Bus stories and lessons
stolen from friends
In the Summer of 1966 I swept the trash out of a 1947 Brill…. beginning a bus career that included washing, driving, repairing and, ultimately, selling motorcoaches.
Perverted Maintenance… Death by Dustball
“Folks, we’ve lost an engine” announced the Pilot “Nothing to worry about, we have four, and the plane can fly OK on 3”.
“It’ll slow us down a bit we’ll arrive about an hour late”.
A few minutes later, he came back on in his best Pilot voice with “We’ve lost another engine, but don’t worry, we can fly safely without it. Unfortunately it will add ANOTHER hour to our flight time”.
At this point one passenger muttered to his seatmate “Gee, I hope we don’t lose any more, or we’ll be up here forever”.
Modern coaches have a great deal of “backup” built into critical systems. Brake systems are designed so that if part fails, the rest picks up most of the slack. Many buses have more than one alternator, and several HVAC condenser fan motors. Gee, unlike some modern cars, buses carry spare tires.
Resources
National Bus Trader
The AACA Museum
The Museum of Bus Transportation
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If you have any bus or motorcoach related topics that you would like to see, please don’t hesitate to reach out.