BusTalk

Mr. Linsky

It's February 21st. 1949 as we see a cheering crowd of passengers eagerly awaiting one of the first Philadelphia Transportation Company (PTC) buses to begin operating after the settlement of a ten day strike.

The bus, fleet # 1704, is a pre war Mack Model CM-3G and presumably delivered to the company along with about 175 likenesses numbered in the 15, 17, 18 and 1900's between 1940 and 1942 but does not appear on PTC's all time roster with the first group delivered in 1940 starting with the number 1705.

That same roster shows fleet #'s 1701 to 1704 as being 1939 Model 740 Yellow Coaches - I'll have to let my learned colleagues from The City of Brotherly Love figure this one out.

# 1704 is shown signed for the 'G' line from Overbrook Station to the city line.

Wire service photo from Associated Press and is borrowed for educational purposes only.

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

mike022756 · Posted: Tue May 21, 2013 3:17 pm Post subject:

I answered this in another place, but the Yellow Coach 740's were renumbered 1601-1604 in 1940, just before PTC acquired TD4001's which were numbered 1605-1607. Bus 1704 was part of the 2nd order by PTC for Mack CM-3G's, which were numbered 1653-1704, and arrived early in 1941. These buses were used to convert Route D from 1925-26 vintage DD gas-electrics, and ran primarily on the D until late 1946, when the 2nd part of the 1400-series Mack C-41's were put into service. Some of these were then assigned to Route G, and migrated to South Philadelphia's Jackson Depot in 1947 when the G was reassigned to Jackson Depot. I think that this group lasted long enough to move to Southern Depot in 1956, when it took the buses previously assigned to Jackson depot, when it was closed April 14, 1956(coincident with the end of rail service on Route 64)...Jackson Depot did last long enough to have TDH5106's officially assigned to it, though I suspect those 5106's(3193-3249, BTW, which were first used on the G, and became the 64's bus replacements) probably rarely, if ever, saw the inside of Jackson Depot...I'll guess that Jackson Depot never got diesel fueling facilities.