<Small green and brown omnibus, Toronto Street Railway, ca1860’s. They ran as backups to the main fleet of horsecars.>  Media producer TREVOR PARKINS is a man on a mission. He’s learned that relics from the earliest days of public transit in TORONTO are accumulating dust in Ottawa’s Science and Technology Museum. He wants them back where they belong. The major obstacle is finding a place to show them.

<Yorkville Omnibus, in service from 1849 to 1861 between TORONTO and the Village of Yorkville>  Once part of a museum display, the vehicles appear to be in excellent shape, but they’ve been in storage for decades. “They are part of TORONTO’s history, not Ottawa history,” Trevor says. “I really think the TTC could bring them back and run a touristic attraction for them, if they wanted.”

<John Thompson Omnibus, 1880, carried passengers from TORONTO to Richmond Hill>  Spokesman BRAD ROSS said the TTC has no record of heritage vehicles belonging to the TTC in storage in Ottawa – or anywhere else for that matter. “Vehicles are decommissioned and sold as scrap – and have been for years.” he said. “Where they go after that isn’t something we track.”

<1892 closed streetcar, Toronto Street Railway Company>

<One of TORONTO’s first double-deckers, 1921>

<Single-decker bus, Toronto Transportation Commission, 1922>  <PHOTOS – Trevor Parkins, Transit Toronto, blogto>