Contrary to what we may sometimes wish to believe, everything is not always bright and shiny in Velvet World, and yesterday was one of those days that proved this.
The day started well, with twelve out of a possible twelve buses available for service. 511 is due for its four weekly inspection this week, so with the luxury of having the whole fleet available we decided to leave that one off the allocation so the engineers could do their thing.
Everything went smoothly, and indeed just before 9am Ant texted me to let me know he was off for a few hours. He has just bought another Leyland National (that’s an old bus for non-geeks) thus bringing his collection of these venerable old heaps to two, the main difference being that this one has most of its panels in their proper place stuck to the outside of the bus, rather than piled up on the inside waiting to be reattached as was the case with the last one he bought.
Anyway he was off to collect his new toy so that left me in sole charge of the empire. I was planning a quiet productive day, paying wages and suppliers, and then raising invoices to make me feel better about all the money i’d have spent.
The peace and quiet was rudely interrupted by a female resident of Velmore, who decided to drive into the side of 558 just before 10.00.
Luckily everyone was apparently ok, and the bus was able to continue in service albeit with some delay, and by all accounts the car was not in a position to continue anywhere, which frankly serves it right!
So I headed down to the bus station to meet the stricken bus, which arrived about 10 minutes late at 1015. Closer inspection of the damage revealed some dents and scratches to the battery flap under the driver’s window, which will not stop the bus being used, but some damage to the offside front indicator which will need to be sorted before the bus can go back out.
Luckily the scheduled 1005-1015 turnaround is also a driver changeover and I was able to get the outgoing driver installed in the spare bus, 841, in time to allow plenty of time for loading and a punctual departure.
Meanwhile, our accident driver was due back out again after a legal thirty minute break on the 1045 C2. Now bearing in mind our stipulation that drivers must be on the bus a minimum of five minutes before departure, this was clearly not going to work. Besides, although unhurt, our driver was a little shaken and deserving of slightly more civilised treatment than being kicked straight back out on the next bus. So that made me the driver of the 1045 C2!
This bus turned out to be 552 (Ant having swapped the allocation round extensively in the morning from how I’d left it the previous evening – I guess he was bored or needed something to distract him from the excitement that awaited him later on). I can never make up my mind about 552. Darts with that particular engine make a pretty unattractive throbbing, growling noise, usually accompanied by extensive vibrations when idling, and to be honest I find the noise really tiresome. This is as opposed to earlier Darts that just sound like overgrown hairdryers.
Anyway, for some reason 552’s noises didn’t bother me particularly today and on the plus side, the Darts are much nippier than the DAFs which is ideal on a fairly tightly timed urban route like the C1 or C2. So 552 and me got on just fine today, and a three minute late departure from Eastleigh occasioned by the uncharacteristically late arrival of the incoming journey, was effortlessly turned into an on time arrival at 1205, ready to hand back to our now rejuvenated accident victim for his next trip, the 1215 C1.
In the meantime, I learned that the 1115 C1 had been delayed on departure from Eastleigh because of a problem with the kneeling suspension. The DAFs have very complicated interlocks to stop you driving away when the suspension is lowered, and sometimes they get themselves a bit confused and won’t let you drive away even when the suspension is patently in its proper position. This had caused about fifteen minutes of annoyance to Steve and Simon while they tried to sort it out, and accordingly the 1115 from Eastleigh was about 10 to 15 minutes late.
Our normal practice now armed with such information is to go straight for Twitter and inform the general public of any delay. I was pleased to note that in my absence Mikey had done just that so the world was duly aware of this delay. (As an aside, the process of sending a Tweet is now known internally as “devaluing the brand”, for example in the expression “Please would you devalue the brand Mikey”, meaning please would you update the Twitter feed - an obscure in-joke that will be understood only be the more perceptive observers of the local bus scene, and there are absolutely no prizes for getting it!).
This of course now meant that the 1156 C1 would also be running late, and with a driver changeover due on its arrival in Eastleigh at 1240 before the 1245 C2 departure, I was able to commandeer another spare bus, 851, to enable Taz to go out on time on the 1245.
Having thus lost the entire morning, I grabbed a salad for lunch and headed back to the office, where I did at least manage to pay the wages.
Then I got two texts almost simultaneously. One from Ant to say that he would shortly be back in Eastleigh with his new toy, and one from Matt to say that he had an airbag warning light on 512 at Boorley Green, waiting to come back on an A. After an interrogation about any possible problems with the suspension, I judged 512 safe to drive and asked Matt to bring it back in service and said I’d meet him in Eastleigh.
So just over an hour after arriving back in the office, I was heading off back down the bus station. Sure enough, just before 3, a dark green Leyland National came romping into the bus station and glid to an elegant halt on the wall. Ant emerged from the driving seat commenting that it was one of the nicest Nationals he’d ever driven. Whereupon one of the friendly staff of the adjacent Sainsbury’s store wandered over and asked him, “who owns this piece of s**t then?”.
Chastened, Ant decided to make for the safety of the yard, and at that moment 512 trundled in, Matt announcing that in addition to the airbag warning, the speedo had failed just before arrival in Eastleigh!
So off I headed to Brenhaul in the stricken 512. As I passed the entrance to the yard, there was Ant’s toy surrounded by the local bus paparazzi who were out in force to greet it. Sadly, my arrival at Brenhaul met with a rather gloomier reception.
Upon carrying out 511’s inspection, Brenhaul had found a problem with the body at the rear, which will need the attention of the body repair company we use. They would be unable to look at it before the following morning, so it would be off overnight.
By some clever detective work I had established that the suspension on 512 raised and lowered fine, which suggests that the airbags themselves are not the problem – it was only the kneeling switch that didn’t elicit a response and therefore the problem i s much more likely to be the switch. And too much of a coincidence that the speedo failed at nearly the same time. So almost certainly an electrical problem.
But needless to say, our electrician would be too busy and unable to attend before the following morning, so 512 joined 511 and 558 on the casualty list, meaning that our available low-floor single deck resource would be halved from Wednesday morning to Thursday morning, with only three out of the six being available Thursday morning.
Back I trooped to the office, having now lost a good chunk of the afternoon as well. I managed to pay a few invoices, the joy of it, and was just thinking about how to prioritise the remaining time when Matt called again. He was on C stand, ready to depart on the 1615 C1 with 507, and it wouldn’t start! Electrics all ok, all the systems came to life exactly as they should, but when you hit the all-important ‘start’ button...... nothing!
So I arranged for him to decant his passengers on to the third spare bus of the day, 843, and off I went to the bus station yet again, having summoned Brenhaul to attend the scene. Sure enough, not long later, Rapid Response International Rescue came roaring into the bus station showing off the nice flashy orange lights on their shiny new van.
In about the only piece of good news, after some fiddling about under the engine flap (a land of mystery in my world), they managed to get it going again. Looks like it was something to do with the contact that tells the bus the engine flap is shut – if the contact is not made, the bus thinks the flap is open and won’t let you start the engine. The bus managed to start successfully for the rest of the day, so hopefully all is now well. My fear that this bus would have some terrible fault putting it off the road and taking the single deck casualty list to two thirds of the total happily proved unfounded.
By now it was approaching 5pm, or 1700 hrs as my brain doesn’t like 12 hour clocks, so I chatted to Taz for a bit and watched him go on the 1715 C1, then finally did manage an uninterrupted hour in the office before heading over to the yard for my daily game of helping the buses back into their parking spaces. I really need a set of table tennis bats for this for the full air traffic control effect... if anyone knows of any going spare!!!!
So that was the story of not the worst day ever by far, but just one of those niggly, frustrating days where nothing seems to go right and the “to do” list remains as long, or longer, than it ever was!
