On the Road

Summer 2022 Update

As 1130 has been pretty much in a roughly complete state now for a while, hence the work on it is now quite slow aside from the odd addition every few months as parts turn up, I have decided to revert to posting updates on this site once or twice a year rather than every few months as before. This will be a quick summer update to detail what has happened with this project in the last several months and what my immediate plans are for the future.

The biggest addition to 1130 since my last update was in February of 2022 when I brought the bus into a tire shop to get some brand new Keter and Greatway 12R22.5 tires installed on it, replacing the scrap tires which had been on the bus for over a decade! The total cost was about $3000 for everything although it was well worth it. The bus looked great and drove very nicely with the new tires. These tires will also help the bus pass its eventual CVIP inspection and given the usage 1130 will get, probably last a lifetime.

With the new tires on, during the next several months I didn’t do much hands-on work to the bus as I decided to focus most of my limited time and money on my career for the time being. However, a few friends and I took 1130 on several long trips in February, March and April to various spots around Calgary the bus hadn’t seen since retirement (some of which had never seen an in service GM Fishbowl at all!), during which we brought a few young transit enthusiasts on board to experience the bus and took many incredible photos and videos. I won’t include all of mine on this page but you can check out more of them on my Flickr and YouTube channel. In mid April I also made not one, but two appearances on national news for 1130 after the bus was spotted out and about by a journalist from a local station!

1130 at 5th Avenue/9th Street SW in the west end of downtown, the location where all North/Southeast express routes enter service in the afternoon rush hour and where GM Fishbowls were a common sight all the way up until their final retirement in 2013. Photos by Nick Blonski

1130 turning from 5th Avenue onto Centre Street N, another once common spot to catch GM Fishbowls in service all the way up until their final years. Photos by Nick Blonski

1130 at Tuscany station. This station opened after all GM Fishbowls were retired from service and this is therefore the only time to date a Fishbowl was ever in this bus loop. Photos by Nick Blonski

From early May until the time of writing this (July 2022), I kept 1130 parked as I had no time to do anything else with it during this time. I am also currently in the process of securing a new insurance policy for the bus as the original insurance company I had been using until now didn’t work out for me in the end. Despite all this, the attention this project received after my news appearances resulted in several retired Calgary Transit operators (shoutout to Bear and Jim!) donating various transit related items for me including a few small parts for 1130 and interior advertisements which I eventually put into the bus; the rest I saved for my collection at home. I also received more small parts from the city’s surplus department from retiring 7700-series D40LFs, notably the advertisement panel for the back of the driver’s wall which had been missing until now, a driver’s passenger count clicker, drink holder and sandbag. Eventually I installed all of these in the bus in mid July once I finally had some time which brings 1130’s interior to essentially 99.9% cosmetic completion at this point. The only thing now missing is that elusive Duncan farebox, one of which will hopefully turn up sooner or later! As soon as I have the funds I also plan to bring the bus back into a mechanic’s shop to finally complete the CVIP inspection. I hope to do this sometime in the second half of 2022 or the new year as resources permit.