Dayton Fantrips August 2021 with 937, 110, 9835, 1402, and 1960

The Hoosier Traction Meet arranged a tour of Dayton via the RTA. The RTA pulled out all the stops, and put the following buses out for the attendees to ride:
- 1977 Flyer 937
- 1982 Ex-Edmonton BBC 110
- 1998 Skoda/ETI 9835
- 2014 Vossloh-Kiepe 1402 (diesel-electric -- an FL9 on wheels)
- 2019 Kiepe 1960 (battery electric)

As several of the above buses have only limited (or no) off wire capability, the trip was planned to operate under wire. Areas toured:
- Downtown
- Garage
- Route 5S
- Route 8W
- Route 1W
- Route 3S/7S

With the temperatures at 90°+, the attendees got a good appreciation of a fine summertime Sunday afternoon in Dayton, and the climate control capabilities of 9835, 1402, and 1960.

Even with the heat, all the buses performed flawlessly, although there were several dewirements due to hot and saggy wires, plus 937 broke a retriever rope yoke (attach point of the rope to the pole), requiring a repair in the field.

937's story is an interesting one. It was (and is) the last Flyer to operate in Dayton, still sporting its sign "LAST RIDE" from the August 1999 last run. You may wonder, why 937? According to Harvey Hylton, "It's the Area Code."

After that fantrip, the bus was stored in NW Hub. In 2018, the RTA decided to bring it back downtown. When they got it to the garage, they decided, "Hey let's put poles back on it, and see what happens." The bus immediately came to life, and so they took it for a short drive, and it seemed to be fine. A testament to the GE 1213 motor/control set.

The Trolley Shop installed a Uni-Trak switch to allow 937 to set switches (when 937 last ran, Dayton was still "POWER ON LEFT OFF RIGHT" territory), which enabled it to operate without having to perform set overs.

In short, the HTM attendees got the full Dayton summertime trolley riding experience. A giant amount of thanks goes to the RTA:
- Management (for letting this happen)
- The Trolley Shop (for getting the buses up and running, and then operating the buses)
- Engineering (who helped plan the routing)
- The Overhead Line Dept (ensured the lines were clear of obstructions, and verified some of the rarely used switches were operating OK)