JUNE

June 5

We have gotten the part for the Dodge bus carb and Shepards is rebuilding it and it should be ready soon. The Gillig gave up the ghost on us after going to Thermo King to pick up Joe Kennedy where he left the Grumman because the AC is gone. The Gillig would not start and was on the street so we used our new Ford F250 to pull it into the lot. Ben says it is likely the starter.

The Pumpkin is not running well and likely needs a fuel filter. Harry and Mel worked on the Mack. Freddy took a weedeater to the lawn. James, Ben, Bev, BT, Austin, Kenny, Joe, Don Robertson all had projects and we are moving on. Have shuttles on Mon, Tues and Wed for the Methodist Conference and Joe is doing some separate work with them as well.

MAY

May 28

This week we worked on several items including getting the Gillig back (thanks Johnny), finding the air leak on the Chiquita (Joe got right under there and found a tank has rusted through so it will be a while before the Chiquita goes anywhere). Ben checked to see how it was attached so we could work on it Saturday. Mel and James worked on the fuel tank on the Dodge and it is really coming along. Ed continues his efforts to keep us organized. It is impossible but he keeps on trying!

We had a wedding trip on Saturday that really got into our timing for a workday. Bev and Karen had to leave at 11:20 and before that Bev had to pick up the Grumman. It would not raise up on the right side when leaving ThermoKing on Friday so it went to Johnny. What would we do without Johnny and the crew? Wayne got it fixed and put a new switch on it so the low air buzzer would stop at the proper point. We will still have to get the parking brake fixed on this bus later. And, wouldn't you know it, the AC is not working after our time at ThermoKing. Must be something small but we are without AC on the Grumman for now.

We got to the Honeycutt wedding event on time and fortunately only needed one coach. We took them to Raleigh Court Presbyterian Church and then went back to the barn where Karen parked the Grumman oven and went on home. Ben was there working on the Chiquita and he was great. The tank is off and he knows how to fix it. Johnny gave us an idea we think might work as well. He and Bev worked on some little stuff and then called it a day.

May 15

We had a great night at the Buseum with Ben, Ed, Freddy and James all there. Ben got the starter on the BT bus and it started right up. What a great thing to get done! Thanks Ben, We could not have done it without you. Ed brought pizza and it was good! He then cleaned out the Pentran and the Pumpkin so they would be ready for the TITAN AMERICA folks. They want two buses and BT and I will be driving for them. Freddy was so helpful getting the lawn mowed and weed eating done. The Buseum looks great. Thanks Freddy!

We charged up the BT bus after it started and got city stickers on most everything. We need to start the White truck and the 3714 soon. Neither have been run for a long time. Ben is working on the carburator stuff for the school bus and hopes to have all bolts ready for the tank on that bus soon. Mel needs them by next week.

May 9

Ben Shank started getting the starter back on the Blacksburg bus and it is all done but one very difficult bolt. He will try to finish it next week. Then we will see if this was the problem! Mel and Harry with the help of James worked on the completion of getting the gas tank back on Old Yeller. It is taking them some time but it is a first class job!

Freddy helped with lots of little things including attempting to save the new tree out front. We think it is gone but he is working hard at it. Kennie Harris got the new tags on our pickup and Mel will try to get us a new battery soon. We attempted to get the new FLXIBLE nameplate on the 30 ft Metro but we don’t have the correct screws. Kenny Brooks got the Gillig ready so the computer Mel is picking up in Lynchburg on Monday can be used to see what is wrong.

We got the Orion washed for Railtours on Saturday in cooperation with the Jamestown Celebration. We are doing two, one at 11am and 2pm and we are doing it with the Link Museum, the Roanoke Chapter of the NRHS and the Virginia Museum of Transportation.

We are working on the logo and dedicated signage to the students killed at Tech for installation on the BT bus. Bret has been assisting me on that as we move ahead. Bill Triplett gave us some ad signs from Safety Motor Transit last night from 1941. They are really good ones.

Ed worked in the shop and got things better organized. What would we do without having our organizational Man and Pizza Man each Wednesday night? He continues to keep us together at the Buseum.

May 2

Mel and Harry have been working on the school bus. They have had to get a large piece of oak to keep the rebuilt gas tank away from the side. They were drilling large holes in the oak and getting it set to install.

We took the starter on the BT bus to Fisher's Auto Parts and they redid it but were saying it had some real problems. It is back and Ben hopes to install it on Wed of this week.

We raised the Chiquita off the ground with BT driving the forklift and hope to work on the air leak the 9th. We took the 62 AB&W to VM and put it on the lift to see what was causing that air leak. Turns out to be the air dryer.

The Orion is back with the AC working. It had one wire loose and needed a small amount of freon. The Grumman is at Thermo King now and no telling what it will need! After that we will see if the RTS comes next.

Mel and Harry are going to Blacksburg tomorrow to get a new radiator for the BT bus that is left over at Blacksburg Transit. Monday they are going to Lynchburg to get the computer to check the Gillig. It is totally out of commission until we get this instrument. Thanks so much Guys!

APRIL

April 28

Our workday on the 28th had Ed organizing the building, and working to clean the fleet. Ben got the starter out of the BT bus (boy did he have to work hard to do that) and we will try to get it rebuilt soon. We are not sure it is the problem but we will work on the possible issues one at a time. Ed and I took the Richmond Metro to VM to wash it down and see if we had fixed the leaks. Mel did a great job working on this a week ago. It is MUCH better but still seems to have a few places where water is getting in! We will continue to work on it.

Thanks to Mel for going to the DMV this week and getting tags for the pickup, the 4104, the RTS and the School Bus. We got tags on the RTS today but have to get some more tag bolts to finish everything up! Almost everything is tagged and titled at this point which is a great accomplishment. We mowed the lawn and need to think about getting a sign up on the front lawn. The two Carilion signs we have can be reworked for that purpose. Let me know if you would be interested in assisting on that project.

We got the AB&W started with Ben recharging the battery. Once it was up, it started immediately. We do have a problem with the valve on the air tank sticking open so we need to fix that soon.

On the Gillig we are going to have to ask John Thompson for help as the stop engine light is coming on regularly and the engine is not working properly. And, our old faithful the Grumman has something wrong with its parking brake air as it will not release once the bus is turned off.

We have some serious but mostly simple stuff to work on and really need a lot of help as we get into the warm months. I have had some conversations with a fence guy about extending the yard toward the railroad. I hope to have some numbers soon on getting that done soon.

We did an event Thursday night and BT drove the group. We have Board Member Bill Honeycutt's daughter's wedding coming up on the 27th of May. Should be a wonderful affair.

I have talked to Thermo King and we need to take 3 buses there for some work on the AC units to see if we can have some comfort this summer. The Grumman, the RTS and the Orion need to visit them soon.

April 16

We had a busy weekend. On the 14th we had Joe Kennedy and Bev getting four coaches ready for trips on Sunday, and on the 15th Kenny and BT going to Rocky Mount for the Moonshine Tours while Joe and Bev were doing the History and Rail tours for the History Museum. Had one failure with the Gillig as we were getting ready for Rocky Mount. It is doing the same thing it did to Karen, losing all power with the stop engine light coming on. Something is not going right with that old bird. We will likely need to get assistance as this is over our heads.

We used the Orion and Pentran on the Franklin County trips while the Grumman and the Richmond Metro were used on the local tours. Weather held off for the most part so we didn’t have to worry that the Richmond bus would leak on the folks. I believe we will start on Wednesday night to take the roof vents off and reinstall them so we can make sure it leaks no more.

Freddy has a good idea that we do something on the BT bus to dedicate it to the students who lost their lives at Virginia Tech. I think that is a great idea. In addition, Johnny is going to see if he can help us get the BT bus started soon. Keep VT and all those affected by the tragedy in your prayers.

April 6

We have had several good, and relaxed worknights recently. Some have been a little too cold to really do much. But, on some warmer nights, we have worked on the 4104, the BT bus, the F250 (still will not start), the Buffalo and the Gillig. We need to have 4 coaches on the road the 15th of April and mikes and speakers are crucial for all. At the moment we have the Gillig, Orion, and Grumman with intercoms. We need one on the Richmond bus, the Pumpkin or the Pentran asap.

The BT bus is driving us to drink. The batteries are charged and all we can get is a little noise from the rear solenoid. Johnny says it might be the starter as some suggested recently. He says we can get to it from the rear seat!

Ben has put the flywheel on the Buffalo and is going to get two new clutch plates before we go further. That is the big project for the 28th of April. We sure hope most everyone can be there that day to help. We want to get the transmission back on the Buffalo and try her out.

The 4104 now has a bad leak in the air system up front. We need to have someone small who can get in there and see what is going on. We can lift it up with the Forklift and block it to see if we can find the leak.

We were able to get two buses inspected today so we have the Orion and the Pentran back on line for passenger service. We also have a set of decals coming for the 30ft Metro from WMATA—once we get some photos to them. Freddy will check to see if he has any photos of them in service.

The warmer weather (most of the time) is making the grass grow so mowing starts soon. Thanks to Harry and Mel, we almost have the tractor ready.

April 3

We were finally able to get the Chiquita started when we discovered that one of us (could have been anyone) accidentally hit the engine stop button in the rear and that is why it would not fire. Now we know what to look for first! Hopefully it is good enough shape now that we can move on to the Blacksburg bus. Mel, thanks for the great job on the fuel tank on the school bus. It looks great. And thanks to Harry we were able to get the tire off the tractor. I dropped it off to be looked over and we’ll see what they find. Ben is hoping to get the clutch disc we need, and we will be ready to give the Buffalo a good run soon.

MARCH

March 21

We are having a tough time on the 4905 Buffalo and the flywheel. Nothing seems to work.

March 10

We took a roadtrip to Lynchburg and on to Goshen, Virginia. When we arrived at the Buseum we had 7 folks ready to go. Karen, Ed, Freddy, Mark, BT, Phil McFarlane and Bev. We arrived at Lynchburg Bus Service just in time to see the sewage truck leave which should have told us something. That something was that the 35 foot GMC we were interested in seeing had been sold and scrapped in the last 30 days. With that in mind, we went to lunch where Ed was kind enough to treat us and presented Mark Williams with a book entitled "Don't let the Pigeon drive the bus" to give to Mark Jr. From there we went to Greater Lynchburg Transit and toured their yard (saw old Valley Metro Gilligs being used by Liberty University) and an assortment of Opus, Gillig and Thomas buses in normal transit service. We toured downtown including the lower basin and then took Route 501 to Glasgow, Buena Vista and on to Goshen off of I-64.

There we hit some paydirt with the finding of a 1951 TDH 4509. Freddy did some research last night and determined it was AB&W number 1869 and therefore is a Virginia bus. It was in better condition than we thought. Both Mel and Bev had seen this in the last couple of years so we wanted to get some pictures and see if we could get some background. The bus is accessible by Landoll and would likely be pretty easy to get to the Buseum.

We returned to the Buseum under threatening skies and tried to start the Chiquita to no avail. We need help on this one as something seems to be different. It just will not fire. We are hoping to hear from the DMV this week on a title and tags for this bus.