END OF ROUTE MOJAVE'S BUS 1, OLDEST IN STATE, IS RETIRING.

Byline: KAREN MAESHIRO Staff Writer

MOJAVE -- After racking up 407,000 miles and ferrying hundreds of thousands of kids to and from school, Mojave Unified School District's Bus 1 is retiring from service with the distinction of being the oldest operating school bus in California.

The 1951 Crown Coach was officially retired Friday in a special ceremony.

The bus actually was retired from transporting students in 2005 when the district had a chance to replace the old bus with newer, cleaner-running ones through a state program.

The catch was that the district had to destroy the vehicle, which it did not want to do. Through special legislation authored by state Sen. Roy Ashburn, R-Bakersfield, the district was able to spare the bus from the scrap heap.

``Bus 1 is totally different from any other buses, just the way it was set up. It's old. It's a fun bus to drive,'' said Trelby Geoffray, a 48-year-old Realtor from Tehachapi, who rode the bus as a girl when it was owned by the neighboring Muroc Joint Unified School District -- and then drove it when she worked as a school bus driver for the Mojave district.

``You knew you were in Bus 1 when you were in Bus 1. I'm sad to see the old buses go. They are classics in their own right.''

The bus, which has retro lines and rounded edges, will be housed at the Mojave district's bus facility and may be driven less than 100 miles per year. That means it can be used in the Mojave Gold Rush Days Parade and other events and be seen by more generations of youngsters.

``It's still running and in excellent condition,'' said Susan Wiggins, coordinator of categorical programs. ``Two years ago, we got paint donated by Ace Hardware in Mojave and Avtel at the Mojave Airport put it in a paint booth and painted it. We want to keep it for its historical value.''

Bus 1 has been around so long that two generations of school employees have had a connection to the vehicle. Geoffray's uncle drove the bus for the Muroc district in the 1960s and would let Geoffray and her sister ride along.

``We would ride with him from Boron to North Edwards. He opened the door and we leaned up on the panel and would see the road go by,'' Geoffray said.

James Welling, 79, of Boron, was the first mechanic to work on Bus 1 when it arrived on Halloween, his birthday, in 1951 at the Muroc district, then known as Desert Union High School District. His son, Joe, is a mechanic in the Mojave district.

``It performed well. It was considered the Cadillac of buses in those days. Those buses were built better than anything on the road today,'' said Welling, who retired in 1983.

One thing the bus wasn't was fuel-efficient: It got three miles to the gallon. But as a district history noted, that was OK back then because gas was cheaper.

The bus had a gasoline ``pancake'' engine, so named because it lies on its side in the engine compartment. The gasoline engine was later replaced by a gray marine diesel engine, which was the Navy's version of a Detroit Diesel and was actually a boat engine, the district history said.

The engine was modified by district mechanics so it would fit in the bus. The engine cost $50 back then; today rebuilding such an engine would cost more than $10,000.

Mojave bought the bus from the Muroc district in 1980. In 2001, the engine cooling fan hub went out. Parts for old buses were hard to find, so the transportation department of the Kern County Superintendent of Schools office helped the district locate and modify a part.

Wiggans said Mojave found out it had the oldest operating school bus a few years ago when an organization called, asking to use the bus for fundraising.

They said the state had told them that Bus 1 was the oldest operating bus in the state. The district turned the request down.

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2 photos

Photo:

(1) Steve Richards and Joseph Welling, both mechanics living in California City, lock up Bus 1 one final time during the retirement celebration Friday in Mojave. The bus, the oldest operating school bus in the state, has been retired after 55 years of continuous service.

(2) Wearing his original bus driver's hat, Glen Torrey gets one final look at Bus 1, which he drove from 1960 to 1964, during the retirement ceremony Friday for the old bus at the Mojave Unified School District.

Alex Collins/Special to the Daily News