Re: Footscray pix
IS Edit
Thursday, March 7, 2002 3:57 AM
No.
It's been gone for years.
And so has the old depot starter's shack, the one
that used to get hit by runaway buses.
It ended up with more fences around it than Fort
Knox to try to protect it.
The whole yard sloped downhill to the front, except
where the old tracks went right under the building.
All the AEC Mk VIs were parked facing downhill
towards Buckley Street. When you'd pull in you'd drive through the west lane of
the bus wash and loop around and park, then kill the engine and take a
hike.
The Mk VIs had an automatic Wilson
self-changing gearbox, a mechanical parking brake, and door interlocks on
both doors, a bad combination. There was no way to leave it parked in
gear.
Sometimes the drivers would forget to apply the
handbrake because as they parked the bus, they opened the door, the brakes came
on, and off they went after grabbing their outfits.
The bus would eventually run out of air, you'd hear
a "click" as the brakes released and if the bus was the first one in the rank,
off she would roll. There was an Armco railing the full width of the front
of the yard to keep the buses from rolling into Buckley Street.
I was walking back to pay in one night after
filling out the "grizzle sheet" and heard that click and a bus started to roll.
It was slow enough for me to run around and jump in the door and pull on the
handbrake, but...
Twenty minutes later I heard a bang and went
outside and another bus back in the rank had let go and bashed the one in front
of it.
All modern buses have fail safe parking brakes.
They come on when the air pressure drops.
Footscray Depot could be a lot of fun in the
old days because the place was so tacky and run down that no prissy people went
there. And you didn't see people from Head Office there, often.
I bought AEC Regal Mk III No. 350 which was my
favourite bus at the depot and used to drive it to work on rainy days (otherwise
bicycle). I had to park it up the top with the other Mk IIIs because it couldn't
fit in the employees car park. Funny thing. I never had to fuel or wash that
bus. And it only got used for a transport bus to the Footscray relief point half
a dozen times by other drivers who didn't look closely before they drove
away.
The day before I took it to Sydney with my then
wife and kids, two 44 gallon drums full of fuel magically appeared inside, and
the bus got a full service. I liked the mechanics at Footscray.
And some North Fitzroy Mk IV that ventured to
Footscray for the "female wash" pull-in lost its 12 cfm compressor to 350 and
got a 9 cfm in return. I didn't even know they fitted on the same
mounts.
Bob Murphy
----- Original Message -----From: Malcolm MilesSent: Thursday, March 07, 2002 12:00 AMSubject: Re: [TramsDownUnder] Footscray pixOn Wed, 6 Mar 2002 21:23:02 +1100 (EST), you wrote:
>The pic of the depot was taken in '64.
>I can hear the AEC half cab fraternity breathing
>heavily already!
Is the depot building still standing?
--
Best wishes,
Malcolm
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