BusTalk

[Mr. Linsky]

Snapped in 1946 at what the vendor purports to be 'Park Plaza' in either Manhattan or The Bronx (?) is fleet #1171 - a 1946 44 passenger GM Coach and one of ninety seven likenesses numbered between 1100 and 1196 operating for Third Avenue Railway System affiliate Surface Transportation System of New York.

This was apparently the celebration of either the receipt of new buses or a replacement of an important trolley line as evidenced by the pretty lady attempting to christen #1171 by smashing a bottle of champagne (Mumms I hope) into its hull while two officials look on.

A clue here might be the 'Horse Car' stage left of the frame.

Looking at #1171, you get a good view of the rare outward opening front doors and the even rarer 'Golden Glow' headlamps which were about one step better than acetylene lights!

P.S.; I'll let our 'Google Earth' specialists tell us where this image was really taken.

Photo courtesy of 'Vintage-Vault75' and is available at eBay as item # 181553864181.

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

[N4 Jamaica]

As usual, I make a guess. On Sunday, November 10, 1946, 21 Surface Transportation buses replaced the 59th Street streetcar, according to the New York Times of November 12. The Tenth Avenue line (which, I believe, used a single streetcar to hold the franchise) was motorized the same day. I can find no mention of a ceremony with champagne. Park Plaza is a name of several establishments near both Central Park and the Plaza hotel. I cannot match the building to the right.
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In the postwar era, 59th Street Crosstown was the first TARS line motorized. It had heavy patronage. I suspect that street closures near Columbus Circle doomed 59th Street service about 20 years ago. Rather there are two crosstown routes on 57th St, the M57 and M31.
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And yes, my memory is that the 1100's were the buses introduced in the fall of 1946 as I lost my streetcar routes. Macks followed.
Joe

[Mr. Linsky]

From the pages of a 1952 issue of Bus Transportation Magazine (my Bible) we see an ad by Bendix-Westinghouse Automotive Air Brake Company touting their systems and featuring Carey Transportation of New York as a satisfied customer.

The buses captured in the image numbered in the 300's were five 1952 Flxible Visicoach Airporters modeled as 218F1-52-281C's powered by Hercules Diesel engines and represented close to the last purchases from that manufacturer before turning to a fleet of GM PD-4104's starting in 1956.

Carey Transportation was for many years the premier airline connection service provider between mid town Manhattan to all three major metropolitan airports including LaGuardia, JFK and Newark (now Liberty) and was eventually purchased by the Greyhound Corporation.

Photo courtesy of '4509bus' and is available at eBay as item # 371164087112.

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

[X-Astorian]

Still continuing with Surface, here's what looks like #601 (the series ran from 600 to 675 so it's a good guess looking at that small number), a 1939 Mack CM-4D on the Bx29 Willis Avenue route from Fordham Plaza then across 125th in Manhattan to Riverside Drive. I can't figure the location (and who knows if any of those buildings still exist) but would place the date as 1950 or later based on the car behind the bus.

[Mr. Linsky]

How unfortunate it is to see a front page newspaper headline reporting of a bus accident but, given the mathematics involved, it is inevitable especially in New York City.

It's the evening of February 2nd. 2001 as we see the aftermath of an accident at the intersection of Queens Boulevard and 80th. Road in Kew Gardens in which a Green Bus Lines bus making a stop as it headed toward Jamaica on the Q-60 line struck and critically injured an elderly pedestrian who was probably crossing against the light.

The headline 'More Blood On The Blvd' refers to the notorious reputation of the thoroughfare as being a 'pedestrian killer'.

The bus, fleet # 5546 - a 1997 42 passenger BIA Orion modeled as a 05.501 and one of six likenesses numbered 5545 to 5550, arrived at Green Line in 2000 as ex Queens Surface 700 to 705 but were originally ordered by and diverted from New Orleans Regional Transit Authority.

Image courtesy of the New York Daily News Photo Archives with special thanks to Hart Bus for the lead.

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

[Mr. Linsky]

[quote="X-Astorian"]Still continuing with Surface, here's what looks like #601 (the series ran from 600 to 675 so it's a good guess looking at that small number), a 1939 Mack CM-4D on the Bx29 Willis Avenue route from Fordham Plaza then across 125th in Manhattan to Riverside Drive. I can't figure the location (and who knows if any of those buildings still exist) but would place the date as 1950 or later based on the car behind the bus.


X-Astorian

Great photo - thanks for sharing.

Fleet # 651 (your photo) - a 1941 44 passenger Mack modeled as a 'Stretched' CM-4D (Diesel Electric) was one of seventy six likenesses numbered 600 to 675 delivered to Surface Transportation in increments between 1939 and 1941.

A subsequent order for another seventy five CM's was diverted in production by the Office of Defense Transportation (ODT) for use by the Navy and wound up at facilities at Mare Island, California and Honolulu, Hawaii (lower photo shows one such CM in Hawaii but still signed for 'Columbus Circle'!).

The standard cataloged Mack CM with any drive train was at 40 passenger capacity and 33 feet in length but in the very late thirties New York City lifted its maximum 33 foot rule and permitted 35 feet allowing for an additional four passengers - thus the one window stretch as seen on # 651.

Lower photo from this writer's collection.

Regards,

Mr. 'L'

[Mr. Linsky]

It's obviously early in the morning in this photo taken May 29th. 1940 in Kew Gardens, Queens as we see commuters rushing from their bus to the Union Turnpike subway station across the street for their next lap in their daily sojourn to toils in the city.

The bus, working the Q-10 Lefferts Boulevard line and carrying a fleet number in the 800's, is a 40 passenger Mack modeled as a CM-3G and one of thirty five likenesses delivered in increments (801 to 825 in 1939 and 851 to 860 in 1940) to Green Bus Lines, Inc., then of Cornell Park, New York.

When I first spotted this gem of an image I was befuddled by its caption which stated the location as being 80th. Road at Kew Gardens Road which made no sense to me merely because I grew up less than four blocks away and could not place the intersection as being the way we see it.

However, after careful examination of the elements I concluded that the bus is correctly standing on 80th. Road which, at the time, was a two way street and which would mean that the Q-10's would come up Lefferts and, instead of continuing up the steep grade to Kew Gardens Road, would turn left at Austin Street and from there to a right on 80th. Road (originally Quentin Place).

For you 'Google Earth' fans, the building to the left is the Quentin Apartments and the one to the right was the then Kew Gardens Inn (turned into a hospital one year later).

Our focus still carries its original factory paint job of Mack design which included the inverted bib under the windshield and simulated fenders around the wheel wells.

Photo courtesy of the President Borough of Queens Archive.

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

[MaBSTOA 15]

The information accompanying the negative says...
"Park Plaza 59th Street Crosstown... Miss Mimi Binzel breaking the bottle" November 9, 1946

To the left you see a partial horses rump and what looks like a horse-drawn omnibus.

[Mr. Linsky]

[Mr. Linsky]

I suppose I should really have started another thread entitled 'Vintage New York City Accidents' but, fortunately, there have not been enough of them to merit such honorable mention.

It's a very wet evening on July 2nd. 1941 that we espy the aftermath of a collision between a bus and a car at Mosholu Parkway and Bainbridge Avenue in The Bronx in which the sedan, a 1938 Chevrolet, has apparently been T-boned between the coach and another unseen obstacle.

The bus, fleet# 955 - a 1939 40 passenger Twin Coach modeled as a 41-RLDE (Diesel Electric) and one of twenty likenesses numbered 942 to 961 purchased in that year by Surface Transportation System of New York, was working the #4 Jerome-Bainbridge Avenue's line and signed for University Ave.

A second unpublished photo shows no appreciable front end damage to the bus and the accompanying captions fail to mention the number, if any, of injuries and or fatalities.

Photo courtesy of the City of New York Department of Plant and Structures Archive.

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

[Mr. Linsky]

Most of New York City's Emergency Services buses such as for the Fire Department and various police agencies have usually been acquired as surplus transits out of MTA stock but there have been exceptions as seen below.

Standing at Kings Plaza on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn sometime in 1991 is fleet # 3000 - a 1973 GM Coach modeled as a T8H-5307A purchased new by the New York City Transit Police Department.

Very little if any interior special equipment or major alterations to the body can be seen which would indicate that # 3000 was used basically as a personnel carrier.

Of note are the lack of an exit door and a rarely seen GM New Look sans silver siding below the window belt (undoubtedly cost savers).

Photo courtesy of 'Vintage-Vault75' and is available at eBay as item # 171523749195.

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

[Q65A]

You know that a design is very good when an alteration looks really unusual.
Case in point: the emergency light bar mounted atop the leading edge of the roof of this Fishbowl.
Your eye just jumps when you see something like that; rather like seeing the Statue of Liberty wearing headphones :=)

[Mr. Linsky]

Another gem of an ad circa 1931 from Bus Transportation Magazine (my Bible) extolling the virtues of the B. F. Goodrich Rubber Company's Silvertowns tires as demonstrated by BMT affiliate Brooklyn Bus Corporation (BBC).

The bus, fleet# 200 - a 1931 40 passenger Twin Coach modeled as a '40', was a demonstrator arriving in that year and almost immediately followed by an additional ninety nine likenesses numbered 201 to 299 making BBC one of the nation's largest operators of this unique and trend setting model.

#200 is signed for the #15 line which was a very lucrative shuttle service between downtown Brooklyn and its Manhattan counterpart via the Manhattan Bridge.

Of note at the rear of our focus is a warning of 'Air Brakes' which were still in their infancy at the time.

Photo courtesy of '4509bus' and is available at eBay as item # 351216880617.

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

[Mr. Linsky]

Until viewing the photo below I thought that when I saw the burn out of a Green Bus Lines 1935 Mack in the Rockaways I'd seen it all but at least there was enough left to easily identify the model.

Not so in the focus of this essay (which was snapped at the 39th. Street yard in Brooklyn in 1954) - however, a careful examination of the wreckage discloses that we are looking at what little is left of a 1948/49 GM Coach modeled as a TDH 4510 and one of 500 custom built for the then City of New York Board of Transportation.

The three clues that resulted in my conclusion were the paired windows, the single window just forward of the rear door and the width of the divider between the rear windows behind the lounge seat which denoted the special wider body.

As far as what may have caused a fire so intense as to have melted the aluminum shell I would have to say that it must have been nothing short of Napalm! - about the only parts that seemed to survive at all were the fuel tank, the wheels and maybe the front door!

No information concerning the details of the tragedy were captioned.

Photo courtesy of 'Vintage-Vault75' and is available at eBay as item # 390967838863.

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

[Q65A]

Amazing that the tires survived what clearly was a very intense fire!
Some BMT "collector's items" also appear in the background at the 36th St. yard: AB's and BU's.