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| Re: 1981 News Report: Grumman-Flxible 870 Cracked A-Frame Problems (218903) | |||
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Re: 1981 News Report: Grumman-Flxible 870 Cracked A-Frame Problems |
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Posted by FYBklyn1959 on Fri Dec 31 21:08:06 2010, in response to Re: 1981 News Report: Grumman-Flxible 870 Cracked A-Frame Problems, posted by The Flxible Neofan on Fri Dec 31 11:38:42 2010. Yep, I lived through the Grumman crisis in L. A., my then home route (line 871 L. A.-LAX-Redondo Beach) operated out of SCRTD division 5, which had 55 of RTD's 230 1980 Grumman 870s (7640-7694). RTD didn't resort to school buses like Chicago (although successor agency LACMTA would do so on some routes during the brief 1994 strike), they just cancelled a bunch of runs. One of then on the Monday after the grounding was the 871 tripper (bus run10) I ususally caught to go to school at USC, so I had to pile onto the follower (BR 1), manned by a 1970 Flxible New Look. The only thing that saved RTD (somewhat) was the fact that they had started to put the first of 940 GMC RTS-04s the previous week. The RTS originally went to Div. 18, so older buses were transferred from that division to the affected Grumman divisions (Div. 1,3,5 and 15). I remember seeing 1967 Flxible 6100, formerly of division 18 on a D5 route, and I think some 7200s (1973 Flx new look). In fact, the very last Old Look bus I rode was 2167 on that same 871-10 tripper in the spring of 1981. By then, division 5 had started to get their RTS. The Grummans started returning in May of 1981. Even with the A-frames repaired, the Grummans were never popular w/ RTD, who started retiring them in 1990, 2 years before they were life-expired (they sold 9 that year to Gardena Municipal Bus Lines, which renumbered them 790-798 and used them solely (AFAIK) in school tripper service). A few were still running when MTA replaced RTD on 4/1/93, but they were retired shortly thereafter (ironically, their replacements were the 1992-93 Methanol powered TMC RTS-06s, which also had issues and ended up having their engines replaced with DDEC 6V92 engines in 1999-2000. The last of those were retired in 2009.The only other agencies in the L. A. area that had Grummans were OCTD (now OCTA) and Santa Monica Municial Bus Lines (now Big Blue Bus). I first rode a Grumman on SMMBL line 5 in December 1979. I think they kept their Grummans (47 in all) in service, but retired them in the mid-80s. Surprisingly, they received 15 more (4748-4764) in 1981, those had DDEC 6V92 instead of the 8V71 that the 1979 models had. OCTD got rid of their Grummans in the mid-80s as well, IIRC. I remember seeing one in an episode of Hunter in 1988. There was another one parked for some time behind the Scientology building on Hollywood Blvd. I think some of the OCTD 870s eventually made their way to SunBus in the Coachella Valley (along with some Gillig Phantoms and Flxible New Looks, the New Looks were also ex-OCTD, not sure about the Gilligs, those may have been ordered new by SunBus. Those all ran until 1995, when SunBus went all CNG and ordered some new Orion Vs. |
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