These things happen

Plymouth Citybus 113 L113YOD is one of the latest repaints into the new livery complete with a rear end advert for ets. This morning though it was not having such a good day.

I caught it at Leigham on the 47 to Derriford. I was a bit annoyed that once I was on the bus the 52 came along 15 minutes late - and would have got me to Derriford nearly 10 minutes earlier than the 47, still these things happen.

All was going well until we stopped just above Keswick Crescent when an alarm went off. The driver stopped the engine and checked a few bits and then restarted. Alarm still on. At the bottom of Keswick Crescent the driver again stopped the engine and made a call back to base. A couple of mins on the phone while checking something at the back of the bus and then he boarded the bus and we started off again. As I was already late for work it was a bit annoying but its not the drivers fault - these things happen.

The alarm was still sounding as we continued on our way. As we pulled out from the Tamar Science Park bus stop I noticed that there was a lot of 'smoke' coming out of the back. As all the passengers left the bus at Derriford I mentioned this to the driver who then pulled in at the main bus stops to inspect what was going on.

I must admit at this point I was standing here watching with my camera thinking that if it did burst into flames it would make for some great photos for the blog!

While you cant really see any of the 'smoke' (or more likely 'steam?') you can just about make out a damp patch under the right hand side of the bus. Water was pouring out from the engine compartment. The driver can just be seen (or at least his arm can be seen) making another phone call back to base. It didnt catch fire (not while I was there anyway) so I ended up with a rather boring photo of the back end of a bus. Still - these things happen!