This mylar front route sign is off 1967 GMC TDH-3501 (Serial #840) "Old Look" #675. It has 56 exposures and its sign tag is shown below. Its print date is February 23, 1973. This sign was originally printed for the pending discontinuation of electric trolley buses on March 26, 1973, but had been updated since that original print date. Route 7 on this sign was the former trolley coach route. A photo of the bus this sign was off of is featured at left, middle. |
This mylar front route sign is the original print from the late 1970s or early 1980s. As time went on, inserts were printed and added or substituted in as routes were created or changed. This original sign has 49 exposures. This rollsign was donated to Rollsign Gallery by John McDonnell. |
Kitchener Transit GMC TDH-3501 #675 is seen at Aba Auto, a small scrap yard on Morton Line at Highway 7A, southwest of Peterborough, Ontario, June 29, 1999. The first red (and orange) coloured sign to the right was removed from this bus. This bus has since been scrapped, and the scrap yard has been sold and changed into a metal recycler. |
to go to the Kitchener Transit electronic sign list page. |
This mylar front route sign is off 1974 built Flyer D800A #740. It has no print date. It has 60 exposures. This sign features some of the earlier update inserts that began to show on Kitchener Transit rollsigns. Still, about half the rollsign is original like the previous ones. This rollsign was donated to Rollsign Gallery by John McDonnell. |
Originally, Kitchener, Ontario was known as Berlin, Ontario. The town changed its name in 1919. Transit began with the Berlin and Waterloo Street Railway Company on June 13, 1889. The service was acquired by the Town of Berlin on May 1, 1907. Between 1907 and 1909, the company was run by the Light Commissioner, then run by town council, and eventually, by the public utilities commission. With the town's name change, the company changed its name to the Kitchener and Waterloo Street Railway. In 1927, services were transferred to the Kitchener Public Utilities Commission. During its operation, it saw the end to streetcar service, and the introduction of trolley bus service. On March 26, 1973, when operations were taken over by the Kitchener Department of Transportation Services, and the modern Kitchener Transit formed, trolley bus service ended. Kitchener Transit continued to operate until January 1, 2000, when in June of 1999, Waterloo Regional Council voted to merge Kitchener Transit with Cambridge Transit, to create Grand River Transit, who operates service today. |
This Kitchener Transit linen diesel bus rollsign is from the era when trolley coaches operated in Kitchener and Waterloo. The sign has no print date, but precedes all the mylar red print signs in the collection. The rollsign has 20 exposures, with the last four painted on at a later date from the original sign. This rollsign was donated to Rollsign Gallery by John McDonnell. |
Rollsigns from Kitchener, ON P A G E 1 o f 3 |
This mylar front route sign is off 1968 GMC TDH-3502 #683. It has 54 exposures. It has no print date, but through research, have found it to have been printed sometime between 1980 & 1983. This sign shows some of the earliest inserted updates these would get over the years. As exposures were added and removed, these signs became quite a collage of changes. |