A former driver, who shall remain nameless, has subsequently contacted me reminiscing on his 'fortunes' when driving the same bus! He takes up the story of what he considers to be his jinx bus
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| 410 at Beccles in July 2010 minus front bumper and radiator grille |
'I remember the first day she was shipped up to Rackheath and I begged and begged to be able to take her out. In the end my operations manager gave in - so I took her out to Great Yarmouth on the old X47 route. On the return journey I left Market Gates OK and headed to Norwich and just got over the Vauxhall roundabout and lost all acceleration! With a bus full of passengers I managed to glide her off the main road which meant tow in number 1 with fitters finding a broken wire in the end
The next breakdown was when the Scanias (including 410) were on the 123 route. It started making some weird gearbox noises going through Rackheath and I thought nothing of it at first. Arriving at the mini roundabout, just before the garage, I lost all gears so I let her roll around the corner into a layby. This resulted in tow in number 2 meaning a gearbox replacement.
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| A line up at Ellough depot during July 2010 |
The next happened some three months later, as I was leaving Salhouse towards Norwich in R86EMB. Again strange gearbox noises started being heard but I carried on as there were no warning lights etc. I got as far as the Anglia Television building on Rose Lane. Whilst trying to accelerate up the hill, I started to roll backwards towards the bus behind and I just managed to get the handbrake on quick enough! The fitters came out and looked at the wiring etc, but still couldn't get her to move so this meant tow in number 3. The next day the operations manager passed me a photo showing the main shaft inside the gearbox was completely twisted and broken - I wasn't too popular that day!
However, I did like to drive them and put them through their paces and I would always swap buses with another Rackheath driver, even on route, just to get one of them old Scanias. Although I considered number 410 to be my jinx bus!
Many thanks for the memories driver
Roy
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