BusTalk

[Mr. Linsky]

In the photo below taken on April 1st. 2006, we see an interesting 'family portrait' posed at the MTA's JFK Depot (original home of Green Bus Lines) almost immediately after the Authority's takeover of the last of the private bus lines in New York City.

The buses, which represent a cross section of the acquired companies and still wearing their original liveries, now carry MTA Bus emblems and changed fleet numbers.

From left to right, we see a 1988 MCI Classic #7831 (ex-Liberty Lines Express #3012), a 1986 GM-RTS #1158 (ex-Jamaica Bus Lines #575, ex ex Command #399), a 1985 GM-RTS 326 (ex-Command #373), a 1999 Orion #5997 (ex-Green Bus Lines #722, ex ex-New York Bus Service #1714) and a 1988 MCI Classic #7316 (ex-New York Bus Service. #1606).

Photo and information supplied by Glenn L. Rowe with thanks.

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, New York

[Mr. Linsky]

If it's a double feature with 'Earl of Chicago' and 'Henry Does Arizona' at the old Greeley Theater on Manhattan's Sixth Avenue at 30th. Street, it must be 1940 and just after the Sixth Avenue El Line was demolished and sent to Japan.

Winding through the avenue amidst the street openings preparing for the upgrading of traffic signals, we see no less than three Yellow Coaches operating for the New York City Omnibus Corporation division of the Chicago based Omnibus Corporation.

The first of the two heading southbound is fleet # 717 - a 1937 32 passenger model 728 and one of 268 numbered from 501 to 768.

Following # 717 is an earlier 1935 model 718 and part of the first ever order for the newly formed company which was made up of 220 copies.

The single northbound coach represents an excellent view of the rear of a model 728.

BTW; if you didn't happen to like the movies at the Greeley, there was always 'Bingo' at 3:45 PM!

Photo thanks to the Brooklyn Museum.

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, New York

[Mr. Linsky]

Seen in Manhattan sometime between the summer and fall of 1953 traveling along either 34th. or 42nd. Street and just passing Third Avenue is fleet number W-50 - a 1953 White Model 1144D operating as a demonstrator for Surface Transportation System of New York (STS).

While STS was mainly a Twin Coach customer at its beginnings followed by heavy investments in Mack and GM as world war II approached and beyond, the company did entertain samples from various other manufacturers and, in fact, operated one White Model 788 in the early 40's.

Unfortunately, no order could have been derived from a successful test of W-50 as the White Motor Company ceased bus manufacturing in October of the same year.

Photo courtesy of eBay.

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, New York

[Mr. Linsky]

Thanks to some astute searching by NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629 we see a very interesting bus below with even a more interesting history.

Photographed (upper frame) in September of 1982 in a private yard at 25th. Avenue and Harway in Brooklyn is what was then left of a 1956 GM Coach Model TDH 5106 which had been discarded by the New York City Police Department as seen by their well known logo amidships.

Built by GM Engineering as one of their first Air Conditioned transit coaches and demonstrated across the country with its final stop and subsequent purchase by Fifth Avenue Coach Company in 1958, it was commissioned as fleet # 3100.

#3100 made it through the Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority (MABSTOA) takeover of Fifth Avenue in 1962 and, with its Air Conditioning system removed, was eventually transferred to the Police Department.

Dates are a bit fuzzy but sometime after the 1982 image below was taken, #3100 was rescued and restored to original condition including its air conditioner in tact by the MTA Museum and is now one of its star attractions (as seen in the lower frame).

#3100 does have one further distinction; it was the only New York City based GM Old Look transit bus built during the 'ThermoMatic' era not to be so equipped.

Upper photo taken by Doug Grotjahn
Lower photo thanks to Jim Henderson

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, New York

[Free-transfer]

If I remember correctly, 3100 went to the Transit Police, maybe even Housing PD. Later, when it was restored by the Museum, only the a/c hood and vents were installed, the rest of the system wasn't. Basically, it's for looks only, non-working. The lot that it's in was a NYCTA property.

[Mr. Linsky]

In an over night photo snapped in 1939 at the East New York facility of the Brooklyn Bus Corporation in Brooklyn, we see a number of the company's vast fleet of buses being made ready for the next day of service.

Prominent among them and numbered in the 400's are some of Brooklyn's fifty 1931 43 passenger Mack Model 6-BT-3S's - the largest transit buses of the era and as tough as they came.

In fact, after city takeover of Brooklyn Bus and its parent Brooklyn and Manhattan Transit Company (BMT) in 1940, the BT's soldiered on through the war and into the late forties with many augmenting the city's Manhattan services and others being sold off to surviving local operators.

Bus # 605 in the front row, and one of the company's rare Yellows, is a 30 passenger 1934 Model 717 and one of only five numbered 601 to 605.

The East New York lot was well lighted and equipped with gadgetry to prevent engine freeze ups on cold winter nights.

Photo courtesy of the Motor Bus Society.

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, New York

[Mr. Linsky]

In a rare shot taken circa 1936. we see another of the several way stations of the Brooklyn Bus Corporation that dotted the landscape of Kings County, New York.

This outdoor facility, located across from Bush Terminal in the Sunset Park section of the borough, could store, fuel and perform minor services on about 100 of the company's buses that were assigned to routes local to that area.

Of note are the well lighted island stations that kept engines warm during freezing cold winter nights.

About Bush Terminal;

Founded in 1902, Bush Terminal in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, was the first fully integrated manufacturing and warehousing complex in America. The piers, docks, warehouses and rails that formed Bush Terminal on Second Ave and 39th Street allowed goods to be shipped into and out of Brooklyn by boat or train. Irving Bush, a Dutch immigrant, developed the area that at its peak before World War I covered 200 acres along Gowanus Bay, stretching from 27th Street to 50th Street.

Photo courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum.

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, New York

[Mr. Linsky]

Seen in the University Heights section of the Bronx circa 1950 (as noted by the Chevrolet billboard in the background) is fleet number 796 - a 1942 Twin Coach Model 44-GDE (Diesel Electric) and one of 147 numbered in the 7 and 800's operating for the Surface Transportation System of New York.

The 'G' in the model designation stood for 'Gravity Suspension' which was another of Twin's many firsts and indicated that the bus body was slung from the axles instead of riding over them and thus allowed free movement in any direction.

A smaller order of like sized and powered Twins and fifty Yellow Coach Model TD 4502's in 1940, made Surface Transportation the largest single pre war Diesel fleet operator in the nation.

The unusual intake vent on the roof of # 796 was Twin's version of a mechanical ventilation system required by New York law at the time.

Of note is the post war Surface Mack just behind # 796 and, behind that, the old University Theater on West Fordham Road.

Photo courtesy of eBay.

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, New York

[Mr. Linsky]

I would imagine that by the image below, there is little doubt as to what make and model of transit bus ruled the road for the better part of the second half of the twentieth century in the U.S. and especially in New York City.

In focus in a photo taken in 1977 in the Broadway/Vesey Street section of downtown Manhattan, we see fleet # 6914 - a 1973 GM Coach Model T6H-5310A and one of seventy numbered in the 6000's and delivered in increments between 1972 and 1973 to the New York City Transit Authority.

Operating from the city's Staten Island Bus Division, # 6914 is signed for the X19 route in express service from Manhattan to Richmond via the Verrazano Narrows Bridge

Of note are the set a three Michigan Markers over the destination sign (a rarity on city equipment) and the fiberglass shield to protect the two way radio antenna array on the roof.

Photo courtesy of eBay.

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, New York

[Mr. Linsky]

You might call the attachment 'A Real Classic Line-up'!

Seen on the 'Day of Reckoning' (April 1st. 2006 - the MTA takeover date) at LaGuardia Depot (formely the Triboro Coach Corp. garage in Jackson Heights, New York and ready for their adopted family portrait with MTA decals and new fleet numbers are right to left;

#7325 (ex-New York Bus Service 1615), 7404 (ex-New York Bus Service 1695, ex-Command 459), #7880 (ex-Liberty Lines Express #3062) and 1989 MCI Classic # 7413 (ex-New York Bus Service #1706, ex-Green Bus Lines 703).

These buses were mostly single door suburban configurations and used mainly in Express service.

All are 1988 MCI's except for # 7413 which is a 1989.

Photo by Glenn L. Rowe

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, New York

[Mr. Linsky]

If it's the old Schildkraut Ford building in the background it has to be Merrick Boulevard off Liberty Avenue in Jamaica, Queens and next to where North Shore Bus Company built their Central Queens facility back in 1940.

1947 saw the failure of North Shore, the largest of the Queens private operators, and the takeover by the then City of New York Board of Transportation creating the Queens Bus Division for which nearly 200 GM TDH 4507's were purchased mostly to replace all but North Shore's handful of post war stock.

Seen at the facility sometime in the mid fifties are a number of those 4507's reading for another day's work (# 2006 already having its engine running).

While Mack offered directional signals as standard equipment, GM did not as evidenced in this image.

Photo courtesy of eBay.

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, New York

[Mr. Linsky]

O.K. class - pay attention (especially you newbies!);

Never take as factual the caption that accompanies a photo before you check and recheck again or you may just post an error like the one below.

The image states that the bus is a TDH 4008 - GM ended the production of 40 passenger transits upon the introduction of the paired window line in 1949.

In actuality, we see a 1957 shot of fleet number C-352 - a 1949 GM Model TDH 4509 and one of one-hundred numbered C-300 to C-399 operating for Public Service Coordinated Transport of Newark, New Jersey (all the buses were two door transits but some had different types of seats and capacities).

Marked as 'SPECIAL', # C-352 is seen in layover mode at Rockaway, New York's Playland Amusement Park.

# C-352 is also an excellent example of a 'phase one' 4509 as evidenced by its manufacture before the roof structure production modification in which the single passenger window forward of the rear door was made narrower than its counterpart aft of the opening.

Credit with frame.

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, New York

[Mr. Linsky]

The marquee of the Astor Theater says it's the Babe Ruth Story starring my idol William Bendix of 'Life of Riley' fame so it must be late 1948 that we spot fleet number 1600 - a 1948 Mack Model C-45-DT and one of one hundred and eighty five likenesses numbered 1600 to 1784 and operating for the Surface Transportation System of New York.

Brand spanking new # 1600 is making its way north on Manhattan's 'Great White Way' on the # 104 route between 42nd. Street and First Avenue and 125th. Street in Harlem (actually retracing the steps of a traction line established by its parent, the Third Avenue Railway System, before the turn of the twentieth century).

For those who notice such things, the black 1946 Packard Clipper in the foreground carries a '9T' license plate which was reserved for private cars for hire.

Photo thanks to eBay.

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, New York

[frankie]

Another great scene from the past! The year was definitely 1948 as evident by the NY tag (as noted by Mr. L) and confirmed by the '48 Alabama tag (Marshall Co. code) on the car directly behind the bus.

Other observations are the rears of two northbound buses (GM is closest) at the right side of the photos.

I don't know about you Mr. L, but I think after watching the Babe Ruth story, I may just step next door to the Automat and vendor myself a ham & cheese sandwich along with a cup of coffee! Care to join me?

Frankie

[JimmiB]

And how many of us are old enough to have watched "Life of Riley"?
That picture is really classic NYC.