Farewell to Brill       page 4 of 4
FTB2_3  Chilco Loop for Stanley Park 2-3:  The view from old Stanley Park Loop, next to Lost Lagoon.  Note the D-901 diesel with the orange cheat line.  It dates to the "Urban Transit Authority", the short-lived entity that became BC Transit.  Grouse Mountain also appears in photo 2-6.  If you've heard about the 2006 storm that ravaged the park, the damage was more to the northwest, on the English Bay side. After a new loop was built inside the park, this one was discontinued (see it here).
FTB2_4  Ernie at the wheel 2-4:  Ernie was a Hydro driver before I got to know him at the UBC Amateur Radio Society.  He mastered in diesels but was evidently at home in trolleys too.  Ernie loved old things.  A cherished memory is hitching a ride home with him in his Edsel.  Click here to see Ernie pretending to drive preserved Brill 2040 -- 24 years later!

(Photo 2-5 was blank.)
FTB2_6  Short turn at Cambie and 29th 2-6 and 2-7:  Looking north from about Cambie and 30th.  This loop was removed along with the rest of the overhead on Cambie when construction of the Canada Line SkyTrain was begun.  Behind me is Queen Elizabeth Park, and Nat Bailey Baseball Stadium is about a ten minutes' walk to the east.

Streetcar tracks never reached this far south on Cambie.  Fraser-Cambie ("FC" for short) was Vancouver's first trolleybus route, and this loop was its original terminus.  Today, diesels run past here as 15's.  Tomorrow, Cambie will be a SkyTrain corridor.

In halcyon days I would walk up from my parents' house at 25th and Yukon to waste time on this grassy slope, reading a book and watching trolleybuses slow down and coast past the frogs of this little-used short turn loop.
FTB2_7  Short turn at Cambie and 29th
FTB2_8  Sunset for 2271 2-8:  Old 2271 contemplates what might have been the final sunset in its long career.  It wasn't.  Due to unanticipated difficulties, the new E-901 fleet wasn't ready to take on a full rush hour service come Monday.  I fully enjoyed this twilight period in the last half of January when the final few Brills soldiered on.  The details are in my diary to prove that 2271 was still on the system on the following Friday night, and I was a passenger.  It my last revenue Brill ride.
FTB2_9  Back at OTC
2-9:  The bus in the window has its poles down, so this photo must have been taken while 2271 was being parked at the OTC.  Looking below in photo 2-12, I can't identify this bus, although it must be in the lineup.  The bus with the blue advert in photo 2-12 must have arrived after the bus pictured at left.
FTB2_10  Inside a Brill at night 2-10:  The light bulbs were in series and were energized directly from the overhead.  At intersections they'd blink, adding drama to the clackity noise of the shoes on the frogs.  Whenever a bulb burned out, a relay bridged it out of the circuit.  Burned-out bulbs had to be changed promptly or the working bulbs would get too much voltage and fail like popcorn.  If the lighting looks inadequate to you, I'd have agreed.  The nicotine-disguising paint didn't help.
FTB2_11  Last Brills at OTC
2-11:  The last lineup of Brills.  This is looking northeast from the back of the OTC Admin building where the honor line had been parked earlier in the afternoon.  The faint arc-shaped flare was probably caused by the bright street light.  With its fixed field, 3-detent focus, and 12x16mm format, my camera was not what you would call sophisticated.
FTB2_12  The 2271 in the last lineup of Brills at OTC 2-12:  Twilight of Brill.  The 2271 (at left) is put to rest under the failing light of a January sky.  Below is my diary entry for 2271:
I rode 2271 five days after the official Last Run
First ride 17 April 1977.  Last ride 20 Jan 1984.
                            Sic transit.
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