What happens to a bus or coach that is deemed to have reached the end of its economic life with a passenger service operator? Some are scrapped, some are dismantled for parts to keep other similar buses on the road and some are sold for conversion to a motor home or for static use as a shed or sleep-out.
In the latter roles they often end up mouldering in a yard or paddock especially once the cost of a motor home conversion or the cost of repairing and servicing a heavy vehicle is realised (and let’s be honest, there’s usually a good reason why it has been retired from a fleet).
There is something quite sad about a bus with such a rich history (see below) being left to rust in peace.
Take care not to be observed when finding the cache and please tuck back into its hiding place carefully. Small container. BYOP.
The cache owner is keen to hear from anyone who can tip them off about old trucks, buses and earthmoving or agricultural machinery rusting away in a field.
Optional - Bus “archaeology” notes for bus-spotters: The chassis number (RX102/634) tells us that this is a Nissan Diesel Scorpion RX102 model with Dunedin-built Emslie B41D body and originally operated as Dunedin City Transport (DCT) fleet number 160. DCT put fifteen of these into service between 1972-74. This one entered service in June 1973. They were a radical departure from what the city had operated previously and were not only the DCT’s first rear-engined buses but they had a small capacity (4.9 litre compared to the 11.1 litre Leylands that made up most of the DCT fleet at the time) 2 stroke diesel engine that needed to be revved mercilessly to get any forward progress from the bus. This made them difficult to operate on the steep hill routes typical of Dunedin. There were many stories of these buses with full passenger loads sitting stationary in a cloud of smoke and oily heat-haze as they tried to pull away from a stop on a hill. Other stories tell of them being overtaken on hills by trolley buses, the buses the Nissans had been bought to replace! They were also incredibly noisy. In the mid-1980s DCT refurbished the interiors of some of the Nissan Diesels and repowered these with 4 stroke MAN diesels. All were withdrawn from DCT service by the early-mid 1990s. This one (RX102/634) changed hands earlier than that however. It appears to have not been selected for the refurbishment/repower programme and passed into the hands of Peninsula Motor Service Ltd in April 1983. Peninsula Motors was a Dunedin operation that ran the bus service between Dunedin and Portobello and had been taken over by Ritchies of Timaru in c.1973. RX102/634 was operated by Ritchies/Peninsula Motor Service on the Portobello run (a nice flat run!) This company also operated between Dunedin city and airport and RX102/634 may have served on this route from time-to-time. De-regulation saw big changes to Dunedin city bus routes and operators in the 1980s and ‘90s and it is likely that RX102/634 left Dunedin in the late 1980s and possibly worked for Ritchies elsewhere in the country, probably on school runs which is what most buses end their working lives doing. Certainly, the next record we have is a change of ownership in January 2003 when RX102/634 passed into private ownership in Epsom, Auckland. However, just one month later it changed hands again, passing into and out of the ownership of an Oamaru firm on the same day and the final record shows it in private hands in Benhar, South Otago. How it made its way to its current location is unknown. Although faded, its Ritchies livery is still clearly obvious. Most RX102s ended up being repowered but what engine is in this bus is not clear. In addition to the fifteen DCT buses two Nissan Diesel RX102s with Hawke Commander C40F coach bodies also went into service in New Zealand but these seventeen chassis are the only RX102s known to have come to this country. Outside of Japan, their country of manufacture, only New Zealand and Singapore are known to have received RX102 chassis.