YESSSSSS!!! FINALLY! A bus I remember RIDING on! BTW: Did this bus have the nice soft-touch rub guards on the inside below the windows? Great bus, man. :-D
First bus I ever rode was a brand new Wayne with a Ford chassis back in 1984. It had a gasoline engine and manual transmission however. 72 passenger bus if I remember correctly.
I'm quite sure it was a 1988 Ford Wayne bus I rode in Raleigh Co. West Virginia. Number 245 if I remember correctly. I think it had a column shifter. Raleigh Co. had several Waynes on the International chassis that were from the mid-80s as sub busses in the early 2000s. I also rode a 1988 Wayne on a GMC chassis in McDowell Co. WV. That bus was a stick shift. That bus very rarely needed a sub bus. In fact, it subbed for the bus that replaced it for several days.
I think the coolest thing about your videos, beside the buses are the memories your making with your child and wife. I wish my dad would of been so sharing.
its a 1988 im assuming Ford used the Ford New holland Brazillian diesel 7.8L which these are indestructable. as the early 1990s the Ford chassis went to the Cummins 6BT 12 valve 5.9L which has either a Bosch VE or the P1700 injection pump. the Ford chassis are used on Wayne, Carpenter, Blue Bird, Ward, and Thomas. the early 2000s the bus body MFGs dropped the GM and Ford bus chassis. But however Ford supplies its Triton V10 Rousch Clean Tec engines to Blue Bird for the VIsion for their Gas, Propane and CNG vision busses. Ford the chassis they built they used the Allison at545. If you were in Effingham Illinois you were near Mid America Motorworks the parts supplier for the old Air-cooled Volkswagens and the Corvette. The equipment the lights and the defroster fans Wayne has are made by Baader Brown in Springfield Ohio
The f truck and b series bus chassis medium duties were built at Fords kentucky truck assembly plant from 1969 until late 1990's.production ceased when Ford sold its heavy truck division to freightliner. Also Bluebird is now using the new Ford big block pushrod godzilla gasoline v8 engine also available in propane and lng versions.
Both the Ford v10 and the new Ford v8 use Fords torque shift electronic heavy duty automatic transmission. Ford resumed building f series medium duty trucks in 2010 at its Ohio assembly plant ,but not the b bus series, which was a cowled ,(firewall, hood ,fenders and front bumper) and powertrain bare chassis version of the f series medium truck . Between the early 2000's and 2010 medium duty trucks were built for Ford by Navistar at their blue diamond truck plant in Mexico, they now build the general motors medium duty trucks .Just as Ford did GM supplies their cab and front clip and powertrain .
Before 1969 Ford medium duty F truck and B series bus es were built at several assembly plant locations including Norfolk Assembly plant which was in Virginia and was closed several years ago and last produced the f -150
We had Ford, GMC and International with Wayne bodies and the one main problem was that drivers seat. For some reason Wayne never wanted the driver to have much space. That space between the wheel and that first seat was cramped. Unless you were a skinny twig, you were never gonna squeeze in there to drive them.
This video was a treat. I rode a 1986(?) Thomas/Ford with the Brazilian Ford diesel, bus 17. I loved the sound of that engine. Quiet at idle with a slight chug to it. The next bus I rode after that one was a 2002 Blue Bird TC2000FE with a Cummins 5.9. I did NOT like the sound of that engine compared to the Brazilian Ford! I didn't know what kind of engine it was at the time, other than that it was diesel. Bus 17 was retired and for years I wondered what happened to it. Imagine my surprise when a new friend was driving me through his family farm which connects to his uncle's house and lo and behold, there's bus 17 parked just off the trail, dirty, beat up, stripped of its seats, and used as a storage shed. It was sad to see it that way, but very cool to have found it again. And I looked at the engine (the hood is gone) and realized it's the Brazilian Ford engine. So now I know why, no matter what bus I rode after bus 17 (different generations of TC2000s with ISB 5.9, Thomas EFs with Cummins 6.7, and some Internationals with T444/DT466E/365), they just didn't sound the same - because that Brazilian Ford is a unique engine! I also liked the sound of the air brake toots, and hearing similar toots from box trucks, tractor trailers, etc. still reminds me of bus 17. What I did not like about that bus was the crazily loud, constant moaning of the brakes when coming to a stop. Anyway, if you've made it this far, thanks for reading my reminiscing!
