Friday 20 March 2009

Major problems for R651 YCR




Today A-Line Travel's Mercedes Vario R651 YCR suffered major engine problems and possibly more. After the problems yesterday things have escalated with the bus. Derrick Cuff took the bus over from Torpoint at around half 2 this afternoon. While going through the road to St John there was an extremely loud BANG and the turbo on the Vario blew. Derrick was immediately on the phone to Jim asking what to do next. As Jim lives in St John this was just a walk down the road. After inspecting it it was obvious this would not be a quick fix and the explosion had also possibly caused damage to the chassis. Therefore the bus was taken straight out of service and Volvo B10M E920 EAY was put into its place on the 80. Derrick caught up the time lost quite easily as the coach was not able to go on the road round Anderton. Though this is very bad news I must say it was lovely having E920 on the run, just what I was hoping for yesterday! It was also my first trip on E920 and I was quite surprised how well this old manual gearbox B10M goes! She really did go well up the hill from Cremyll. If only we could have this on the bus everyday! Derrick also drove the coach extremely well and showed Target Travel what he could really do with a fully manual coach! Target Travel had never allowed him to drive a coach as they though he was incapable though it was quite obvious today that this was not the case! Though after the 16:28 from Cremyll Jim had brough X891 YGU back from the Narkus school run and therefore passengers were changed and E920 made its way back to the depot in the hands of Jim. So I am very keen to find out what will happen on Monday. However good Jim is at bus maintenance I doubt he will have the R reg back up and running for Monday's services. The Van Hool is also suffering at the moment so this cannot be used. And M152 LPL is currently out of action. Unless he can get her up and running within the weekend I would guess Jim will have to hire in a bus from another company, likely to be Cremyll Coaches though we will see on Monday. Sorry about the picture quality. I was angry I didn't have the camera with me today for this occasion! Though the pictures show Derrick with E920 EAY and another standing with C417 HJN before the 16:33 81C to Torpoint.

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