45 year ago -- it was Saturday, April 22nd -- 1978 -- and I was waiting at a grade crossing in Edmonton with an orange flag. Wearing a new reflective vest. In a few minutes, the twin inaugural trains of the first modern Light Rail Transit line were due over the crossing, following the ceremony at Churchill Station. My part of the day's festivities was to protect the crossing for the carloads of VIP's and hangers on in case of problems with the gates.
The ceremonial opening was commemorated with a bronze plaque honoring the Mayor, who as an alderman had voted against the project and the Transit General Manager, who had been the bus equipment manager in Calgary during most of the time that the project was conceived and built. On the crowded platform beneath Churchill Square, was D. L. MacDonald, who more than anyone else was responsible for this successful moment. D.L. had been pushed to the sidelines in a bureaucratic tussle; bringing in a rail transit line on time and on budget had not won him friends in the higher levels of bureaucracy. Soon, he was hired by Portland's Tri-Met and then by Vancouver's Skytrain. The transit manager on the platform that day, and on the bronze plaque, was eventually hired by Houston, which soon discovered that he knew little about a project like this.
My part in this event, aside from being a flagman for a few minutes, was very late. The project was well underway when I joined Edmonton Transit. I was assigned to write the content of signs, visualizing myself as a tiny human on the scale drawings, confronted by a new world that Edmontonians had yet to see. And I worked out a change in trolley coach overhead for Stadium Station. What amazed me was that I was pretty well left alone to do my job.
Crossing lights flashed and the twin trains passed safely. We caught a trolley coach to downtown to join in the day's festivities.
Note: I've written about this before, but the calendar coincidence this year was a reminder. Here are some pre-opening scenes.
Der Mutterwagen in Frankfurt.
"D.L." explains the tunneling to Marketing and Service Planning staffers.
Test runs on feeder routes. Young Jean Frost, a U of A Geography grad and native Edmontonian, prepared the service plan. Training instructor Murdoch McIntyre was a former streetcar motorman and soon the first instructor on Light Rail. Marcel Fafard was also a former motorman; he was the senior Service Designer (schedules, stop locations, garage assignments, etc.). A bus training staffer on right. It was typical at the time for big projects to be undertaken by line staff rather than consultants.
Cars from Germany were assembled in the old trolley coach wing of the Cromdale Shops.
Home-built trolley coach crossing. CN tracks on right and left of LRT tracks. (CN Tower office and train station in right background.)
Opening weekend. Note that the glazing sticker as seen on the destination sign in the photo above had not been removed. There were some imperfections.
More vintage photos from Edmonton Transit's glory days:
https://flickr.com/photos/135141530@N04/albums/72157657418586911
The ceremonial opening was commemorated with a bronze plaque honoring the Mayor, who as an alderman had voted against the project and the Transit General Manager, who had been the bus equipment manager in Calgary during most of the time that the project was conceived and built. On the crowded platform beneath Churchill Square, was D. L. MacDonald, who more than anyone else was responsible for this successful moment. D.L. had been pushed to the sidelines in a bureaucratic tussle; bringing in a rail transit line on time and on budget had not won him friends in the higher levels of bureaucracy. Soon, he was hired by Portland's Tri-Met and then by Vancouver's Skytrain. The transit manager on the platform that day, and on the bronze plaque, was eventually hired by Houston, which soon discovered that he knew little about a project like this.
My part in this event, aside from being a flagman for a few minutes, was very late. The project was well underway when I joined Edmonton Transit. I was assigned to write the content of signs, visualizing myself as a tiny human on the scale drawings, confronted by a new world that Edmontonians had yet to see. And I worked out a change in trolley coach overhead for Stadium Station. What amazed me was that I was pretty well left alone to do my job.
Crossing lights flashed and the twin trains passed safely. We caught a trolley coach to downtown to join in the day's festivities.
Note: I've written about this before, but the calendar coincidence this year was a reminder. Here are some pre-opening scenes.
Der Mutterwagen in Frankfurt.
"D.L." explains the tunneling to Marketing and Service Planning staffers.
Test runs on feeder routes. Young Jean Frost, a U of A Geography grad and native Edmontonian, prepared the service plan. Training instructor Murdoch McIntyre was a former streetcar motorman and soon the first instructor on Light Rail. Marcel Fafard was also a former motorman; he was the senior Service Designer (schedules, stop locations, garage assignments, etc.). A bus training staffer on right. It was typical at the time for big projects to be undertaken by line staff rather than consultants.
Cars from Germany were assembled in the old trolley coach wing of the Cromdale Shops.
Home-built trolley coach crossing. CN tracks on right and left of LRT tracks. (CN Tower office and train station in right background.)
Opening weekend. Note that the glazing sticker as seen on the destination sign in the photo above had not been removed. There were some imperfections.
More vintage photos from Edmonton Transit's glory days:
https://flickr.com/photos/135141530@N04/albums/72157657418586911
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