Righty-lefty, lefty-righty!

My favorite Transit ride was 2105 with an “artic;” and it’s the one “Blondie” got. (The destination sign says “1300 E. Main,” which is “the Barns.” Run complete, I have just pulled in.) (Long-ago photo by BobbaLew.)

—During my 16&1/2-year career driving transit-bus for Regional Transit Service in Rochester……
……My all-time favorite rides were our 300-series, our first “artics” (articulated). They were German design, but built in North Carolina to be “made in America.”
Our mechanics hated ‘em, since they were metric.
They were almost 60 feet long, but bent in the middle = hinged. The motor and drive-wheels were in the front part, and the trailing part had a separate engine to drive the air-conditioning.
I used to tell the bus-placer they needed to attach that large AC motor to the drive motor. (Six more cylinders.)
They were bog-slow and heavy. You had to hit the accelerator when the opposing light changed to yellow.
But they rode great, unless you drove across a pavement depression and they started pogo-ing.
All our other buses rode like lumber-wagons. Suspensions wore out, prompting replacement with el-cheapo parts, which turned ‘em into lumber-wagons.
And everything else rode on airbags; I don’t know if our 300s did.
Sometimes an airbag blew, plus our buses were supposedly self-leveling. (If the right side got heavier than the left side, the right side pumped up to level the bus.)
The idea of a “bendable” was to carry more passengers per driver. I don’t think that’s what happened.
2105 (above) covered two separate morning bus-trips from Rochester’s eastern suburbs. To do that I had to start in 10-15 minutes earlier, then be 10-15 minutes later through the second suburb.
The two separate bus-trips averaged 50-60 passengers total. 2105 averaged 30-35; hardly the capacity of a 300.
Fairport residents had to get up 10-15 minutes earlier, and my East Rochester residents ended up late for work.
Of course none of that mattered to my all-knowing managers as long as they continued receiving their bloated paychecks.
But they were probably crestfallen our 300s weren’t getting the projected passenger-counts.
Time to hit the company water-cooler for free coffee and day-old donuts supplied by our boss.
As you can tell, we lowly bus-drivers and mechanics (unionized = GASP!) were always at loggerheads with management. Despite that I always say Transit paid for my house.
Some of that was no Corvette, no speed-boat, no motorhome, and no kids to put through college.
All of which contributed to owning my house free-and-clear, plus healthcare and other bennies.
After 16 years I didn’t wanna drive bus another 14-15 years. Driving bus was fun at first, but our clientele was getting troublesome.
Thankfully, my stroke ended my bus driving, and got me into the newspaper-biz. Although that paid nowhere near as much.
But I loved our 300s. One of my best rides was to a faraway rural suburb in the morning. Deadhead out (no passengers) then express-to-downtown.
I covered quite a few stops northwest of Rochester, then got on an expressway. Hammer down, pedal-to-the-metal, head for the passing lane! 65 mph, about all a 300 would do.
(I used to say it was no fun driving bus unless you could hammer-down at least once per day.)
My passengers loved it. A fast ride into the city. I averaged 15-20 regulars.
35 or more passengers in a 300 was silly, but there was more to it than my bus.
To my passengers I was “a good one.” Never absent, and always on time no matter what the weather. And I waited if I saw a passenger running for my bus.
Nope, that’s “Blondie.” She’s four houses down the street, but I ain’t stickin’ ‘er. I rode bus myself years ago.
The other trick was backing an “artic;” same problem as faced by drivers of 18-wheelers.
Most of the time a bus goes forward, so the driver never has to back up.
Turn to back-up left, and the trailer swings right. This made a difference in the old Midtown Plaza Park-and-Ride terminal.
Pull-in then back out, making sure your trailer didn’t clout something. To get the trailer aimed right, you had to steer left at first.
For whatever reason I wanted to make sense of this. You could do it wrong and usually get away with it. A supervisor was there to stop you if need be.
Often after returning to “the Barns” I was directed to park my 300 next to a wall behind the Overhaul-Shop.
Challenge time: parallel-park an “artic.” The only way to do this was backing.
Righty-lefty, lefty-righty! I parked successfully, three feet from the curb front-to-back. (15 minutes, and maybe four tries.)
Would anyone else do this? I bet the mechanics noticed.
As I increased in seniority, I picked runs that used a 300.

• An “artic” (“r-TIK”) was a two-section (“bendable”) bus powered by one motor. The second section was a trailer connected to the first section by drawbar/bellows. An “artic” had a single driver.
• For 16&1/2 years (1977-1993) I drove transit bus for Regional Transit Service (RTS) in Rochester, NY, a public employer, the transit-bus operator in Rochester and environs. My heart-defect caused stroke October 26th, 1993 ended that. I retired on medical-disability, and that defect was repaired. I recovered well enough to return to work at a newspaper; I retired from that almost 15 years ago.
• Bus-runs are picked by seniority.
• For you lecherous readers, “Blondie” was young and pretty, but smoked. (No way in a million years could I climb in the sack with a smoker!)
• “The Barns” are at 1372 East Main St. in Rochester, large sheds for storing buses inside. An operations administration building was attached. We bus-drivers always said we were working out of “the Barns.”