BusTalk

[timecruncher]

...which was November 1977 through September 1996. After four years in Louisville, I moved to Cincinnati after tiring of the union hassles and racial strife in my home town.

I went through training in three weeks since I already knew how to drive a bus, and all they needed to do was teach me where to drive it! My instructor was a seasoned operator who only recently retired after almost 40 years with the transit system.

I was placed at the Walnut Hills garage initially, working east-side routes, got bumped to Mitchell Avenue garage a few months later, and then went to Brighton garage next system pick to avoid having to work the extra board at Mitchell or Walnut Hills. I've been up and down the street long enough to know better than to stay on the 'board...

When I arrived on the scene, the last old-look GM diesels had been retired with the arrival of 127 brand-new AM-General 10240B units. Ah, but my first winter in Cincinnati made me question the wisdom of my move up the Ohio Valley:



Metro TDH5303 #462 at the Lockland, OH layover on Williams Street, across from the Stearns and Foster Mattress plant.

Metro also had close to 200 of these 1974 new look Flxibles as well, and I drove these things day in and day out it seemed. These were non power steering buses that drove okay, and handled Cincinnati's hills with ease thanks to the 8V71 Detroit Diesels:



Metro #794 in Fairfax, OH at the layover adjacent to Keebler's cookie factory (that might be the enchanted tree next to the layover). Note the traditional Cincy bus stop - an orange band on a utility post.

The AM-Generals were okay, but hard-steering and had that early V730 tranny that shifted HARD:



Metro AMG10240B #957 at Dana Avenue layover for route 44.

Fortunately, there were plenty of ex-Cincinnati Transit new look GM coaches still around, dating from 1960 through 1967. Here are a few in both the CTI and Metro color schemes:



TDH5303 #468 is beat up not because of road accidents - it is a Brighton Division bus, and we had to back the buses into an old carbarn. There were no lights, so we gently rolled back until we hit something when parking. Some weren't so gentle...



TDH5305 #571 was one of the last new buses purchased by Cincinnati Transit, shown here at Fay Apartments on the city's west side on the [then] busy route 49.

A few more:



AM General #926 at the McAlpin Loop on route 53. This was a trolley-bus loop built when the line was converted from streetcars in the early fifties.

To be continued...

[Cyberider]

Nice selection of buses back then with the possible exception of the AM General "junk boxes." Thanks for sharing the great photos, timecruncher!

[timecruncher]

Very few bus drivers liked the AM-G coaches around here. We had them in Louisville, 10240's (1975 was before the 'A' or 'B' suffix was added), and they were crap from the git-go. Hard to steer, ate transmissions and brakes, and rattled like the junk they were from the first day.

One positive, found out in Cincinnati, the AM-G was excellent on snow and ice! It was probably because of their excessive weight.



The AM-G looked okay until the high corners got banged-up on Louisville's low-hanging catalpa and magnolia trees!



Cincinnati's AM-G's were 'B' models, without the flared a/c housing in the rear.



TANK #1901 (actually 1968 I think), next to restored TDH3712 #209 at the TANK facility in June 2005 when the timecruncher was driving buses part-time on weekends up there. Both are fully restored, fully operational buses, used mostly for parades and antique car shows. Yes, the a/c works on the AM-G!

TANK, in northern Kentucky, got the first 10235's built in 1974. Their 69 units began with serial 0000001! WAMATA was getting 40-footers, and got their 35-foot units after TANK got theirs. Louisville's order was among the first as well. TANK ran theirs until 1994 or so, pretty much the last public agency running these miserable buses.

timecruncher