Our transit district upgraded its fleet with some new Gillig buses recently, and unlike the last batch, these have an impressive exhaust trumpet up there. Reminds me a bit of the Bōsōzoku-style fart cannons of Japan. When I first saw one, it looked like a loudspeaker to me. And city buses have mostly hidden away their exhausts for years. So this struck me as rather odd. Here’s a close-up:
These have been around on the city buses in my area for a while. I think the idea is to vent the exhaust at a level above “people breathing/suck me into your car’s fresh air intake” elevation. It may also have something to do with the hybrid (?) equipment on the roof.
But yes, very Bōsōzoku.
The buses I drove in the seventies had high exhausts. But the particular shape of this trumpet perplexes me a bit.
More than likely, these have been upgraded with diesel particulate filter systems. Peoria updated all their busses several years ago, and they have the same trumpet up top.
Looks ok this country still allows underfloor exhaust outlets on heavy trucks and busses, they should be mandated overhead to clear the fumes
New Image Car Wash.
Seen these in the DC area (not sure if Metrobus or RideOn or Fairfax Connector, or maybe all three) for a while. My guess was sound dissipation.
Gillig Low-Floors are used at least by CUE (Fairfax City) and DASH (Alexandria).
It looks like a DPF. Diesel Particulate Filter.
My favorite UpHighExhaustPipe is from the 1966 GMC Titan II Concept Big Rig.
NEEDS DUALS! (Sorry, that’s my gut reaction to an exposed exhaust.)
Are these diesel buses or propane buses? (Not certain whether propane buses are compression-engined or not.) Our local buses are LPG and have an exhaust note that sounds not unlike something digestive (more like a burp than a fart, actually). Haven’t noticed the exhaust in detail, though.
Diesel. Although I suspect that our transit district will will they had bought LPG ones, given how cheap it is compared to diesel fuel.
Many bus districts now run natural gas; but not propane, which is much more expensive. Yes, NG and propane engines need spark plugs.
There is a CNG mix for diesels meant to have lower emissions, India has CNG diesels
You are correct, NG, not LPG. (Hank Hill would be disappointed in me.)
I saw an LTD bus clip a Grand Marquis downtown earlier tonight. Blew the passenger tire on the Marq and crunched the front clip up real good. Both cars were turning left onto West 11th near the bus station. Evidently the bus driver didn’t see the Marq and turned too sharply.
/csb