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Left: There have been numerous mechanical failures, mostly on the computer problems which will shut down the whole bus, on both the 1991 and 1996 Orion 5 buses and tow truck is usually necessary to deal with the problems. 6645 was seen breaking down at about 2:40 pm at the intersection of Midland and Eglinton, it took more than 4 hours before clearing up the scene. Here is another view of 6645 which had been jacked up and was about to be towed back to Birchmount garage at about 6:50pm.
Right: The repainting of 6653 with new livery in 1997 did not include the body maintenence and it took another few months to do that in order to bring her back to "class A condition"(?) as 6653 returned to service in the summer 1998 when she regained her fleet # at the front.
| 6643 (1998) | 6643 was still serving 97 Yonge in May 1998, the bus was transferred to Birchmount later and it looks like 6643 will stay at Birchmount for the rest of her life. |
| 6648 (1996) | In winter 1996, 6648 (original 1991 license # BF 4161) was newly repainted bus, 6648 received a new floor under the first 6 year major overhaul and returned to service in May 1998. In summer 2000, 6648 (1998 license # BJ 4977) received the new UWE system. |
| 6650 | 6650 was one of a few remaining examples today that the Ontario Public Vehicle license plate can still be found at the back of the bus, the other example is 6680. |
| 6654 (2002) 6654 (2004) |
1991 Orion Vs was the last bus model in the TTC that carried the Ontario Public Vehicle plate at the back. There have been some small differences in the painting scheme and the decals as 6654 went through the 12-year rebuild in the year of 2004. |
| 6659 (1998) | As the Classics and Orion artics lost their "Ontario public vehicle" plates after body rebuild, the 1991 Orion V is the only group of buses that we can still see the plate and these plates are gradually being removed. In Sept 1998, 6659 still had the "Ontario public vehicle" plate, the plate was removed when 6659 was seen again in July 2000. |
| 6666 | There have been lots of mechanical problems on the Orion buses. 7082, 6680 and 6666 (from left to right) can be seen in this Jan 2 98 photo taken at Detroit Diesel parking lot. Other buses 6679, 6703 and 7054 were also there. |
6722 |
Exactly 10 years ago in October 1997, 6722 just received the 6-year rebuild and was back to Eglinton yard, 10 years after 6722 was retired at the age of 16. 6229 lasted 18 years and 9 months. |
| 6734 | 6734 was one of the last 3 buses (the others were 6735 and 6736) to be reallocated from Malvern to Birchmount, all of these Orion 5s have to stay in Birchmount for closer and easier care. |
| 6675 (Apr 97) | Birchmount's Orion V 6675 (BF4212, BK7255) has gone through the 6-year and 12-year rebuild in the year of 1997 and 2003. The Orion emblem was lost during the first 6-year rebuild, the yellow "easier access" sticker was removed in the 12-year rebuild. |
| 6676 | 6676 was rebuilt with a partial new floor, she returned to service on May 20 1998 and became a so-called Class A bus then. |
| 6677(original) | 6677 was in the last day of service with the original livery, was serving on #20 on a hot day in July 97.After going out of service for about 4 months, 6677 returned to #20 again with new livery in Nov 97. |
| 6684 (1996) | 6684 was repainted in late 1997. Not only the Orion emblem was lost after repainting, but also her 1991 license plate BF4221, BJ4997 became her new license in late 1997. 6684 used to be based at Queensway when she was new in 1991. Later, Queensway and Eglinton traded their A/C buses (6680-6714 for 6605-6638), 6684 went to Eglinton before settling down at Birchmount probably for the rest of her final years. 6684 received the UWE system for outdoor storage such that it doesn't need to take a long time to warm up the bus in the frigid winter months in early 2000. |
| 6684 / 6686 | 2004 was the last year that the older generation (High floor) buses were used for the Arrow Road roadeo driving competition. All the 1991 Orion V buses have been retired by early April 2010, 6684 and 6686 ranked 34th and 25th in the class. |
| 6726 (2002) | As more and more older license plates are being replaced, Orion V 6726 is now the only bus in the 6000 series that still retained the original BF plate. The red stripe on the front was shifted up a little bit when the bus was repainted after the 12-year rebuild. |
| 6740 (1996) 6740 (1998) 6740 (2002) 6740 (2003) |
6740 (BF5747, BJ6261, BK7293) received the 6-year rebuild in 1996 and there was no big fleet # at first, the fleet # was added at Birchmount yard later and therefore the position was different from other buses that have the fleet # applied at Hillcrest. 6740 showed up at Downsview station as a shuttle bus during the WYD in July 2002, a year or so later 6740 had the 12-year rebuild and the decals are now standardized. |
Left: 7008 was about to begin her afternoon rush hour duty on a record breaking warm day on Dec 4 98. 7008 is the only example among all the lift-equipped bus with the yellow color accessible sign. Another Dec 24 97 view on 7008, in which the yellow accessible sign still exists on 7008 today, but no more of these buses running on #84 Sheppard West during the weekdays.
Right: 7068 was only about 4 months old in this Nov 1996 photo.
| 7012 | On June 22 1999, 7012 broke down and a tow truck was about to move 7012 back to Arrow Road garage. |
| 7029 | 7029 at Finch station in Aug 98 |
| 7041 (1998) | 7041 has acquired many new features in the past 13 years since it was new in 1996, these photos were taken in August 1998 and Sept 2009. |
| 7043 | 7043 at Finch station in Aug 97. Another photo showing the back of 7043 was taken in Arrow Road garage in May 1999. |
| 7061 | 7061 at Downsview station on Dec 4 98 |
| 7074 | 7074 at Kennedy station in Sept 1998 |
| 7082 (1) 7082 (2) |
On Mar 2 2002, Orion V 7082 suffered from mechanical problems with oil and smoke coming out from the back. A TTC mechanic is investigating the problem. A Wilson GM bus was called in to replace 7082. |
| 7084 | 7084 at Kennedy station in Aug 98 |
| 7105 | 7105 was down on April 29 1998, a tow truck came to rescue and 7105 was ready to be towed back to the garage. |
| 7108 (2002) | 7108 was being towed back to Malvern on a September 2002 afternoon probably because of the overheating problem, 7108 was back to service the following day. |
| 7108 (1997) | Brand new 7108 and unrebuilt 6270 were seen at Sheppard station in 1997. 13 years after in October 2009, 7108 has received bike rack, security camera, automated stop announcement system, new wheelchaiir accessible sticker with white borders, black fleet number while the license plate BJ1580 is still the original. |
| 7111 | The back of 8327, 7111 and 7112 were at Sheppard station in Oct 96 when 7111 and 7112 were only about 3 months old. |
| 7065 (new) | There are always some differences when the repainting job is done in house. Take the 1996 Orion Vs as an example, the original buses have the fleet # aligned to the mid point of the width, or to the centre clearance light of the bus. Rebuilt 7073 looks like that while some rebuilt buses such as 7065 has the fleet # aligned to the divider of the 2 front windshields, which is a little to the left of the centre clearance light. The positions of the wheel chair sticker are also different between buses |
| 7126 / 7333 | As New Eglinton also supplies their buses to the 85 Sheppard East, 7333 also showed up at Metro Toronto Zoo. This photo was taken on Apr 13 2002. |
| 7127 (1) 7127 (2) |
Malvern 7127 has been carrying the Levis ad since the fall of 2001, here is the back of 7127. these photos were taken in early 2002. Eglinton-based bus 6243 and Wilson's 9384 also carried the same ad. |
| 7128 (1) 7128 (2) 7128 (3) |
Paint began chipping out on some of the 1996 Orion V buses as they approach 5-6 years old. 7128 was an example. All the defects were fixed under the mid-life rebuild in Oct 2004. |
| 7133 | The 5-year-old 7133 was still in original conditions when photographed on Dec 22 2001. |
