A local organization is looking for help to decide what to do with a pair of restored buses.
Once a common site in Fort William and Port Arthur, brill buses were phased out of the area decades ago. In 2001, former transit union president Charlie Brown discovered two of the buses ready for demolition at a British Columbia scrap yard and decided to have them shipped back to Thunder Bay to restore them.
“They were in pretty rough shape after sitting in a scrapyard,” Brown told city council Monday night.
But thanks to the volunteer efforts of transit union members, the buses have been restored to their former glory, each painted exactly like they were when cruising the streets of Fort William and Port Arthur.
“It’s almost like a time machine,” Brown said of the buses. “They’re pretty much as they were the day they came off the road.”
Now that the job is finished, the buses are sitting inside the Thunder Bay transit garage waiting for a new home.
Brown said his group, the Buddies of the Brill, doesn’t want to see them sitting outside exposed to the elements and potential vandalism. Restoring the engines, plus the wires they used to run on throughout the city, is too costly for the buses to run again.
They want to consult with everyone in the city to decide where the buses should be parked so the public can get a look at them.
Brown will be back before council in the fall with some of the public’s ideas.
For more information visit online here.
