(first posted 9/22/2018) These two buses up on lifts are Canadian Car and Foundry (CCF) C-Series urban transit coaches, counterparts and competitors of the GM Old Look, and a familiar sight in the eastern, middle, and western provinces of Canada in the 1950’s to 70’s.
CCF Built T6 Harvard Trainer
Prior to WW II, CCF made railcars and other rolling stock, even trying its luck with shipbuilding. During the war, it was most notable for building under license the Hawker Hurricane fighter, Curtis SB2C Helldiver dive-bomber and North American Aviation T6 Harvard trainer.
After the war, it returned to the railcar business but also added streetcars to its product portfolio, supplying units to Montreal, Toronto, Regina, Calgary, Vancouver, Edmonton, and several Brazilian cities.
Buses were added too – with the company partnering with the US firm of American Car and Foundry (ACF)-Brill, and license producing its urban transit and intercity designs. ACF-Brill and CCF, though having similar names, were not affiliated prior to this licensing agreement. The first urban transit model was the C36 (36 passenger); 32 ft in length, with an underfloor amidships “laydown” Hall-Scott 477 cu in gas six cylinder engine.
CCF C44 Diesel Coach
Hall-Scott engines, while noted for their power and reliability, were also quite thirsty, so transport operators expressed interest in a diesel-engined model with more capacity. CCF, in turn, introduced the C40 and C44 models in 1951/52.
To compete with the popular GM TDH 5105 (51 passenger) “Old Look”, CCF introduced the C52 in 1955, similar sized at 40 ft long and 102 inches wide.
AEC AV590 Diesel in Vertical Orientation
AEC Routemaster
CCF used UK sourced AEC diesel engines in its coaches, the two most common being the AH590 – a 9.6 litre inline four-stroke six cylinder laydown diesel with 120 hp and 440 ft lbs of torque, and the larger 11.3 AH690 version in the later larger buses with 150 hp and 480 ft lbs of torque. Bus fans will recognize these engines as ones used in the famous AEC Routemaster series double-deckers.
Vancouver
Toronto
Edmonton
CCF’s trolley coaches were just as popular as its diesel-engined models, with the T44 and T48 being operated in Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa, Regina, Montreal, Halifax, Vancouver, and Toronto. Dave Saunders has an excellent post showing where many of these trolley coaches were ultimately laid to rest.
With introduction of the GM “New Look” coach in 1959, other bus manufacturers had to up their game, and CCF brought out its “T” Series bus in 1960. Interestingly, it continued to use the AEC AV690 engine (moved from amidships to a transverse/rear orientation), rather than the more economical GM 6V71 two stroke. My guess is a previous partnership or agreement mandated this choice.
The resulting higher operating costs, and other reasons, meant the T-Series was an also-ran in competition with the superb GM Fishbowl, which starting in 1961 was being assembled in-country at the General Motors Diesel Division (GMDD) plant at St-Eustache, Quebec. CCF ended bus production in 1962.
ACF-Brill in the US tossed in the towel in 1954 – CCF bus production continued a good eight years longer than its US partner. Today, remaining parts of the company have been incorporated into the vast Bombardier transportation conglomerate.
Beautiful coaches, Bus Stop Classics are always a treat.
Interesting. I was wondering if these were ever used in my home city of Hamilton, but the lead photo is of an HSR garage, and the bus signs say Wentworth Street 🙂
Indeed the Halton Transit museum has a Brill T-48
These and many more.
Hamilton Street Railway Bus Roster
http://www.trainweb.org/hamtransithist/BusRoster.html
You continue to find fascinating new chapters in this series. Once again, these are mostly new to me. That T Series bus at the end is rather different looking for transit coach, but in a good way.
Very nice. Like these old buses. They look so solid, as if they could run for decades.
Two VERY stout/strong hydraulic lift racks pictured here!
One factor that held the Brill buses back in the U.S. was that their corporate parent, American Car and Foundry, also owned Hall-Scott. The Brill was a fine coach, but operator requests for diesel engines fell to a certain extent on deaf ears. Hall-Scott was loosing market share rapidly during the early 50’s and ACF was trying to stem the loss, so considerable pressure was put on Brill to use the engines. One has to wonder what would have happened if the AEC diesel was offered in Brill coaches in the U.S.. By the late 50’s, Twin-Coach found themselves in a similar situation, their proprietary Fageol high compression gasoline/propane engines were loosing favor. Fageol also turned to a British built diesel, the Leyland. A few were sold, but after Twin-Coach merged with Flxible, they turned to Detroit Diesels.
Great to see another bus article by you Jim. Excellent research and photos always. Even though Canada’s bus and aviation industry was still strong in the 1950s, it was a popular time for building licenced Canadian versions of US products. The Canadair Sabre was perhaps the most high profile. The Canadair Sabre was also used for the ‘Golden Hawks’, the national aeronautics team in the late 50s and early 60s.
Every time I read one of these excellent pieces I think “surely there can’t be any more obscure coaches to cover. And you keep proving me wrong.
As a kid I rode a few of these in Calgary, where they were still running into the 70s alongside the GM New and Old Look buses. My dad used transit to get to work every day until the mid 70s, and I remember him complaining about the “old Brills,” not that he liked the GM buses much better. Calgary Transit also had a few T-series buses, but I remember them as smelly, noisy and slow.
The red ETS trolley reminds me of a trivia tidbit: Alberta classified them as “railway” vehicles, so did not require them to have license plates, as shown in this photo. I wonder if other jurisdictions followed this practice?
I can’t speak for Canada, but until ca.2000, SEPTA in Philadelphia ran its ETBs without license plates. The current NFI low-floor ETBs have auxilliary diesel engines, thus requiring license plates.
Having grown up in Edmonton, I’m almost certain license plates were mounted front and back on ETS buses.
However, many years ago (Can’t remember exactly when) the Alberta government allowed vehicles to have only a rear plate. Some say this was a cost cutting measure for the government, others; bowing to auto manufacturers who didn’t want the front styling of their vehicles messed up with a plate.
Jim, I just come across this story regarding Canadian electric bus udergoing testing:
https://mobilesyrup.com/2018/06/27/canadian-built-electric-bus-pass-new-model-test/
Thanks Bimmer – hadn’t seen that – looks like almost all bus-makers are jumping in with all-electric models. Jim.
So much goodness here ! .
History and comments .
I remember riding everywhere in buses before they were old, I miss them greatly .
-Nate
TTC TROLLEY BUSSES RAN WITH LICENCE PLATES UNTIL TTC STOPPED USING TROLLY BUSSES ABOUT 1990
MIGHT BE WORTH NOTING FOR NON-CANDIAN READERS THAT THE TORONTO STREETCAR PICTURED HERE WAS USED FROM ABOUT 1938 INTO THE EARLY 1990S, LATER GETTING AN UPDATED BRIGHT RED, WHITE AND BLACK LIVERY. TORONTO STILL RUNS STREETCARS TODAY (2024).