Mechanic Sean Keating aided by Richard Dyer (left) and Milan Streit (partially hidden) did adjustments on 4107’s front brakes after repacking. Next the process will be repeated on the rear wheels.
Earlier in the week, at the May Director’s Meeting, the attendees discussed likely candidates amongst our vehicles for future maintenance. The session was organised by TMS President Bryan Larrabee, aided by Rhonda. The meeting broke out into discussion groups to determine which of four vehicles we should concentrate our efforts on: 3106 (1991 New Flyer D40), 4276 (1990 MCI Classic), 3334 (1982 Flyer D901) and 2649 (1976 Flyer E800 converted to Diesel).
In preparation, Bryan provided each group with a short of history of work performed on each coach, and a list of known defects. Bearing that in mind, each group then discussed the merits of each vehicle and finally ranked the vehicles in preferred order for maintenance work. Bryan then assigned a point value, which when totalled, gave an indication of the feelings of the members toward each bus.
(photo: Rhonda Larrabee)
To some surprise, 4276 came out on top, followed by 3106, then 3334 and finally 2649. We should note that all coaches require work – participants were reminded that a bus with many defects of a nature that we could fix in-house may be preferred over one with fewer defects that needs to be sent out for heavy maintenance. Such may be the case with 4276; it has had much work performed on it but work on the transmission would probably need to be done by a company expert in working with Voith transmissions. Most of 3106’s needed work could be performed in-house at much less cost. So, while members may prefer to have 4276 on the road again, we may end up with 3106. Bryan has indicated that the bus chosen will likely become our backup commercial coach to 9753.
The exercise was valuable in focusing our attention on work to be performed in the longer short-term and provide feedback from the members be used in an upcoming strategic planning session (also organised by Bryan.)