the doors to open even though they had door handles. I can't remember if the 1981 GM New Looks had auto rear doors or not. The OC Bus Roadeo's where great, actually got to drive a ORION-IKARUSS in a figure 8 when they had it Landsdown, that was when I could see better and still drove and had a driver lenience. They had brought all there wrap buses back then. I've posted them in the past here on the forum somewhere.

[octabusfan92]

The transit obsession started just recently for me. As a kid I often would see Metro, Torrance, Gardena, Santa Monica Big Blue Bus, Foothill Transit, Culvercity bus, Long Beach Transit, OCTA and Transit Systems Unlimited buses but I wasn’t exactly much into them. I kind of regretted not taking pics as a kid since there were so much diversity and many different types of buses, but I was more of a car/railfan/aviation guy. It wasn’t until recently (2020) that I had started to get into buses. I figured since the lockdown didn’t have anything for me to do, I researched up transit fleets and routes since I wanted to try something different. This was only supposed to be a temporary thing since by the end of lockdown I would be going back to what I love. However that proved wrong since I eventually became interested in all the different types of buses running in different agencies, and started to ride on them

[MattFor10]

During my youth in the late 80s, I quickly realized all the different models of school bus at my school. Then I also saw the different kind of subways and city buses in Montreal, and later Ottawa, and I quickly realized I wanted to know all about them.  It was before the internet and nobody around me knew anything about them so it became a mystery I wanted to find about but couldn't.

Then I also became obsessed with taxicabs.  I remember the summer of 1989 we went to Washington D.C. and my parent brought me a disposable camera so I could take pictures of my trip.  They were very surprised when they went to have the film développed and all the pictures were taxicabs.

[TransitCurling]

Mine is interesting.  I didn't become "obsessed" with transit until I was in uni, technically.  I lived in a medium-sized city as a young kid with crummy transit and didn't use it very often.  But I do remember being fascinated by how the drivers opened the doors, and the roll signs, etc., even though I really didn't know nor care anything much else, nor pursue it.

But when I moved into a small rural town when I was a teen, I became fascinated with school buses.  I was a bus patrol in grades 7 and 8 (in Ontario, so both are part of elementary school), and had to learn how to open the doors, do evacuations, how to work the radio, how to stop the bus if the driver became incapacitated, first aid, all that fun stuff.  I remember being selected (randomly) to do a demo of a radio interaction because I had that kind of radio voice, even as a teen, hehehe.  I became chatty with my regular school bus driver and learned many other things.  I would know what physical bus would go on what route each day, I could tell the slight differences in the sounds of each of the sister-buses (I even still remember the numbers - the 17X series - our regular was 179, but we would sometimes get 171 or 175 as both of those were spares, and all sounded a touch different).  And I would get completely fascinated when we had one of the oddball buses as a spare, particularly when it was a stick-shift.  Recipe for extreme bullying, unfortunately.

I had always wanted to actually do a real evacuation, I don't know why.  Not all the trial ones we would practice where everyone else would just screw around.  Well late in my grade 8 year it happened.  I was sitting in my usual spot up by the driver but it was a spare driver so I was helping with the route and stops.  The bus started to make a funny noise and then green liquid started to appear from near the front by the engine.  Uh oh.  Driver stopped the bus, in the middle of nowhere Ontario, and we began to see smoke coming from the front.  Driver initially opened the front door and then I suggested we use the back.  He seemed very unsure of himself but trusted me (luckily, hehehe).  I was the only bus patrol that really did anything, but the others did end up helping on this day.  The smoke got worse and then we saw flames within about 30 seconds of pulling over, so I ran to the back and popped open the door.  I started the rear door evac and the other patrols helped the students "jump" off.  Everyone got off in about one minute.  Bus by this point was pretty much in flames but we were all safe in the middle of rural Ontario, still about a 40 to 50 minute walk from the school.  We didn't have cell phones in those days, but I ran to the nearest farm house that wasn't far away and called the fire department and the school bus control centre as I had memorized the number because the driver started to panic and didn't know what to do.  We were all very late for school that day.

That just made me even more interested in buses (but also more bullied at school for knowing all this stuff).

Then I moved out west for uni.  No more school buses, but instead public transit.  And trolleys!  I absolutely loved the old trolleys.  Funny thing is, my very first trip on a bus in Vancouver was route 4 when I was heading out to UBC with my dad to tour campus, and the driver missed the turn onto West Cloverleaf and ended up going to Broadway and kicking us all off and onto the 99 B-Line instead.  I was very confused because the driver was kinda bragging that he messed up saying he thought he was a 17, etc etc etc.

It just all went from there.  My favourite buses were the old trolleys and the D40s both because I loved the sounds - the D40s were much like the sounds of the school buses I knew.  I got chatty with drivers again, learned how to work the roll signs, learned about the paddles, and admittedly was probably quite "odd" in some things I would know (like exactly when a specific driver would do change-over, and would sometimes just change a side roll sign before the driver even had the chance to on routes like the 8/15 - I know, shouldn't have done that).

Since I left uni and have been working, I've really mellowed and toned it down a lot.  I use the SkyTrain a lot more now than I ever used to because of where I live and work, and so that has become much more my interest now.  I find the current buses quite boring, ha ha.  I detest the double-deckers and hate the older Novas (but I like the 2018 Novas).  My favourite buses now are the newer XDE60's, even though I don't get to ride them often.  I used to listen to the SkyTrain radio when it was on ScanBC but now it's offline, so I very much miss it - have to find my own radio scanner.  I haven't done too many trips lately where I was just going out to ride a specific bus type or special route variation/oddball depot, like I used to.  Previously, I would have tried to do that on the first day of operations (like when the XDE60s started on route 2) but just don't have the gumption for it anymore.

So I joined here after lurking and reading the forum for so long.  Maybe it will gauge my interest again, hehehe.

[MattFor10]

Interesting that you talked about drivers opening doors.  I went to school in the late 80s to the late 90s, and back then buses had jacknife doors.  To me, that's something that new buses are missing and a big reason why I will always prefer 80s/90s buses than newer ones, as you could watch the driver open the door with that switch, and each bus manufacturer had their own model of door handles.  Also Thomas and Corbeil doors would open the same way as city buses, with both sides opening on their side, while Blue Bird and Wayne would work as one full door going on one side.

 

I added a photo of door handle for those who never witnessed it.  

[TransitCurling]

On 1/21/2024 at 1:43 PM, MattFor10 said:

Interesting that you talked about drivers opening doors.  I went to school in the late 80s to the late 90s, and back then buses had jacknife doors.  To me, that's something that new buses are missing and a big reason why I will always prefer 80s/90s buses than newer ones, as you could watch the driver open the door with that switch, and each bus manufacturer had their own model of door handles.  Also Thomas and Corbeil doors would open the same way as city buses, with both sides opening on their side, while Blue Bird and Wayne would work as one full door going on one side.

 

I added a photo of door handle for those who never witnessed it.  

Yup that handle is pretty much similar to the ones I remember on the school buses I rode on (and trained on to be a bus patrol), except that there was a kind of apparatus (have no idea how to describe it) that you would pull up with your hand to unlatch it, then push it open - that one looks more like you push a latch down.  There was also a little button on top of the area where the handle hinge is to turn on the warning lights.  There was a spare driver I used to get often that would just pop the door handle open a touch to turn the lights on instead, because then the stop sign would come out - it only came out when the door was open, not when that button was pushed.  Apparently he wasn't supposed to do that, but always did it anyway.

I'm trying to remember how the doors opened - when you say jackknife, do you mean they folded inwards?  I believe that's how the doors opened on the school buses I rode on - I don't recall any opening like city buses, at least back then (mid-to-late 90s).  I'm pretty sure they were Blue Bird buses.  I know some said International on the front, and some GMC.  The 17X series I referred to were International with square lights and had automatic trannies, and there were many non-consecutively-numbered buses that had round lights and said GMC that were stick-shift.  I don't know why, but I always thought stick-shift buses were funny and it was always one of those things were I'd get super excited when one showed up (especially when our regular driver was driving it).

[Glennwood Road Ent.]

My opinion on transit was when I was small In 2000s/early 2010s during my primary school era was riding jitney busses (Toyota, Nissan and Mitsubishi) including Blue Bird, Thomas Built, Carpenter and Amtran USA School buses offered in the Caribbean region going to field trips, stadiums and movie theatres.