Sifting Through Thunder Mountain

I visited a junkyard today named Thunder Mountain Auto Salvage in Olive Hill, KY. This place is about an hour west of me, so it wasn't too bad of a drive. In total, there were about 40 buses or so. Countless other vehicles.


Included are a few pictures of what I found there, some with captions. There are some pretty neat hidden gems in that place.

Cabell County Schools 571, a 1989 Thomas ER. This is the school district that I grew up in.

Three of six Southwestern Community Action Council Head Start buses originally from Huntington, WV. The AmTrans were 1996 models, but I did not get on the others to see what model years they were. There was another Carpenter Cadet similar to the one pictured (bus 97) as well as a early second generation IC CE and a Blue Bird Mini Bird.

A late 1970s or early 1980s Carpenter Cadet of unknown origin. It had "ASHLAND, KY" on the side, but that is all I could read.

A 1997 AmTran 3800 originally from Hardeman County Schools in Tennessee, btu later sold to who I presume is the Marathon Refinery in Cattlesburg, KY (CR-##). I pulled the 'AmTran Conventional' emblem by the door with my bare hands, as I had previously dropped my dollar store screwdriver somewhere.

Gallia County Local Schools, OH bus 49 - 1981 Superior Ford. This one changed hands at least twice, going somewhere in Chesapeake, OH as well as somewhere in West Virginia (hence the inspection sticker in the windshield) before ending up here.

Wayne County Schools, WV 9461 - 1995 Blue Bird TC2000 FE. Despite all of the black paint being rubbed off (or faded off), the factory names on the emblem were in great shape, making it a one of a kind emblem for me to add to my evergrowing collection.

A former Boyd County Schools, KY bus that was later sold to Ramey-Estep Schools and then ended up at Thunder Mountain. This is a 1989 Blue Bird S-1800.

I would love to know what happened to this 2001 International CE from Mingo County Schools, WV (bus 0152). Mingo County is quite a drive, making me think that this happened after the bus ended up here.

So, it has been a while..

I apologize for the hiatus, for the (VERY) few of you who it may have concerned. I just haven't been updating this due to a conflicting work schedule, school schedule, and many bus expeditions (as ironic as that is). 

Speaking of which, I have been doing trips around the state of West Virginia getting bus photos at as many bus garages as I possibly can. As of the writing of this post, I have 20 out of the 55 counties documented. Below is the goal for this summer and next summer, as well as what I have already completed. There are a couple more counties that I could probably include in this, but a lot can change in a fleet in two years or so. It is a pretty ambitious goal, so I'm not expecting to get it totally done in the given time frame. I feel like it is perfectly achievable though.

Why am I doing this? Well, I want to explore my state a little more and thought that this would be the perfect way to do so. Two months ago, if someone were to ask me where Fairmont or Clarksburg were, I'd have had no clue. This way, I get to learn more about my state as well as the fleets that transport children to and from school every day inside its borders.

I will try to post to this more, but I can't guarantee anything. I plan to make posts about the various counties that I have been to already as well as the ones I get to in the future. I'm also planning on getting Logan, Mingo, Boone, McDowell, Mercer, Raleigh, and Fayette counties documented this upcoming weekend.

A Saturday Adventure Ending in South Point, Ohio

     A couple weeks ago, my dad an I decided to make our way up to Symmes Valley to take a look at their fleet. There wasn't really much to look at, mainly just a couple of Thomas 3800s and FS65s. But we went from there to Ironton, saw the same buses that they've had for a while now, and made our way up to South Point. Despite it being so close, neither of us had been here before. We decided that it would be a good idea to take pictures. So here you go, for your enjoyment purposes.

Thanksgiving in Gallia County, Ohio

I always celebrate Thanksgiving at my grandmother's house outside of Rio Grande, Ohio. About 6 miles down the road is Bidwell, Ohio. Bidwell is home to the open bus lot belonging to Gallia County Local School District. Sometimes while we are up visiting, my dad and I will take a trip down there to get pictures, just as we did Thursday. I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving.

2019 or 2020 Thomas C2

 Bus 39, a long retired 1987 Thomas S-1800 used for storage.

 Another shot of bus 39's Thomas Emblem.

 What's rural Ohio without cattle?

 Buses and cows. Buses 0025 and 44, another long retired 1987 Thomas S-1800 used for storage.

 Bus 29, a nice looking Thomas FS65.

 A pile of hoods, from a C2, S-Series, and fender extensions from a 3800.

Bus 23, a 2004 Thomas FS65 bought used. Registered 6/22/2016 according to ODOT.

A damaged 2001 Blue Bird 3800 that is only used for storage. You can see the damage close to the rear bumper, I'm assuming that the frame was bent.

An Adventure in Wayne County

Today, I decided to take a drive to Wayne County's bus garage to get some pictures. I figured that I should before the weather gets too bad. My dad came along, so it was a good father-son day for us. There were a few buses on the way that we ended up getting pictures of on the way back, but they also had some interesting buses in the back that are soon to be sold. All of which consisted of first gen ICs, mainly FEs and CEs with an RE in the mix.

As for the rest of the lot, It was mainly ICs of all types.

Also one of their very few Blue Bird Visions, which I assume to be a 2008 or 2009 model.

On the trip back, we photographed every bus we saw parked along the way except one 2014 IC CE Handy that was parked at a driver's house.

And then we concluded our day in Kenova, so here's the usual bunch but with the IC RE swapped out with an HDX.

Adventures Throughout the Tri-State Area, 11/04/2018 Part 2 - Ohio and West Virginia

This is a continuation of the last post, if you couldn't tell from the title.

Before we move onto the Ohio and West Virginia portion of the story, here is the bus we happened upon at the church in Kentucky that I did not have photos of before - a 1999 Blue Bird Freightliner FS-65 from Chesapeake Union Exempted Village Schools, thier old bus 9. I'd had my eye on this bus for a while and was waiting until the right moment to ask about it, but I guess it was too late. As I told the pastor, I'm glad it's in good hands that will take care of it. I also told him that I'll be contacting the church soon with my contact information because I'd definitely be interested in buying it.

Now, for the intended part of the story.

We left Kentucky in our rear view mirrors and set our eyes on Ceredo, West Virginia. My friend wanted to get some train pictures down there, and I was happy to come along. On our way, we saw Wayne County Schools bus 2721 parked in Kenova, a Thomas C2 that looked to be about a 2009 model or so. We grabbed our pictures and went up to Ceredo. Ironically, I probably got my best shots of the day here with a Kanawha River Terminals locomotive coming in as we were there. I hadn't planned on getting train photos that day either.

After we finished up there, we went back down the road towards Ceredo Elementary only expecing to find a Thomas HDX, but we were greeted with two IC RE's as well, one with very unique spec's. This was Wayne County Schools 13-79, a 2014 or 2015 IC RE with a mid-ship wheelchair lift. Being from West Virginia, I've always appreciated and studied West Virginia spec's, but never had I ever seen a rear engine WV bus with a wheelchair lift, let alone a WV bus with a wheelchair lift anywhere else on the bus except the rear. I guess it was becuase this bus was an RE, but it also only had room to fit one wheelchair, judging by what we could see through the windows.

Since we had our fun here, we went a little farther down the road and got some pictures of some more Wayne County buses, two 2018 or 2019 model IC CE's and a IC RE.

Our stomachs were starting to get to us, it had been about 4 hours since we initially met up at this point and we had very little food in this time frame. We decided it would be best to take a trip to Sheetz, as it has started to become our tradition for when he comes into town. After this, we decided to head to South Point, Ohio and see their unique fleet of buses. We saw a Blue Bird Mini Bird on the way, but also faced so many detours and road closures that it was dark by the time we got around everything. So we said goodbye, wished each other safe travels, and parted ways.