A Tale of Two Buses

July 2021 Update

In July, after just over a year of having owned a bus, I took delivery of my second bus. I expected this to be a major step forward in the mechanical restoration of 1130 as this bus, despite not running at all, would be a major source of both replacement and spare parts and had already been a donor for some interior-related items for 1130 the previous year.

On July 11th, 2021, I took delivery of Red Arrow Spruce Meadows #671, a 1975 GMDD T6H-5307N (formerly Calgary Transit #824) that had been retired from the Spruce Meadows fleet in late 2010 mostly due to a major structural defect above the right rear wheel. It arrived at my storage lot by flatbed truck and was placed beside 1130. I will not specify here who its previous owner was, how I took ownership of the bus or where it was stored previously, although I will mention that I originally planned to have Peter help me drive it to my lot on its own power and we had some issues doing so due to its seized diesel injectors. Eventually I decided to simply have it brought in by a flatbed truck as fixing that onsite would have been impractical due to various factors. I plan to scrap this bus once I am done taking everything of value for my project off of it.

Enjoy all the photos posted throughout this page of a green Spruce Meadows fishbowl arriving at the lot and being parked next to a 3-stripe Calgary Transit fishbowl (despite facing opposite directions), for the first time in decades and more than likely also the last time it will ever happen.

As soon as the bus arrived and continuing for the next several weeks, I got down to work pulling a myriad of various parts off of 671. Many parts I simply saved as spares in case I may ever need them (e.g. exterior light lenses) and packed them up into several cardboard boxes. Ken and Peter were kind enough to help change out 1130’s cracked passenger window on its left side for one from 671, as well as the front GMC crest plate for the better condition plate from 671. I hired a windshield installer to replace all 6 pieces of 1130’s windshield (containing numerous massive rock chips as well as severe wiper burn) and cracked standee window with those from 671 as well. To prevent further damage to the windshield, I took 1130’s windshield wiper blades home to tighten the frame around the rubber and re-installed the blades on the bus in the correct orientation. I also saved the wiper blades from 671 as spares.

Another thing I had to do was remove the diesel out of 671’s fuel tank and transfer it into 1130’s tank as 671 still held well over half a tank of diesel. I took care of this using my two yellow 20L jerry cans and a small 12V pump connected to my car’s power. I had to remove the entire filler tube assembly off the top of the fuel tank as the pump would not fit into the tube. Once I got set up, the transfer of the diesel was also quite a chore as the pump took about half an hour to fill a jerry can, and there ended up being an incredible 12 cans worth of diesel in 671’s tank! Accounting for the fact that I filled each can to well above the 20L line, I estimate that I may have gotten about ~260-270 liters of diesel out of 671, which at the time of writing this equates to well over $300 worth of basically free fuel.

Lastly, I was able to finally install the missing slanted leg for the passenger side rear bench in 1130 by removing one of the slanted legs from 671 using a drill. 671 also came with several intact seat cushions, most of which I took home to keep as spares, although one of them was a two-tone seat back cushion for the rear bench which I installed in 1130 to replace the existing single tone dark blue, water damaged seat back. Along with the upholstery shop finally getting the piping right for the side facing seat bottoms (see my June update for the full story on that) and me bringing those down to the bus again, the rear section of 1130’s interior was now finally 100% complete.

I did consider also swapping the rear wheels between the two buses so that 671’s tires with better tread could go on 1130, but the mobile service crew was unfortunately not able to safely raise either bus at the back end. I was not interested in 671’s front tires as they had major dry rot on the sidewalls. Despite that, I had still managed to obtain an estimated over $1500 worth of parts and fuel from 671 making this venture a success in my mind. On August 3rd, 2021, it was time for 671 to be hauled away for good. Yigal and Michael came by to check the bus out before I called the tow truck in as they still had yet to see it. Michael ended up taking the roll sign mechanism laying inside 671 (originally from Spruce Meadows #656) home before it was hauled away.