At long last, she is home…
11 minute read
January 18, 2025, 8:46 AM
I have some good news: at long last, my New Flyer D35HF transit bus is home. I had it brought in via truck, basically because I considered all of the various factors and it just worked out better to get it trucked in rather than driving it. The main factor was that we still have a few remaining mechanical issues with the bus, and we’re just about there when it comes to fixing it, but I was getting tired of having a long-distance relationship with the bus mechanic. Make no mistake: General Diesel is a great shop, and I would recommend them to anyone in the Charleston area who needs trucks or buses serviced. They were extremely helpful to Elyse and me, they were very communicative about what was going on with the bus, they answered all of my questions, and they were happy to rescue us after the last two attempts at retrieval ended unsuccessfully. But my being more than 500 miles away had its challenges, as I couldn’t actually go over and see what was going on myself, and I also had no real access to the bus, because any trip down required a large commitment of time and money for traveling, lodging, etc. Add to that how we had already made three attempts to bring her home, and while we certainly made something out of most of those trips separate from the bus-related activities, that time and expense was starting to add up. The thought was that a successful transport would involve transportation to Charleston for Elyse, myself, and possibly also Tristan, along with lodging, fuel, and a three-day time commitment. And this was for a bus that none of us were particularly familiar with because we had collectively spent all of about three days with her over the span of about a year. And after three failed retrieval attempts, I wasn’t feeling another one. We were also really lucky that all of our breakdowns happened in the Charleston area, because that was an easy return-to-launch-site kind of mission abort. It might have been a whole different story had this happened somewhere in rural North Carolina, for instance, which was still very far from home, but also far from our shop. All of that said, shipping the bus was starting to sound pretty attractive, paying once and knowing with certainty that she was going to make it all the way here, plus that freed me up to attend to other things.
The process of shipping the bus was a challenge, mainly because I had never done something like this before and therefore didn’t know what I was doing. I started by using Shiply, which was essentially an online brokerage service where you put out a proposal for something that you need transported and then shippers bid on it. That was overwhelming. I was getting bombarded by bids from all kinds of little shipping companies that I had never heard of, and all of them seemed very pushy, which didn’t make me comfortable at all. That pushiness was a real turnoff, especially when there was no hurry to complete this job (it wasn’t hurting anything staying in South Carolina), and I refused to be rushed, especially when I didn’t know much about what I was doing. I ended up going back to my various contacts and got more recommendations for how to transport this thing, and tried again. One contact recommended uShip, which is similar to Shiply. I put a request for proposals out for there as well, however, that led to the same overwhelming bombardment as Shiply, plus a number of shippers did their own research and contacted me outside of uShip to try to get around uShip’s fees. I was contacted through Schumin Web‘s Facebook page, my contact form, as well as on my Fine Art America store’s contact form (which is something that I didn’t know existed). My response to that sort of behavior, going around the platform where I made the request, was automatic disqualification. I was not going to enable that sort of shady behavior in any way, shape, or form, so by not respecting boundaries, they had de facto self-selected out of the process.
I did better when I contacted Nationwide Transport Services, which was a recommendation from Trevor Logan. He had used this service to transport his own vintage bus cross-country, and it worked out very well for him. It worked out very well for me, too, because they shopped my request around themselves and got me a really good deal that I probably couldn’t have gotten for myself, since they’re the professionals when it comes to this sort of thing. I got all of the paperwork signed, and then the shipper picked up the bus in the late afternoon on Wednesday, January 15. The next day was built around taking delivery of the bus up in Frederick, which is where I had reserved a space for the bus to live. The arrival time that was given to me was noon, and so we planned to be in Frederick by 11:00 and on standby nearby, just in case he was early. Then while we were getting ready, I got a call from Nationwide: move that back to 2:00. That was fine by me, as that allowed Elyse and me to take our time getting ready to go out. On the way up to Frederick, we got a call from the shipper directly, that his arrival would be more like 4:30, and that he was calling from Caroline County in Virginia (between Richmond and Fredericksburg on I-95). Okay, though we expected that timeframe to slip some more because he was going off of his GPS, and we knew what traffic was like trying to go through the DC area that time of day (good luck with that!). We ended up taking care of other things that we needed to do in Frederick already, like talking to diesel shops, as well as going to a toy store downtown that Elyse had wanted to check out. We also did some grocery shopping, so a productive day was had all around. I checked up on him when we were at Walmart, and he was still down in Virginia, though now in Merrifield, i.e. he had made it to the Beltway. Good. So he’d probably be another 90 minutes, and I asked him to please let me know when he reached I-370, i.e. a good landmark close to where I live, which gave us about a 30-minute warning for when he would arrive. We went off and had dinner, and then headed over to the storage lot where the bus would live. The guy showed up, and then we got started. This is how everything looked after he disconnected the tractor from the trailer:
Yep – right there in the center lane. I didn’t like that, but I figured, he was the expert. However, we had some problems with getting the bus started, because try as we all might, while we could get the headlights and a few other minor things to light up, most of what we expected to see come on, such as all of the dashboard indicators, the transmission pad, the interior lights, the signs, and so on, did not light up. And when we pressed the engine start button, nothing happened. And I mean absolutely nothing. The bus didn’t start cranking and just never fully turned over. I’m talking dead silence. That was a problem, and it was more than likely a dead battery. Fair enough – even though the batteries were new, the bus had been idle for a while, and we didn’t know what state things were in left in while she was still at General Diesel. So it was quite reasonable that the batteries might have been fully discharged. Once the guy realized that this was not going to be a quick unload, he reconnected the tractor to the trailer, and we moved to a side road. I guided him to the exact spot where I had wanted him to unload it in the first place. He might know how to truck a bus, but he wasn’t familiar with the area. I know the area pretty well, and knew where I wanted things. This was a lot safer of a spot, too.
So with the truck where I wanted it, in a nice safe location, we went about trying to get the bus to start. We tried to jump it with the truck, and we were unsuccessful. We then called a local road mechanic to come out and provide some assistance. He charged up all of the batteries with his own truck as well as various other equipment, and we still couldn’t get it to fire up. What about just airing the bus up externally and rolling it off unpowered? We aired it up, released the brake, and still couldn’t get it off. The road mechanic had done all that he could do, and he had done just about everything that we could collectively think of, so we gave up with him and he went on his way.
We considered calling a tow truck service to get the bus off of the trailer, but Elyse had a different idea. Remember, Montigue Magruder, who came with us on the initial trip to pick up 3426? Elyse called him, and he came up with his own bus, former DASH bus 83, which is a 2005 Orion V. He hooked up jumper cables between 3426 and 83, and all of a sudden, we had lights in a lot of places that we didn’t have before. The dash lights were on. The transmission pad was lit up. The exterior signs came on. When we tried to start it, it started to crank, which was an improvement from before, even though it didn’t completely start up. We waited a few more minutes and tried again. Success! The bus roared to life and began airing up under its own power. Outstanding. Montigue had saved the day.
Biscuit 2.0 is alive again, and displaying the message on her sign that we had intended to display while we were driving her home from Charleston, which flashed between “Farewell Charleston” and “Hello Maryland”.
So with everything powered on, once we got sufficiently aired up, the guy moved her down the trailer just a little to get her level, as she had been shipped at a downward-facing angle. The way that the bus was loaded, several long pieces of wood that were used as something of a ramp were used twice: once to get her on the trailer, and again to get her rear end lifted up slightly to get her fully on board, and then her rear wheels sat on that wood for the duration of the ride.
Sitting level at the end of the trailer, waiting for the wood to be repositioned.
Once the wood was repositioned, it was time to complete the unloading.
Here, she is partially off of the trailer, with her front wheels on pavement, and the rear wheels still on the trailer.
Almost there: she is fully off of the trailer, and her rear wheels are on the wood.
She’s clear! I was quite happy to see that trailer empty, because that meant that we were clear of the trailer, and thus we could let the guy complete whatever final stuff that he needed to do and then be on his own way.
It was definitely a good feeling seeing Biscuit 2.0 in Maryland and on her own wheels.
Now that the bus was fully off of the trailer, we had planned to take a quick “shakedown” trip just to make sure that everything was good before we put her away for the night at her new home. This was nothing too major: just a few trips around the block to make sure that everything was operating as expected, which came to about two miles. Everything worked as we had thought, and the remaining mechanical issues that General Diesel had indicated did exactly as we had been told. All in all, I was feeling good. Tristan’s assessment of 3426 as “a fine bus” certainly rang true, and once we get those remaining mechanical issues taken care of, she’ll be ready for prime time as far as travel goes (until then, we’re not taking her out of Frederick).
Then before we put her away, Elyse showed off some of the other signs that she had programmed for 3426.
“PINECONES!” sign. “Pinecone” is one of those words that is just inherently funny to Elyse, and if you say “pinecone” around her, I’ll bet she smiles a little bit on account of it.
This sign, which reads “SS United States“, was intended for last September, had she been able to make it to the bus show. After the show, we would have still gone to the SS United States to do that last photo shoot of her before she was to leave Philadelphia for Florida (a journey which, as of this writing, has still not occurred), and we were going to display this sign on the bus when we were heading there.
And then we put her away in her space:
Biscuit 2.0 is all settled in her new home at a storage facility in Frederick. Getting her in this spot was a challenge, due to unfamiliarity with the bus and the property, but we eventually made it. This will get easier with time as we repeat this maneuver, especially when there is no snow on the ground.
And then we powered her down, and said good night.
From there, we said good night and a tremendous thank you to Montigue, and then we all went home.
Meanwhile, the plan with the bus for now while we’re still researching and contacting shops to get those remaining mechanical issues taken care of, we’re going to get her cleaned up and at least at something of a baseline. The rest of that Planet Fitness wrap is getting removed with the proper tools, and then we’re also going to give the interior a good cleaning. The restoration plan for the outside is to return her to her original “Charleston Transit” livery, which is the same green-gold-tan color scheme that she currently sports (the tan color is where the “Biscuit” name comes from), but with different decals. On the inside, we’re going to replace the flooring and the seat inserts, install a modest sound system that reuses the existing speaker positions (i.e. you won’t know it’s there until we turn it on), replace the overhead mirror with something larger for safety, install a period-appropriate farebox, and replace the interior advertisements with photos of Charleston that Elyse and I have taken. All in all, she’s going to look pretty slick when we’re done. The last high-floor New Flyer bus to operate in revenue service anywhere is going to look better than she ever did.
And if you’re wondering why we’re keeping her in Frederick, it came down to availability and space, plus knowing where I tend to go. There is only one place in Montgomery County that offers large vehicle storage, and it’s in Germantown. That’s pretty close to where I live, but it had two factors against it. First, they were super pricey. I suspect that they know that they’re the only guys in MoCo that does large vehicle storage, and thus they charge accordingly. Then the other problem was that they were full, so the price ultimately didn’t matter regardless of what it was. Elyse wanted me to keep the bus in southern PG County down near Fort Washington, where the bus museum stores some vehicles as well. I vetoed that one because I knew the areas that I tended to frequent, and if the bus was down that way, I would never take her anywhere because I hate doing the drive out there and back. There were also some places that did large vehicle storage in Laurel, and while those places had room, those were also quite expensive, and that’s also an area where I don’t really tend to go that often except for work. I was delighted to find a place in Frederick that had vehicle storage for relatively cheap, since Frederick isn’t that far from home (door to door, it’s about 23 miles), and it’s a place that I tend to go a lot, as I’m often finding myself in Frederick either on its own merits, or because I’m on my way to somewhere else and my route takes me through Frederick. All that said, I’m in Frederick a lot. Plus for the shows that we intend to take the bus to, in Hershey, Pennsylvania, Howell Township, New Jersey, and Staunton, Virginia (yeah, we’re going to take her to Wright’s), we could quickly and easily go up to Frederick in the HR-V, swap vehicles, and then continue on our way in the bus.
So all in all, I’m just happy that Biscuit 2.0 is now in her new home, and I look forward to sharing her progress with you.
Categories: Frederick, New Flyer D35HF