Legendre open-house

[emdx]

Today was the Legendre garage open-house. This is where the new Nova articulateds will be assigned. The Legendre garage is just north of Crémazie (Métropolitain) in a central-north position, so it was a logical place to assign the artics, as it was first opened about 40 years ago. And as the artics will operate on lines nearby (121, 69, 535, 467), it is a very good location.

Shuttle buses brought people from the Crémazie Métro station; for this, they used several hybrid buses (they ought to have used the articulateds, though...)

So we get our pre-registration, then we start the visit in little groups of about 15-20 people.

Model of the Legendre complex

Here is the general layout of the garage; it is a fairly large centre. The portion at left, with the black walls, is the new shops. The portion at right is the older part, which was nevertheless enlarged. For reference, the street on the front of the model is St-Laurent; the one running on the right is Legendre (hence the name) and the portion on the left is the CN St-Laurent subdivision; the CN connection track to the Métro used to run there; it has been ripped-up (the track used to run on the back of the non-related buildings on the front of the model).

As the garage was still operational, the public were always escorted by employees, and where buses would run, metal fences were installed.

Throughout the visit, as we moved from department to department, we were able to admire bus derrières ("puet", in tagalog).

The tyre shop

First department visited is the tyre shop, where they regroove older tyres. As this is a rather tyring subject, we will move on, as I do not wish to tyre my readers…

Mechanical shop

We then get to the existing general mechanical shop, where light repairs buses are made to buses.

We are greeted with a jacked-up LFS, so we can have a glimpse of the undies of a LFS, …

… as well as an engine compartment.

Also on display is a LFS engine, with transmission.

Classic fans, do not worry, those were being repaired, too.

The tour guide at about this moment said that the technology of Classic buses dated back to World-War II (with a big hint that "change was needed and it's about time we get newer technology buses")… It's hard to disagree when you see the riveted sides (I recall seeing, 25 years ago, some french people on an public transit internship, totally flabberghasted at seeing the riveted bus sides — never mind their reaction to the styling of "new look" buses… (In Europe, they haven't had rivets for more than 60 years).

Here is the radiator compartment of a new "T-Drive" LFS bus, right above the back window…

… and the engine compartment.

General view. The new logo is pretty stupid; the windows are pratically blocked, which makes the back of the bus a totally horrible place to sit; we might as well ride in a truck box. This shows clearly that the dopes who run the show **NEVER** take transit. I do not look forward in riding in those; the older LFS were perfect buses, but now, they have gone back to the dark ages of the old Classic shitboxen where you don't have a decent view of the outside.

Of course, an articulated was on display. I will use the picture I took on the press rollout to illustrate it (click on the picture for the rollout post) so I don't get (too) reduntant:

What was interesting was this nifty diagram of the accordion.

And, as we left that shop, a row of old transfer machines lies in a corner.

Now that they are out of service, we **HAVE** to make sure they don't scrap them all, they **SHOULD** make them available to the public as collector pieces.

We move out, and after a brief spiel given by an engineering flack about the new "green" design of the new building (I had to refrain from pointing out that the extra-reinforced streel structure needed for the "grass" planted on the roof — which is heavier than a conventionnal roof — negated the benefits of the "green" roof, given that the production of the extra-steel produced more greenhouse gas than the roof would be expected to absorb during the building's lifetime…), we get into the totally new workshop.

Thanks to a long clerestory, the view inside is much more brighter than in the older garage. When I said to the tour guide that "geee! This looks like the old factories of a century ago, with the huge windows!!!", he made a face that was worth $3.50…

The general feel is airy and well-lighted. Looks like it's a pleasure to work there.

For bodywork, there are several painting stalls; in one, a Classic waits to be painted. Looks like it will disgrace our streets for several more years (I **DON'T** like Classics; they don't have a good view outside and the side-benches on the back are just plainly disgusting — most of the time, when one comes, I prefer to wait for the LFS).

Other stalls are used to body work. The LFS have fiberglass bodies, and this stall has movable scaffolding to allow workers to work on the roof without walking on it (and risk denting it).

That's about the end of the visit of the new workshop.

Outside, are on display several "non-revenue" vehicles:

Amongst them, a squeaky-new towing, which can handle articulateds.

And this is the bus-stop planter.

We go back into the older garage, where we can visit the pressure-cleaning bays.

Following this is the "security" guys. That's the fare inspectors.

In total contrast to the other employees, those have decided to stick to the letter of the law, and as the law is an ass, they decided to be asses too. So we had one fare inspector dourly state that now we have to have valid tickets on us at all times, that they do spot checks and that the fines are very expensive, all said with a tone that reeks of the anticipation of writing tickets to people. And to add the cherry on the sundæ, he added that it's your responsibility to make sure that your card works, and if it is broken and you're caught with it, you'll be ticketed something like $300. Real slick swell guy; those have real good PR sense.

As he had an electronic fare reader, and I noticed that he had a Romanian name (he had the accent, too), I pulled out my pimped KGB/Opus card () and told him as a joke thad KGB cards worked, too. I might as well have asked a wall about the weather in Buenos Aires, all I got back was a totally blank stare and he did not run my card on his reader…

What a dope.

The fire safety guys sounded much less like hardasses after that.

Then there was the paratransit guys (never got a good opportunity to take a picture of the paratransit bus), and those are not fitted with Opus readers.

Finally, the bus wash (no good pics possible) and the fueling/cleaning stations were visited, and we concluded with an hybrid bus with a guy who didn't know much more than his spiel because very specific questions remained unanswered…

That concluded the visit.

A welcome bonus was the Heritage Foundation that had four buses on display (3 fishbowls and a Classic), but that's worthy of a totally different post.