BusTalk

Mr. Linsky · Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2011 3:18 am Post subject: 'IT'S OSHKOSH B'GOSH!'

Seen posing for its original family portrait in 1933 on Algoma Boulevard in Oshkosh proper is fleet #3 - a 1933 Yellow Coach forward control 'Type 18' Model 709 and one of eight numbered between 1 and 8 delivered to the Oshkosh City Lines, Inc. of Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

The diminutive 17 seat 709, introduced originally in Yellow's 1933 catalog and produced between 1933 and 1934 with only sixty-three copies making it into service, was ideal for low cost operation on sparsely populated lines with its power derived from a 257 cubic inch taxicab engine.

Madison Railways Company was the largest 709 customer with twenty-two of the sixty-three built.

Oshkosh City Lines, successor to Wisconsin Power and Light traction service, began bus operations in 1933 with what is said to have been a 'helping hand' for a brief period by 'trolley eating' executives of the infamous 'National City Lines' and continued to serve the City of Oshkosh until its takeover by City Transit Lines, Inc. in 1962.

Photo from the files of Yellow Coach via the Motor Bus Society.

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

HwyHaulier · Joined: 16 Dec 2007 Posts: 932 Location: Harford County, MD

MR 'L' -

Rather a scandalous characterization of N C L? (I'll assume it is merely the remarks which accompany the photo in source cited?)
Should anyone know where to see a copy of MASS TRANSPORTATION Magazine, of MAY 1945. It contains an article about the
business of N C L. It was an astonishing money machine!

Also, N C L would not have had the opportunities, had it not been the arbitrary nature of the "UTILITIES ACT" of ca. 1935. This the
"Get Sam Insull" law. It required power companies to divest of city transit lines. With it, a great number of unanticipated outcomes.

Even now, it is difficult to locate any 'Net links which carry objective and dispassionate accounts of N C L History! There are endless
variations of the same rants, largely based on ignorant misunderstandings of later, legally dubious, Anti Trust actions, as well as the
basic structure of the Corporation...

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

N4 Jamaica · Joined: 16 Apr 2007 Posts: 858 Location: Long Island

At the risk of diverting this thread to a Connecticut city: The above photo from Oshkosh shows a resemblance to small buses used by a local system in Torrington, Connecticut, in the 1940's. As I recall, they were more streamlined, but they had the door behind the front wheels. They were also short, as in Oshkosh.
Joe

Mr. Linsky · Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2011 3:42 pm Post subject:

N4 Jamaica,

You might be talking about the model seen in the Connecticut Company 1940 Hartford timetable which was a Yellow 715.

According to records, the Connecticut Company had 35 Model 712's which were actually slightly stretched model 709's, 17 Model 715's as seen in timetable and 11 Model 716's which was a slightly larger version of the 715.

All of these coaches were of the 'forward control' type in which the engine sits beside the driver and the entry door is located behind the front wheels.

Hope this helps,

Photo from eBay.

Regards,

Mr. 'L'