Brown Boveri Co (BBC) 109-110

The two BBC buses were originally Edmonton 109-110. They were purchased in 1995 in order to augment the Flyer fleet while the new buses from ETI were being built and delivered.

These were in revenue service until about 2005. As of May 2020, the RTA has retained both of them, although only 110 is currently roadable. 110 was used in fantrips in June 2016 and June 2018, and has been out for special occasions.

For a Bus History Association visit in May 2018, the late John Pappas, former Director of Maintenance for the RTA, commissioned a short history of 110, which was used for a portion of a fantrip during the visit.

110: Originally procured for Edmonton Transit and delivered in 1982.

How (and why) did it get to Dayton?

In the early 1990s, the Miami Valley RTA began to consider replacement of their Flyer fleet (901-964), which had been delivered in late 1976-early 1977. By the early 1990s, while the number of trolleys needed on the street to serve the then operating lines was shrinking (and in fact there was some question as to whether trolleys would be continuing in Dayton), the remaining buses were aging at a fast pace.

A program to rebuild a few of the Flyers began in 1992. By 1994, approximately six had been rebuilt, and those Flyers in the worst shape had been put out to pasture. Also in 1994, after opening a few bids for what would be the new trolleybus procurement, the RTA noted that the number of potential bidders was smaller than expected. This prompted a series of questions, which began with, if it takes longer for a new procurement to happen, what alternatives are there for trolley operation besides rebuilding Flyers?

While the Edmonton fleet was approximately 12 years old at the time, the buses had relatively low miles. Accounting for the cold temperatures, salt was not used much, if at all, and structurally the buses seemed to be in fairly good shape.

The decision was made to explore what it would take to make an Edmonton BBC compatible with operations in Dayton. The two major necessities were wheelchair lifts and air conditioning. Two candidate buses were picked, 109 and 110, and they were shipped to Dayton, arriving in Spring 1995.

Over the next few months, the RTA explored air conditioning (would’ve needed more roof strengthening beyond that which was done for the pole bases -- considered too economically difficult), and managed to retrofit a wheelchair lift into the GM body (which was no small feat).

During the runups to get the buses into service, it was discovered that there were electrical issues with making these more modern buses co-exist with a Flyer fleet whose overvoltage relays had never been maintained, as the tried and true GE 1213 controls really didn’t care much about local overvoltage in a “non-receptive” regen situation. And the BBCs (and subsequently the ETI/Skodas) very much did.

While this experiment was going on, the new trolleybus procurement was moving along. The ETI/Skoda demonstrators were on their way, and the production run was starting, with local final assembly in Dayton. Considering the work to get more of the Edmonton BBCs into service, and the work that would be needed to stand up the production ETI/Skoda fleet, it was decided to continue with the effort that was 109/110, and to get the production fleet into place as soon as possible.

110 is definitely one of a kind, and we are fortunate that the RTA kept it, and we are able to ride on it.