BusTalk

[Mr. Linsky]

I am in the midst of compiling a list of prewar Mack operators in the New York metropolitan region from a manufacturer's roster that I have received from the Mack Truck Museum.

Most of the names are familiar, but there are some that I am unsure of and would like verification on from any of you experts out there;

Scarsdale Bus Company, Club Transportation, Bronx-Flushing Bus Company, Yonkers Bus, Inc., Brooklyn Bus Corporation, New York Street Railway Company, Westchester Street Railway and Westchester Coach Company.

If you recognize the above names and have any information about them I would appreciate it.

Those companies that I am already familiar with and that will appear on the list are as follows;

East Side Omnibus Corporation, Comprehensive Omnibus Corporation, Nassau Bus Lines, Inc., Green Bus Lines, Inc., Surface Transportation System, Manhattan and Queens Bus Corporation, Avenue B and East Broadway Transit Company, Schenck Transportation, Inc., Hempstead Bus Corporation, Rockville Centre Bus Corporation, Long Beach Bus Company, Inc. and Steinway Omnibus Corporation.

Any operators that you can think of that are not listed would be ineligible because they were not 'new' Mack customers.

Thanks for any help.

Mr. Linsky
"The Green Hornet"
Green Bus Line's, Inc., Jamaica, New York

[N4 Jamaica]

By "prewar" I presume you mean before Pearl Harbor. I regret that I cannot give solid information, but allow an attempt based on early memories:
I certainly recall Club Transportation with their bottom-half blue color. I believe their routes, centered on White Plains, included the Central Park Avenue route from Bedford Park Blvd to White Plains.
Bronx-Flushing may have been a paper subsidiary of North Shore Bus Company. I recall buses on that route painted North Shore.
The Third Avenue Railway System was fond of making small changes in corporate names with each reorganization. There is a good chance that Westchester Street Railway became Westchester Street Transportation Company, which, I believe, ran the Mount Vernon and New Rochelle streetcar routes that were converted before World War II. That is, car lines A and B remained as streetcars until 1950 or so, but C, D, H, and several other routes became Westchester Street Transportation. Back issues of New York Division E.R.A. Bulletin are good on this because, in doing the history of Westchester streetcars, the writer continued the chronology with the bus route owners.

[N4 Jamaica]

Limiting this post to a single route in New Rochelle, North Avenue and Fifth Avenue, which became bus route F on March 15, 1931. The name of the firm operating these buses at that date was Westchester Electric Railroad Company. On November 15, 1936, it became Westchester Street Transportation Company. On December 17, 1956, Fifth Avenue Coach Lines, Inc., took over [because it bought Surface Transportation (Transit?) and its various subsidiaries]. On December 12, 1969, Bus Associates, Inc. About 1982, "Liberty Coaches, Club Transportation, and Westchester Street were merged to form Liberty Lines Transit, Inc."
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I have summarized the above from the much-praised series of histories published by Bernard Linder in the New York Division Bulletin of the Electric Railroaders' Association, issue of May, 2006. Mr. Linder has chronicled one route each month. The same issue gives brief histories of the New Rochelle Autobus Company (about 1915-1926), Huguenot Transportation Company (1932-1933), and Queen City Bus Company (about 1950).
Joe McMahon

[Mr. Linsky]

Joe,

Thanks so much for the input, and the trouble you went to in this regard (any time you need historic information on Green Bus Lines, just ask!).

I'm not much of a trolley enthusiast, but have picked up interesting facts about them along the way.

Jamaica Buses of South Jamaica was originally a trolley line (I believe it was the Jamaica Central Railway Company at one point), and there route designations were 'A', 'B' and 'C' similiar to those companies in Westchester County - so it seems as though that was the norm although I'm sure it must have been confusing to passengers!

That's probably why they changed to numbers when the buses took to the road.

Thanks again.

Mr. Linsky
"The Green Hornet"

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