[Davis, CA] Unitrans

After finishing my final exams on Wednesday, I took a Greyhound bus on Thursday night and arrived at Sacramento early Friday morning. I caught a Yolobus Orion VII NG (CNG) on 42B to Memorial Union at Davis. Before I got there, I was told by Unitrans general manager that a new double decker will be assigned for regular schedule for B & G lines on that day. (According to schedule, it doesn’t have regular double decker services serving in Davis during Final week). When I just got there, I saw some of its 2009 new Newflyer C40LFRs. All of them are equipped with Cummins Westport ISL G engine


Few minutes later, I saw the ADL E500 demo running on route B with Unitrans number 8385


Beside the double decker that was told to be running, I saw some AEC RT running tripper as well (Those schedules are not listed)
RT742, the oldest double decker in the fleet, built in July, 1948

Note that the route number on the bus is only for display purposes.

The route that the bus is running only displays at the rear window, so for RT742, it was running lineE from F/J/Dowtown to Memorial Union. Also, all double deckers are operated by two people, one is the driver and the other is the conductor
Afterwards I went to Unitrans yard, Unitrans general manager brought me to see its newly arrived E500 #8186. The bus was doing final checking and waiting for document to be done.

here are some poor interior shot of 8186
upper deck

rear lower deck

dashboard

staircase

The first Unitrans Enviro 500 was parked outside, its number is 8185

The general manager told me that 8185 should be in service that day instead of 8385, but because of the paper work, they can get the license plate that morning and they would try to put the bus in service that afternoon as they was the last day to put double decker in service before next academic quarter. 8385 will be back to ADL once those Enviro 500s are ready to go for service.
On the other side of the yard, RT2819 was going to be used as a training bus. According to the general manager, double deckers will only be out for training during school holidays


RT2819 is a special RT because it has been modified to be powered by compressed natural gas (CNG), and it is the only double decker bus powered by CNG in unitrans fleet. The idea of conversion comes from Wally Mellor, so this bus is dedicated to him.

According to unitrans engineer, RT 2819 equips with 5 custom-made CNG tanks. One big tank is located on the right side between the front and the rear axle, two small tanks are at the left side between the front and rear axle, and two more tanks locates under the staircase. Since the battery used to be under the staircase,  it has to be relocated to the middle of the bus near the rear axle. Since it is powered by CNG, it can't use its original AEC engine. Now this bus is equipped with JohnDeere CNG engine and Allison 4 speed automatic transmission.
RT3123 is a 1950 AEC RT and this is the last active classic double decker in the fleet. Due to emission issue, all diesel powered RT are now used Cummins ISB engine.

Some other shots after yard visit.


ex-Unitrans Gillig Phantom




Orion V CNG

Orion VII CNG

Yolobus Orion VII NG CNG

Unfortunately, after i got on the bus back to Sacramento, i got a call from unitrans general manager that they were moving 8185 to Memoral Union to begin its first service for one round trip. Picture can be found in Unitrans FB.
Thanks for watching

[ 本帖最後由 ATE2 於 2010-3-21 03:08 編輯 ]

Very nice pic, and here is the pic I took long time ago for RT 3123:

即係話
家下只有8185出咗車
而8186未有牌住？
另外Demo E500又係咪已經回歸ADL?

原帖由 sea1986 於 2010-3-21 14:22 發表
即係話
家下只有8185出咗車
而8186未有牌住？
另外Demo E500又係咪已經回歸ADL?

8185喺我離開davis那天的1700已經出車, 但是批車重有d問題, 應該喺spring break 期間會solve左個問題.
8185 和 8186 在星期五那天已經出左牌, 只是那是個牌要等到當天下午才到. Unitrans已經緊不及待將部8185立即上車牌然後出來載客. 而部8186就因為到左不是太耐和Unitrans的工程部又要幫部1954 RT4735 restore, 所以8186還有些小工程要做(eg The NextBus system)而至當天不可以出車.
Demo E500將會在davis待多一段時間直至兩部車都可以用來載客.
Those two buses (8185 and 8186) will be mostly put in service on March 29 when the new quarter begins, and 8185 and 8385 (the demo) might be out for training during the spring break (march 22- 28)

[ 本帖最後由 ATE2 於 2010-3-22 01:34 編輯 ]