BusTalk

[Mr. Linsky]

My apologies for the grainy presentations below but I guess you have to take what you can get when you can get it!

Pictured at unknown (to me) locations but undoubtedly somewhere within the environs of the City of Brotherly Love in the Keystone State, we see fleet # 1727 (top or left) - an early 40's Mack Model CM-3G and Fleet # 1947 (bottom or right) - another early 40's Mack Model CM-3G but an 'Improved' version and both part of 307 delivered in increments between August of 1940 and November of 1942 to the Philadelphia Transportation Company (PTC) of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The 40 passenger CM-3G, Mack's largest and best selling pre-war era transit, gained its power from a 611 cubic inch, 160 horsepower gasoline engine coupled to a three speed manual transmission featuring an 'air clutch' which eliminated the clutch pedal and made for a much smoother ride (interestingly, while Yellow's version - called an 'air shift' - was troublesome and disappeared in the late thirties, Mack's device was very successful and even found its way to some early post war models).

PTC held the record for the most CM's on its property and it would have been even a greater number had nearly half of a 220 unit increment not been reallocated to other companies and the U.S. Navy (St. Louis Public Service was runner up with 170 CM's).

#1727 shows a rather odd front bumper (for a CM) probably borrowed from one of the company's 17 CW's or its single 'CT' and #1947's 'Improvement' is its angled windshield.

While I never drove a CM myself, I rode in some of the thirty-five at Green Line (NY) and they were so quiet and smooth running that you hardly new you were moving!

Photos by bfwu and up for bid on eBay as items # 260971761916 and 260971761941 respectively.

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