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How We Handled Governors at Green Line!

 
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Mr. Linsky
BusTalk's Offical Welcoming Committee



Joined: 16 Apr 2007
Posts: 5071
Location: BRENTWOOD, CA. - WOODMERE, N.Y.

PostPosted: Fri Apr 27, 2007 12:27 am    Post subject: How We Handled Governors at Green Line! Reply with quote

How We Handled Governors at Green Line!

In continuing to reprise my experiences at Green Bus Lines, which first appeared in BusTalk.net, I submit the following for your amusement;

The governors that I refer to in the title are, of course, not the ones sitting in Albany but those that have always been found on modern transit buses. These devices, with various trade names including 'Speed Limiters’, prevented vehicles from exceeding certain preset speed limits, but while their purpose was in saving lives and wear and tear, they could become very annoying to drivers!

The pre war Macks at Green Line never had them merely because it was thought that no Mack could ever reach any dangerous speed! But when the GM Diesels came upon the scene in 1946 it was a different story. All Green Line GM buses were equipped with these devices and they were generally set for forty-five miles per hour.

Somehow or another the drivers found out that by pushing a bus over the set limit ‘kinetically’ on a steep downgrade the governor could be broken, and that’s just what they would do on the Q37 line.

The Q37 started at Queens Boulevard by the old Kew Gardens Hospital, traveled around and up 80th. Rd. to Park Lane South, and then over the crest of a long steep hill to Metropolitan Avenue. It was that long downhill run that did it!

Once the limiter was broken there was no telling how fast these Diesels could go, but they sure found out on the Q10 line between the Federal Building and the main terminal at what was then New York International Airport (JFK). In those days there was virtually nothing that stood in the way between those two points and they were connected by a ‘super’ highway (some drivers swore they hit eighty!).

It seemed as though all the drivers new which buses had the broken limiters and the mechanics, who also new, never did anything about it until just before PSC inspections!

Yes, they were the good old days!


Mr. Linsky

"The Green Hornet"
Gren Bus Lines, Jamaica, NY
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