Coach Trade and the Defect Card

As the buses warm up and get used, the dynamics change. What was once a great bus in the first four hours of service, becomes a creaky cantankerous old complainer. The back doors stop closing. The kneeler fails to rise. The brakes start to grab. Or the horn starts to blare without even touching the wheel. And, so a chapter about the defect card.

In all my coach trades made, only once did the person I was relieving with my pull-in coach, fill out the defect card so I would know what to show the tower when I brought the coach in. Only once. Notice I did not use the pronoun operator, but the term, person: Because an operator is required to fill out the defect card. As fate would have it, on the one time I needed a defect card when I pulled-in, I did not have it. There is definitely a lesson behind this one. Apparently, my defect card slipped out of my paddle when I went to a coach at an alien division to pull out a motor coach. And this was at the same division where an inspector wrote me up for not having a timepiece. This was the same inspector involved in the witching hour whereby I left the Ferry Plaza alone with a forty-five minute headway after a no power situation. Interestingly, I was the only coach with power to make it down to the terminal. And so, perhaps, may be a situation for payback was at hand. But if the Railway Gods have shown me anything, it is by doing the next right thing by working the rule, all is well, and the Zen zone protects.

I have to get over myself and not worry about what other people do. So when it comes to the defect card, if I can get a good idea about what is wrong with the coach, so be it. I can fill out the card myself.

I have found I get a better idea of what is wrong with a coach if I test drive, or rather, road test the coach myself. One common refrain from a “repeater” coach is when the equipment has a chance to cool down: most problems go away. I have withstood the test of time so that my body and experience can outlast the equipment. Not true for everyone. And if my physical body can outlast the equipment, then it stands to reason I must know the limits of the equipment and adjust.

One of the dilemmas I have is with the air. If a kneeler is weak, I have to determine which stops I can “get away” without using the kneeler. Most seniors reply with shock about why I am not getting the steps fixed, if the bus is not working. But they don’t seem to understand by taking this bus out-of-service, the next coach will be even later, and without any seats at all. So, by staying in service and making due, no brownie points are forthcoming. Staying in service and making due just results in more complaints and no extra help.

So all I have left to do is to fill out the defect card and call on the radio if I have a safety significant defect. Wait for orders, and continue to march. There are no rewards (maybe on Maui) for an operator who tries to make due. I have been one of those operators, but this missive is causing me to realize this may have to change. But when I see a new operator having difficulty with their coach, I am reminded about how far I have come. Some operators like fast doors. Others like slow ones. It is not up to me to judge another’s preferences. We all have our own style of driving. As soon as I give up my own defects of character, the easier the coach trade and pull in. Amen.