Why buses???

Welcome to my blog,

I thought it best to start with some background on me and how I ended up here, being a 28 yr old part time "lab rat" uni student with two Mercedes Benz O305 buses. It's a long post but if you get through it, you will get to know how I ended up where I am.

I have been a "closet bus nut" for as long as I can remember. So much so, when I was in primary school, there was a school bus that went near my house. I'm not sure why but my parents started to encourage me and my sister to get it home a few days a week. My guess is they wanted to instill some independence into us both, my sister was ho hum, like most kids she preferred it if mum or our family friend was there to pick us up as soon as the bell rang. Me I was different, I can remember a few days when I purposely "forgot" about the lift and pleaded ignorance about it, saying that I thought today we were getting the bus? Coz that's what I did, caught the bus home, then had to explain why. Looking back as an adult I can see why, but at the time I could not. I remember the first year, year 1, so 1985, I was allowed to have a school pass. Come 1986, I could not, the government of the day had introduced a 2 kilometer (maybe more) radius around each school where kids were not eligible for a school pass. My parents, rather than just decide not to put us on the bus anymore decided to give us "Metroten" tickets. Sydney's first "pre pay" tickets, same as a travelten, except using a red machine attacted to a bulkhead. It meant we didn't have to carry money (not sure if that was for security or to stop us using the 30 cents on something else, back in those days that could get you a bag of lollies) and dad bought the tickets from a newsagent near his work.

Mind you before primary school Dad would often take me to the airport to spot (back then called "look at the planes") I knew most of the types, since dad taught them to me. He used to fly as a hobby before I was born, he continued to fly on the computer (once you could do so). I did go for a flight out of Bankstown with a family friend when I was about 3 or 4. Dad and my moments spotting from the departures fly over (back when the international terminal was smaller) used to happen because me and my sister went to a kindergarten near his work at Randwick. He'd meet us at 3 each day we were there and walk us over Avoca St back to the lab. Coming home was via Qantas Drive, so if I had been a good boy, we'd stop, funny how all those days seemed to be the days my sister was at home sick ;)
My grandmother used to take me and my sister on the bus from Carrs Park to Kogarah or Hurstville, back in those days, it was route 109 to Hurstville and 121 to Kogarah on ex government mark I Leyland Leopards. That was my exposure to the Leyland Leopard. This went on from the age of 5 to 8 or 10. One time we even went to visit Kogarah Coaches depot on the Princess Highway. I have since found out why they didn't let us much past the front roller door, gran hadn't phoned ahead, she relied on the word of one of the drivers. I think granny could see it was my interest and tried all she could to nourish it. Must of been me darting to the front of the house everytime I heard one of the leopards climb the hill in Girroma St after terminating in Carwar Ave. and passing by the house in Benwerrin Ave (ultimately travelling along to Borgah St and Currawang and turning onto the Princes Hwy and to the depot - Now Moores Tours depot). Also my Grandfather was known to take me on long trips on the train and bus when I was 3 or so. Train to East Hills, train to the city. Apparently we'd all go on these trips, my grandparents leading the way with me and my sister.

The days on the 486 were for the most part happy. After a while kids started talking to the drivers, some kids like me were fascinated by the machine. I have memories of getting in trouble for being curious, back then I wanted to see what the side destination box, one day, me and the other kids asked the driver if we could muck around with it, he said sure, so long as you put my next run up for me, 492 Rockdale Station via Campsie and Burwood. So we did, this happened the next day, it got to a stage where some drivers were just waiting for us to ask. I guess it saved them a few seconds and after a while kids wanted to change the front destination. Some drivers let us, one day feeling left out I asked if I could change the lower destination box (back in the day there was a destination box beside the headlights on the nearside, called the number 3 box, they've for the most part disappeared) his reply was not to worry about it. I have vague memories of kids under 10 hanging off the front bulkhead, winding, unthinkable today with the CCTV and all the rest. I kept on catching the 486 now and again until the end of year 4 in 1989. I have memories of some great bus drivers, one of which was "Dennis" (never got to know his last name) He'd always be up for a joke and a laugh and he had a thing for bringing us the newest bus (or type) in the yard, I think this is where the seed was sown for my love of Mercedes Benz O305's and O405's. Some other bus ethusiasts talk about the mkII Leyland Leopards, these never turned up on the 486, although they seemed regular on the 684 which ran from the high schools in Caroline St (along with being flat charged down Shaw St). It was always a merc on the 486, but also it was always a "leyland" on the 111 to Hurstville (thats what i knew em as at the time). Later to find out they were Leyland Worldmasters that started life in Adelaide for the government operator there and after that served some time with Ventura Motors in Melbourne, finally ending up at Allways Bus and Coach service of Kingsgrove, with their depot by the train line on Vanessa St.

Also during this time I had a brief time with the local cub troop, the hall, in Girraween St, was beside the concrete drain otherwise known as Wolli Creek, sometime between the early 90's and when the M5 east extension was under construction, the hall was demolished, there's little sign of there now. this was before the "pool fence" along the creek so every now and then, there were "dares" to climb into the creek (there was a ladder down into the creek) Kingsgrove R.S.L club didn't have a memorial at the time, the only memorial was at the local government bus depot, Each Anzac Day there would be a march up Kingsgrove Rd and the local cubs and scouts were involved, for two or so of those, that meant me being involved. So we'd start somewhere on Kingsgrove Rd (can't remember where) and march through the shopping centre, over the railway line, continue up to Omnibus Rd, turn left and gather out the front, have the ceremony over the depot P.A . All I can really remember was walking past the buses parked up Omnibus Rd (they used to have to clear the area around the gate to fit us in) and looking around the yard. I know I got told off more than once for not standing at attention etc etc - too distracted.

Then in 1990, I started school at a large catholic boys school over at Strathfield. Of course family friends also had kids going over there, the boys to my school, the girls to the school my sister went to the large catholic girls school also in Strathfield. The parents seemed to be all against the notion of allowing the kids to have a rail pass, so it was just the bus until halfway through year 9.
Anyhow, instead of a few kilometers on a bus like it was with the 486, a few days a week. Now it was three buses each way, the morning would start with a 492 out of Kingsgrove shops just after 7:30am each school day, ride that up to Canterbury Rd Belmore (South). Play on the arcade machines at a milk bar there (long gone), then get the 415 from there to Strathfield Station. Finally line up in Strathfield Square and wait for the 614 to take me up to school.
The trip home consisted of getting the 615, run B3 - this went thru to Belmore, the B9 went as far as Belfield. Before Enfield's closure, it apparently went that one run went to Campsie, the other to Belmore, the 415 at that time went thru to Summer Hill, it was curtailed to Campsie. From Belmore it was the 415 from the station to Canterbury Rd, then the 492 or 494 from there to home - 492 Stoney Creek Rd at the end of the street (long walk with a long hill) or 494 to Staples St. (short walk). We'd go to extraordinary lengths to make sure we got the 494 - or if we saw either bus approaching from the direction of Campsie on Canterbury Rd.

1989 into 1990 seemed to be a yeah of changes - Enfield depot closed down, absorbed into Burwood, school bus numbers changed from having a leading 4 to a leading 6 (so my primary school bus became the 686) . It was also the year on a personal level where I started to catch buses from Burwood depot (the 614 and 615) and also from Ryde depot (some 492 runs, the "late" runs). After a while we again got a few drivers who were good for a laugh and a joke, plus stories. Halfway thru year 7, side destos started getting changed again and the practice of asking drivers if the bus was "going up" code for basically cutting out the 415 leg of the trip home. Since the driver had to goto the city to start a peak hour 502 run out to Ingham Ave Five Dock some kind drivers would let us stay on board and drop us off up to Campsie (for the guys who lived there) got us to our last bus stop quicker and got the Campsie guys home quicker. Again, something I doubt could happen today, or not to the extent it did back then.
In '94 the school started to give us early days every second Monday, and for a few of these days we tried to bus it home, but it proved to take just too long. So we lobbied our parents for rail passes and won. Then I was mugged in Belmore, all the punks got was a wallet with a library card in it. I stopped doing the 3 bus routine. Started catching the train both ways, in either case, I still needed to get the 614 up to school, but now I caught it down from school.

During my 7 years going to and from Strathfield first on just buses, then on trains and buses. I saw a few changes, the Olympic bid all over ads on mkV's, the silver service buses of burwood. 2388, 3081, 3071 (mkV prototype) plus about half a dozen more mkV's that I can't remember the fleet numbers of (if you know feel free to post them). The crazy depot liveries, Ryde seemed rather adept at it, everything had to have a deep blue skirt - after everything had to have cream from the windows down. Then there were the south western desto rolls that appeared in about '94 (open to correction there) with the green for Kingsgrove routes, Red for Burwood and Blue for Ryde and Leichhardt. I watched as Kingsgrove became all Mercedes, from the mkI's through to the mkV's. The early foray into electronic destos and finally the disappearance of the mkI's and the appearance of the first air conditioned buses, the Scanias. Of course the testing then introduction of buses powered by natural gas.

I always kept an eye at what was going on with buses, thinking I was the only person who did this, since no one around me seemed to be interested at all. After school it was TAFE at Kogarah, then after realising Accountancy was as riveting as watching paint dry (but completing the course bar 2 subjects that I could just never pass) I was at loose ends in 2001, Dad gave me time to sort myself, I tried for some jobs, did interviews, went no where. Then an opportunity opened up where he was, I had a 3 month contract job to catalog cryogenically frozen cell lines going back to the late 1970's. Towards the end of that role, a perminant one came up in Central Specimen Reception, shift work. Basically data entry of pathology specimens and basic handling - pass on some to the lab, others centrifuge them, aliquot them if need be, pass on to the lab. Also organise specimens to be sent over to St George Hospital and Sutherland Hospital (both have a similar set up).
This seemed to rekindle the bus thing a bit as well, since I had an hour commute from home to Randwick, either 400 straight over or a train and bus from the city to Randwick. About this time I also found busaustralia.com - finally it seemed there were people who seemed to have this interest that up until now, I thought I only had (sounds arrogant maybe). Turns out it was started by guys who shared an interest in buses and who used to run into each other alot, becoming friends, then with the advent of the internet, they set up a site and it's grown from there. (Ken, Andrew et al if I've over simplified it sorry, feel free to correct me).

For a while I was interested, but did not want to goto tours, however Peter Stone reached out to me, we share a similar obsession with Mercedes Benz O405's and I got to know him. We went and rode these puppies together alot, finding the odd ones out and about. There is one at Waverley with the strangest hub sound - 3086, I think. I await the day they start to withdraw these beasts, then the two O305s will have a O405 as well.
Pete was also the organiser of the famous "get togeva's" where a group of us would ride an O305G up to Palm Beach, 2579 of course, with it's ZF gearbox (rare amoungst a fleet of 30 with 28 of these having mercedes benz built boxes). These rides were always a hoot.

Another influence was Mr T, a driver from Leichhardt depot, I fell for one of his online jokes and it went far, he emailled me, then next thing I know we struck a chord and he would send me pics of buses - O305 mkII buses, I don't know how many hundred he sent me, but they were alot, alot of STA buses, either ones he had driven that day or otherwise. One day, we ended up tracking down Kingsgrove mark II's together because there was to be a cull , back when I got interested in the online bus stuff, Kingsgrove had 64 mark II O305's. Of those 30 were originally allocated to Kingsgrove, 2413 was amoungst this lot. From memory, there was a cull in 2005, with mkIII's coming down from Brookvale. So myself and Mr T went out photographing Kingsgrove mkII's in all their haunts, Campsie, Canterbury and Rockdale.

A much later influence was a driver from Kingsgrove, Riad Chahal, he and I used to interact on the discussion board, then eventually one night in December 2006, he suggested I come out for some rides on the late night 499's. We hit it off and I went for some more ride alongs, in mkII's of course. By this time only 3 of the beasts were left at Kingsgrove, after the remaining mkII's had been transferred over to Port Botany in mid 2006 in exchange for mkIII's for T card trials - MkII's being unsuitable due to their not having digital speedo senders for the T card software/hardware to be able to read.
Well the first night it was 2361, which had been at K many years and Ryde briefly. Then there was 2413, which I liked, it was original. Finally 2449 which had a McGarth overhaul and was the worst of the 3. Mechanically 2361 was the best, rebuilt engine and gearbox, not so good body. 2413 always stuck in my head as a good mix of both mechanical and body.

Now the influences for preservation. Dean Jones and Andrew Haviland purchased four mkII O305's from a Wollongong operator in mid 2006. I had been toying with the idea for many years but always thought "I'll never do it" thinking it would cost much much more than it actually does. Also Riad Chahal jumped back into bus ownership, purchasing ex MO 0305 from a Wagga operator in late 2006 (previously he owned a mkI Mercedes from Bathurst Coaches). I started to ask questions about owning buses, seems that natural inclination for being curious kind of came full circle!
I started to hang out with Dean, Andrew and Riad more, started going to more tours. Before long, I find myself considering this preservation game. It started in late 2006, when I was just aimlessly surfing the net and went to Youngs Rockhampton's site and I see "buses for sale" and remembering that the prototype mkII merc 1951 went there, clicked the link, what do know, they are selling Merc O305's, upon discovering this, I tell Riad via MSN, he emails the ops manager, ops manager replies with a price a day later. I then do the same, get the same price, after a few emails I get down to the knitty gritty, ask if the bus that was 1951 was still there, no, I'd missed it by a year and it had been sold locally (well Bundaberg's local when you're in Sydney!) for camper van conversion. Damn!
Back in late 2005, my gran passed away and I had an inheritance. Now in early 2007 I was thinking to myself, seriously, that why not partition a small portion of this to buying a bus, afterall, my sister had gone to Europe and I thought I could do that too one day. Then I thought that both grandparents had kind of influenced me down this path, as had my dad to some degree, it seemed ok. Afterall if these people around me could do it, so can I. So I decided to do so.
Through early to mid 2007 I watched what was going on, thinking I'd pick up a mkII from a private operator, however one was keeping a tight grip on theirs and another was expecting a fair amount for theirs. Andrew Haviland advised me to grab one off the STA and mentioned 2413 back in May or June (it was over some beers so I can't remember lol). At first I thought I'd be in for a kings randsom if I did, little did I know.....