BusTalk

[Mr. Linsky]

Pictured below is a Motor Coach Industries (MCI) Model MC-7 flagged as Greyhound fleet # 7107 and owned by BusTalk member MOVIEBUSES who obviously gives this coach much tender loving care.

The MC-7, which was designed to replace Greyhound’s aging GM Scenicruiser, paved the way and established the company as a dominant force in over the road bus production which has remained so to this day.

Powered by DDA 8V-71 engines, these 40 long three axle ‘super coaches’ represented current state of the art intercity design at the time and boasted high seat platforms allowing for substantial under floor luggage space (325 cu.ft.) and the absence of wheel well intrusion in the passenger compartment.

While it may be true that the engine troubled Scenicruiser was a catalyst in Greyhound’s breaking of a long and close relationship with General Motors, it was by no means their first foray into MCI equipment.

In fact, Greyhound bought the Canadian manufacturer in 1948 and eventually opened an assembly plant in North Dakota to fabricate both the MC-7 and its shorter MC-5 sister for U.S. consumption.

Between the two models over 5,000 were built through the sixties and seventies.

Mr. Linsky – Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, NY

[Mr. Linsky]

This juist in;

Later this month, Greyhound's new image will appear on its latest series of buses manufactured by Prevost.

Little else is known thus far but the pictures certainly portray a big change in the company's conceptions.

Photo courtesy of Drew at Nor Cal.

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, NY

[HwyHaulier]

[Mr. Linsky]

Vern,

Funny that you should mention Raymond Loewy because that's exactly what I thought when I saw the new Greyhound livery.

There is a very definite although suttle resemblance!

It is eerie!

Mr. 'L'

[HwyHaulier]

Mr Linsky -

The latest Prevost colors have gotta' be one very clever and very powerful statement of image, and great marketing...

Recalls days when the Greyhounds ran everywhere, all the time, cargo and express holds were full, too, and you could buy
the tickets at the corner drugstore...

They could do a lot worse than recalling the imagery!

.....................Vern.................

[Mr. Linsky]

Here's an odd ball bus!

Pictured below is fleet # 3133 - a 1957 GM TDH 4512 and one of 51 (3102 to 3152) delivered to the Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway Company in January of that year.

A little history of the company;

The Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway was a streetcar and later bus company in the eastern part of the state serving most of Boston's suburbs. Many of its former routes are now run by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.

What makes # 3133 (and, undoubtedly, its siblings) so unique is the fact that is it probably the first 4512 that I have ever seen without a ThermoMatic heating and ventilation system as noted by the absence of the familiar intake vent over the destination sign.

In place of the ThermoMatic are the equally familiar 'Mickey Mouse ear' roof vents normally found on all GM Old Looks prior to the 4507's.

Many bus fans have commented that they like the 'bald' look, but I happen to think that the ThermoMatic intake vent added a very handsome finishing touch to the front end.

Photo courtesy of Bob Hussey.

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, NY

[Mr. Linsky]

Thanks to the magic of famed bus photographer Jim Husing's camera, I have been able to obtain an interesting image of a Blue and White Lines coach operating in New Jersey, and taken in 1975.

Pictured below is fleet number 111 - a 1958 GM Model TDH 5106 and one of 121 (9000 to 9120) originally delivered to the City of New York Board of Transportation in September of that year.

What judges this bus to be so interesting is that the rare horizontal sliding passenger sashes make it and its siblings one of a kind GM Old Looks.

Also pictured below is number 9117 as it appeared originally minus the chromium bumper and Michigan markers that Blue and White added.

Apparently, the city sold a number of these particular buses to New Jersey operators including Greenville and Lafayette Transportation of Jersey City also shown below.

These coaches were among the first Old Looks to use Pantographic windshield wiper arms.

All photos borrowed for educational purposes only.

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, NY

[Cyberider]

Great information and photos, Mr. Linsky! Looks like GM was trying out some New Look features on this late model Old Look.

Dave

[Mr. Linsky]

Dave,

It was definately an experiment, and no coincidence that the city's C-50 (Bingham) Macks of the era had the same slider window configurations.

However, we will really never know if the city liked the special sashes on the GM's because those 121 9000's were the last Old Looks that the city ever purchased.

Of course, the principle was adopted on the New Looks and served very well for the next thirty years.

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, NY

[Mr. Linsky]

Yellow’s First Integral Bus

Until the late 1920’s, buses of all types were generally constructed with custom built bodies mounted upon what were usually truck chassis with engines forward of the cab.

However, with cities expanding, and ridership continuing to rise, bus manufacturers began to realize that too much of the allowed length of their offerings were occupied with engine compartments thus reducing appreciably the potential for maximum passenger capacities.

It was Twin Coach that led the field with the introduction of a truly revolutionary ‘integral’ bus design in 1927 boasting a seating capacity of 40 with twin Waukesha gasoline engines tucked neatly under the floor amidships (see Jamaica Buses top photo below).

The Twins were a resounding success and more than one thousand were produced between 1927 and 1937 with many serving New York operators.

Not to be outdone by Twin, the then fledgling Yellow Coach division of GM set out to emulate its competitor and in 1929 produced the prototype pictured below (center).

This undesignated model featured a pair of 150 horsepower flat head Cadillac V-8 engines also mounted under-floor amidships with a common drive shaft connected via fluid coupling to the forward rear axle which also drove the aft rear axle by chains.

There were synchronization problems which led Yellow to abandon the project and concentrate on a straight-in rear mounted engine (see bottom photo) which, in variation, remains the standard to this day.

Photos courtesy of the Motor Bus Society.

Mr. Linsky – Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, NY

[Mr. Linsky]

Here's a really interesting little article I ran across featuring what may be the first 'all-steel' all weather transit bus ever built with seating for twenty-five passengers.

Other features included removable windows for summer operation and heating with gases from the exhaust pipe (I'd really like to know how they accomplished that without killing the passengers! - maybe that's why the body resembled a funeral hearse!).

Judging by the pneumatic tires, I would have to say that this bus dates from the late teens but could be earlier if it originally had solid rubber.

The closest I can come to a chassis maker might be either Atterbury or Corbitt although most trucks of the era looked pretty much alike.

Picture courtesy of the New York Public Library Digital Collection.

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, NY

[Mr. Linsky]

In the unusual photo below taken in 1946 on the assembly line at GM Truck and Coach in Pontiac, Michigan we see the first post war models in the finishing phase of assembly.

What may be familiar to New York fans would be the model TD 4506 (left center of the image) marked fleet number 1106 and carrying the livery of Surface Transportation System of New York.

Number 1106 was one of an order of 97 buses (1100 to 1196) delivered to the company in July of that year.

Because of continued shortages of stainless steel immediately after the war, these buses came through devoid of bright metal exterior trim and were outfitted with painted steel or wooden interior passenger railings.

Abridged photo courtesy of AutoLit.

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, NY

[Cyberider]

Interesting photo, Mr. Linsky. I wonder how well the wooden stanchions held up over time?

[Mr. Linsky]

Dave,

While I never saw any wooden jobs (Green Line's 4506's had painted steel), I would have to imagine that they stood up pretty well and probably because they would have been of oak.

With a little 'Min-Wax' now and then, they'd undoubtedly still be in good shape today!

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, NY

[Mr. Linsky]

Pictured below is fleet number M65 - a 1958 Mack Model C-49-DM operating for the Public Service Coordinated Transport of New Jersey.

This fairly rare Mack single door suburban coach equipped with high back seats, parcel racks, Firestone air suspension and mechanical transmission was used basically in long haul commuter and charter operations.

Apparently, M65 was originally intended as a demonstrator and was acquired from New Jersey in 1960 by Avenue B and East Broadway in Manhattan as their number 501 for both their franchised routes and racetrack assignments.

The 39 foot long 50 passenger C-49 model in both 96 and 102 inch widths was Mack's second most popular post-war coach in its various forms and 1409 were sold between 1954 and 1960.

The C-49's along with the lighter weight C-47's were the last models to be manufactured by Mack.

Photo credit goes to Tripstop80 of GMOldLookBus.

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, NY