A Piece Of Scrap

Lets' just say that this is what happens when good people make bad choices

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• Toronto
• Transit
• Commission

[tovinman]

I took the photo of 6589 in October 1990 at Don Mills & Wynford Drive. It still hadn't

had advertising racks installed

[smartestinUSA]

obviosly alot off teenageer been on these buses to cause them to deteriorate like this

[tovinman]

No, the buses themselves were structurally bad....the 1987 New Flyers had steel tube frames (as opposed to solid steel beams which GM New Looks use) and they corroded from the inside out, the Orion-Ikaruses were fabricated with low-quality Hungarian steel (in the former Soviet block buses were replaced every six or seven years but in Canada we expect them to last 20 years)

(see part 2)

[tovinman]

Part 2 -

The 1990 New Flyers had rear structures built for a DD 6V71N/V730 drivetrain but the TTC switched the order, over NFI's objections, to the Cummins L10TA/ZF HP500 drivetrain which required a more substantive upper structure and heavier suspension to hold it up....the result was a tyailheaviness that caused the engine cradle to smack the ground over intersection crowns and driveway cuts. The Orion 6 was just poor design, all the weight was located in the left rear corner

(see pt 3)

[tovinman]

The Orion 6s also had heavy CNG tanks in the roof, and were never meant to carry a typical TTC crush load of 100+ people, so the floors warped, axles and wheel rims had to be redesigned, the steering columns all had to be replaced, and so on.

The interiors fared pretty well, we don't see a lot of graffitti or scratchitti or vandalism in general up here

[hilfansrock]

i always take the 133 neilson but those buses are a peice of shit...well not the orion v 1996 & the new orion vii hev ng hybrids...but all the rest of the buses suck!!!

[tovinman]

The TTC isn't as thrilled with those hybrids...they're complaining that they

aren't getting the fuel mileage Orion

claimed they would and the batteries are

failing twice as fast as originally believed.

[97SCT]

@AdmiralArcher yeah i would say lol. my city's transit bought a 1984 demo model for university runs, it was gone in the early 90s as OC Transpo acquired it

[BXM4C]

That would explain why NYCT was quick to retire their Orion 6 fleet; even the NJT rejects. Very informative video. Thanks for posting.

[D4090]

Any more pictures of TTC buses in the old livery??

[AdmiralArcher]

The Orion Ikarus made the 1st "accordion" buses? Eww! That bus looked weird.

[qwandiddy]

@tovinman TTC got rid of Orion 6 for the same reason why NYCT MTA got rid of their Orion 6s so early. But my city area still got all of their 2001-02 Orion 6s (which are the last orders before it got discontinued production) and they barely have problems and still going strong along with Washington DC WMATA and Los Angeles MTA's 2000-01 Orion 6s.

[juliachan1987]

The TTC can't even find good quality buses and when they do find one, they find excuses not to buy them. Case in point, the GM TA60-102N.

The buses that make up most of the fleet were built by Orion and the city of Toronto bought them just because the buses were made in Ontario hence you have politicians who always say "Buy locally". The TTC/city has never even tested the buses before buying them and the TTC drivers have NO say in what buses are ordered.

[gmcbuses]

The same thing happened to the AMG buses NFTA Metro, in Buffalo bought in 1976. They had lots of structural problems with revets.

[lexbus2001]

It's like all buses are gone

[craigybus1]

Leyland Lynxes seemed to rot rapidly here in the UK, and all have required major frame repairs. Buses built down to a price, using the cheapest steel they could find.