Back 'on it'!

Broadly speaking it's been 22 months since GCT 113 last turned a wheel. During this time a global pandemic has been raging and life placed on hold. I've been forced to employ my 'winter protocol' - starting the bus up and moving it a few feet forwards and backwards every two months - throughout, which has been both disheartening (not being able to attend any events) and comforting (the bus has always started first time).

But today I took the bus out for the first time proper since we attended the Delaine Heritage Running Day in September 2019. While I was confident the bus would start I was a little apprehensive about mechanical problems that could have resulted for such a long time of inactivity.

These concerns were overcome very early on, when it soon became apparently that 22 months of inactivity hadn't affected this Leyland stalwart one bit. The bus performed and handled as well as ever as we headed 10 miles to the nearest filling station.

Although the cost of fuel was three times that which I spend on my car in a month, I my handy mobile app that calculates cost per mile and miles per gallon returned an encouraging figure of 11.9mpg and 54p per mile. Modern double-deckers today, of course, tend to return just half this figure. I did wonder if the lack of roof had improved GCT 113's fuel economy, but this is a question to which I may never find a definitive answer.

Safely back under cover I began perusing the various events to which I could take GCT 113 for the remainder of the year. There are a couple I'd like to attend and I'll notify them on the Rallies Visiting page in due course.