Comments on: The Brill Trolley Buses of Sandon, BC

By: Sandon town. – Tokeloshe

Sandon town. – Tokeloshe — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 18:38:05 +0000

[…] The Brill Trolley Buses of Sandon, BC […]

By: Cliff Harvey

Cliff Harvey — Sun, 08 Dec 2024 05:59:01 +0000

Stumbled on the town of Sandon on YouTube. Wow, that Brill collection brought back a flood of great memories. I started as a driver for BC Hydro in 1977. The Brill was the first bus I drove. And I remember Angus, a fellow driver. Hope to visit the summer of 2025.
Cliff

By: Peter Jensen

Peter Jensen — Sat, 15 Jun 2024 06:46:20 +0000

– My Dad and my brother both drove those electric Brill buses in Vancouver – my Dad drove buses for over 30 years and my younger brother drove buses for over 40 years – both of them knew “Angus” as well – as a kid growing up on Fraser Street my Dad always liked to pick and drive the Fraser Street run – he would stop the bus right in front of our house and run in and pick up his lunch on a regular basis – the neighbours living on Fraser Street were even luckier as he would drop them off in right front of their house as a courtesy – bus stops be damned! – we often rode the bus to the Marine Drive turnaround/terminus at the South end of Fraser Street near where the Blue Boy Hotel was built – now gone – after all the passengers were off – don’t tell anyone but Dad would sometimes let us drive the “Brill” about 50 feet or so up to the next stall – being electric powered I remember they had a lot of zip when you hit that “gas/electric” pedal – sadly the majority of the old Brill buses ended eventually up being crushed and sold for scrap – at that time that happened I had a long term client named Ian Mott who started United Auto Wreckers in Surrey along with his brother Richard on Scott Road – they acquired about 250 of the “Brill” buses in 1986 and wanted to restore them and put them back in service else but “skulduggery” at the time by the Provincial Government, the PNE, City of Surrey, various banks and others both Ian and Richard were foreclosed of all their massive property holdings in Surrey they had reinvested all their profits in – over 90 acres of prime valuable Industrial – Commercial land that everyone wanted to take control of from the Mott family – in the end Maynard auctioneers took control of the “disposal” of the Brill” buses – attempts claimed to sell the buses off individually were somewhat false/stretched – Maynard’s disposed of them quickly to make as much profit/money on them as possible – it was the end of a very sad time for a pair of entrepreneurs named Mott who gave “auto/salvage wrecking” a good name with their clean – organized by vehicle make – salvage yards they built for the recycling of used auto parts – sadly another part of the history of the Lower Mainland now lost forever

By: Sandon. – Tokeloshe

Sandon. – Tokeloshe — Fri, 23 Jun 2023 18:53:37 +0000

[…] The Brill Trolley Buses of Sandon, BC […]

By: mike mccullough

mike mccullough — Tue, 25 Apr 2023 18:11:40 +0000

i remembering riding the trolleys Sundays. you could get a all day pass, and we’d from end to end on as many routes as we could a great way to see the city . best memories ever

By: Dennis

Dennis — Tue, 07 Feb 2023 01:12:13 +0000

I rode a Brille in Vancouver when I was there looking for a job in the “big city” as I came from the interior of BC. The bus I was on had to swerve to miss an errand car driver. I was surprised the bus seemed to have reserve power to move itself back near the overhead power lines and the driver used a large non conducting pole to reattach it. When he took off he floored it and I was amazed how much power the electric engine had, taking off much faster than any diesel bus I have seen. My friend drove one of the buses, saying most had been in numerous accidents over the years and the side panels on the buses had been changed many times!

By: John Pavlovich

John Pavlovich — Thu, 12 Jan 2023 06:32:53 +0000

Thanks Eve for this lovely article. My son and I went there in June last year, on our way to Banff and Lake Louise. We had read about Sandon quite a bit, and wanted to visit the oldest hydro power plant in BC that was installed in 1897. Hal Wright gave us a tour of the plant. We heard the story that Nikola Tesla personally supervised the installation, that he spent three months in Sandon. Hal told us that he also heard that story, but could not confirm it. He thinks it makes sense that Tesla would do that since Westinghouse technology was based on Tesla’s inventions, and he wanted to make sure that everything worked as it should.

By: Richard Skelly

Richard Skelly — Wed, 03 Aug 2022 06:05:53 +0000

Heartening to learn that Sandon does draw tourists, though I wonder if many would venture there in the winter months.

It would be interesting to know if some Japanese internees and their descendants are among those who have visited over the years.

By: arthur penson

arthur penson — Mon, 01 Aug 2022 06:03:21 +0000

Hello: Your story about Sandon came to me from a friend who visited recently. Sandon and I are connected, distantly, but my mother taught school in Sandon for two or three years in the early 1920s. In fact the old school I believe appears in your top photograph. Throughout my youth in the 40s and 50s she often reminisced about Sandon, her first job, out on her own. It was still frontier territory. In the early 80s my wife and I visited Sandon and found it fascinating. We like old things and Sandon had an enchanting oldness that still existed, to say nothing of having had my mother live and teach there! (Her name was Frances Knott)

By: Anne Fletcher

Anne Fletcher — Mon, 01 Aug 2022 01:26:41 +0000

Great story. I could picture the lifestyle when it was a busy town. Your story telling always takes me to a visual place. Oh..is Hal single? Lol

By: Elle Andra-Warner

Elle Andra-Warner — Mon, 01 Aug 2022 01:08:08 +0000

There are two restored Brill Trolley buses on display at the Lakehead Transportation Museum Society in Thunder Bay, Ontario (former cities of Fort William and Port Arthur, amalgamated in 1970.)

By: Kits Kid

Kits Kid — Sun, 31 Jul 2022 21:12:59 +0000

Another very interesting story! You have such talent in bringing history alive!
I loved those Brill busses…. I was a passenger on them from the early 60’s when I was a little kid, until they stopped using them. I loved pushing the gate to get off at the back of the bus. It was fun watching the bus drivers re-attach the poles when they came off…which seemed to happen frequently on the 4th Avenue bus when it took the entry onto the Granville bridge.

By: Cliff Kelsey

Cliff Kelsey — Sun, 31 Jul 2022 19:40:52 +0000

Another great bit of history by a favorite “travelling” historian! We went to Sandon years ago and I really enjoyed the power plant being an electrician. There is, for sure, one important thing to remember about HISTORY. Eventually we will all become a part of it ourselves. As well, back then there was so much care to record it for future generations to enjoy. Thanks, again, Eve.

By: Brian Charlton

Brian Charlton — Sun, 31 Jul 2022 19:16:43 +0000

One thing missing is the role the Western Federation of Miners played in Sandon’s history. They operated a hospital and a cemetery among other things. The Museum mentioned has a lot of that history including a deck of playing cards that has pictures of Mother Jones and other labour activists. Sandon is really a cool place to visit and the bus collection is a bonus.

By: David Banks

David Banks — Sun, 31 Jul 2022 16:03:02 +0000

In reply to RWH James Magnus Hourston. No, a fire in 1900 wiped out the buildings seen in the 1890s photo.

By: Keith Johnston

Keith Johnston — Sat, 30 Jul 2022 23:07:43 +0000

Great story and photos. Thanks Eve! Got to put Sandon on the list of upcoming destinations. Do you know where the name came from?

By: O’Connell

O’Connell — Sat, 30 Jul 2022 22:40:40 +0000

Has he restored the buses and where are they ? There are probably many towns like this….like every face every town has a story!

By: Angus McIntyre

Angus McIntyre — Sat, 30 Jul 2022 22:21:15 +0000

The Brills were built under licence by Canadian Car and Foundry in Fort William, now Thunder Bay, Ontario. Some of these Brill trolley buses came from other cities. The photo of the two Brills in green, 446 and 459, came from Calgary – note faded CTS logo. Brill 2289 originally ran in Winnipeg until 1970, and became one of two to run as part of the Vancouver system. Other Sandon Brill trolleys include those from Saskatoon, which also ran in Vancouver, and Regina. Visitors to Vancouver in the early 1980s were surprised to see large numbers of these Brills running, many over 30 years old.

By: Skip Savage

Skip Savage — Sat, 30 Jul 2022 20:17:58 +0000

Very good reporting, Eve. Kudos to Hal Wright as well for all of his efforts on behalf of Sandon and the Brill buses.

Eve, the caption for the powerhouse about the last functional power plant in the world, could it be missing a word? The last of its kind perhaps.

I hope you do more of this kind of story. So original.

By: Judith

Judith — Sat, 30 Jul 2022 19:46:37 +0000

In reply to Zoe Napier-Hemy. I rode those buses from Joyce Rd loop downtown many Saturdays to Woodwards and then on to Hudson’s Bay for “Bayday”. That was a big deal!