Volume 30 · Number 3 · Spring 2013
End Notes
Mike Quillici ’06 and Maria Westendorf Quillici ’05 visit Unitrans icon RTL 1014. (Courtesy photo)
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The old and the new: Unitrans buses, from left, RT 3123, RT 742, RTL 1014 and one of the transit system's newest double-deckers, 8185, model year 2010.
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Farewell party, Jan. 20, 2012: RTL 1014 and Geoff Straw, before each went their separate ways.
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Leaving the Unitrans yard one last time, Jan. 24, 2012.
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Mike Quillici snapped this photo in Sacramento, as the tractor-trailer rig exited onto southbound I-5.
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Coming off the ship in Southampton.
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RTL 1014 arrives from the dock, with Ensignbus Chairman Peter Newman at the wheel. He made the same drive, in reverse, 45 years ago.
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In the shop, for wood replacement (bus shell), paint and reupholstered seats …
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… and out on the road during an Ensignbus “running day.”
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That’s RTL 1014 on the left, sharing the spotlight with other vintage buses.
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The lettering is the same on the “livery” (transit identifier), the American flag is new, for “a trans-Atlantic feel.”
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Former Unitrans drivers Mike Quillici and Maria Westendorf Quillici, visiting RTL 1014 in London.
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Historical accuracy: Mike Quillici swapped the “8th/Fremont Cir/Shields” route card for G Line card.
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The Aggies frame stays with the California license plate, right above the London tag. It was KYY 712 in Davis, and that number is still good in London 45 years after the bus left town.
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Quillici told his wife, yes, we can go to Scotland, “but if we’re going to Scotland we have to go see 1014.”
RTL 1014's journey
(Slideshow)
A London reunion with an old friend
Former Unitrans driver Scott Coonce ’95, who lives in Belgium, thought if he ever saw the double-decker RTL 1014 again, it would be in the Unitrans yard. Now, he can simply go across the English Channel to see his old bus in London — right back where 1014 began its journey 63 years ago.
“It was my favorite double-decker,” he said via Facebook. “Older, (but) it always seemed like it just rumbled along. On cold winter mornings, I remember no heat and a cold, bare metal steering wheel.”
This icon of the iconic Unitrans fleet has done all of its rumbling on its original engine, one of the factors that enticed the Ensignbus Transport Museum to bid for the bus.
The Associated Students of UC Davis started the University Transit System in 1968 with RTL 1014 and RTL 1194, paying $3,000 apiece for the buses. Ensignbus paid $7,000 plus shipping out of Long Beach to bring 1014 home in spring 2012.
The museum organizes public “running days” and also rents buses for wedding parties and such. Ensignbus advertises 1014 as “a London bus with a Californian accent!” And why not? The double-decker spent 45 years at Unitrans, after 17 years in the London transit system.
In December, former Unitrans drivers Mike Quillici ’06 and his wife, Maria Westendorf Quillici ’05, caught up with RTL 1014 in London. Mike said they had been planning a holiday vacation, with Scotland as Maria’s preferred destination: “So I said, ‘We can do whatever you want to do, but if we’re going to Scotland we have to go see 1014.’”
He said he came away from an afternoon at Ensignbus confident that the museum “will care for the bus, preserve it and keep it running.” On that same old engine!
— Dave Jones
Pint during a break in the action at Aggie Stadium (Courtesy photo)
Pint returns
A Nova Scotia duck tolling retriever named Pint debuted last football season as the newest member of the Aggies’ special teams. He retrieves the kickoff tee at home games, earning cookies and a good game of tug-of-war in return.
Danika Bannasch, associate professor of veterinary medicine, heard UC Davis Athletics was looking for a football dog, so she offered Pint’s services. “I thought it was a great way to promote the School of Veterinary Medicine” — including the William R. Pritchard Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital, which, by the way, saved the life of Pint’s grandmother after she was accidentally poisoned.
Fan response to Pint has been enthusiastic. He’ll be back this coming season for more action.
An alum’s amazing run
Ryan Danz ’99 and partner Abbie Ginsberg deliver blocks of ice to a fish market in Surabaya, Indonesia, during an episode of The Amazing Race. (Robert Voets/ CBS Broadcasting Inc.)
Most people would be lucky to get to compete in one reality show. For alumnus Ryan Danz, luck struck twice.
Danz ’99 competed in the 21st season of The Amazing Race, seven years after being a contestant on The Apprentice: Martha Stewart (reaching the final four).
On The Amazing Race (on TV from September to December 2012), he and partner Abbie Ginsberg won the first leg, putting them in line to double the prize money to $2 million if they came in first overall. They would end up in fifth place after pushing their limits through six countries and various challenges.
Based in San Diego, Danz is an attorney who owns a financial services company.