CallaBria Putrino began her job as director of public transportation for the City of Macomb (Mass Transit) in September 2024.
One of many of her responsibilities is purchasing the vehicles to be used. Due to the exorbitant cost of new buses, Putrino often searches online auction bills to hopefully locate used buses with years of life still in them.
Recently, while searching the Big Iron Auction site, CallaBria came across something that caught her attention. Back around 2015, Macomb was set to get nine brand new New Flyer 30' 'middle' buses, which were made in England. Something went awry with the order, she thinks maybe some of the funding fell through, and only three of the specialty configured buses for Macomb, Illinois were sent. Fast forward 11 years later, when in December 2025, CallaBria was searching for some 'new used' buses on the auction site and something caught her eye.
In the photos of the buses up for auction were two that had the exact preferred seat configuration for Macomb, and low mileage, around 200,000. Then Ms. Putrino's keen detective eye noticed something strange … underneath the Omaha Metro white and blue paint there was another color of paint that hadn't been completely covered. The color of that paint? Yellow.
After consulting with her head mechanic, it was confirmed that the two buses up for auction were indeed two more of the nine buses originally ordered in 2015 by Macomb. The sister buses had found each other. Putrino won four buses at auction and they arrived in Macomb Dec. 30. The 'new used' buses, that were in 2015 specially ordered for Macomb, are back and will be used on needed routes. Of the four total buses Putrino purchased, three had been driven by Omaha Metro and the fourth was in South Dakota.
Of the thousands of buses manufactured every year, what are the odds that two buses specially ordered from England in 2015, would eventually find their way back to Macomb, Illinois? They now sit side-by-side in the bus garage, next to their long lost, assembly line sisters.
