BusTalk

[Mr. Linsky]

Once again, I have Hartbus to thank for steering me toward another important photograph from Green Line (NY) history that he found on eBay.

As usual, I bid for it and lost! but did capture the image for posterity albeit partially obscured.

The bus is a 1949 GM Model TDH 4507 carrying Green Bus Lines fleet number 306 and one of ten (301 to 310) delivered to the company in that year.

The 49's were a great improvement over the company's 25 1947 4507's in that they came equipped with recessed sealed beam headlamps and underseat heaters.

These buses were sold together to the Reading Bus Company of Reading, Pa. sometime in the early sixties with some eventually winding up in weeds as derelicts on the outskirts of the city (see # 302 below).

# 306 is shown on the Q35 route on a warm summer day heading from Rockaway Park to the I.R.T. subway at Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn.

# 302 photo courtesy of GMOldLookBus.

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, NY

[Q65A]

This interesting photo duo does a nice job of showing some GM Old Look design details.
Note that early Old Looks (i.e. GBL 306) frequently used small oval front and rear directional signals; on newer Old Looks (yes, that sounds like an oxymoron) the front directionals were either +/- 4" diameter round amber lamps (typically specified by TA, GBL, TCC, and JBI) or larger amber "lighted arrow" fixtures (typically specified by QTC and Public Service). Rear lamps similarly varied. Photos is MCA show that NYCT's TDH-5101's had the same "tailgate arrangement" as did GBL 306. The TA's TDH-5106's had 4 rear red lamps (2 vertical lamps mounted on each engine access panel), while QTC's 5106's used red "lighted arrow" fixtures at the rear (as did PSCT's 5106's). I seem to recall that the 5106's operated by GBL, TCC, and JBI had the same rear lamp arrangement as the TA, but I am not completely positive. In the early 1970's QTC bought some second-hand TDH-5105's that had been built for Detroit's DSR. These 102" wide Old Looks had 2 large protruding red stop/turn lamps mounted just beneath the lower edge of the rear windows; these units used the 4" round amber front directional signals. Unlike QTC's fleet of TDH-5106's (which used floor mounted directional signal switches) , the directional signals on the ex-DSR units were actuated by a lever mounted to the RH side of the steering column.

[Mr. Linsky]

Bob,

I have often toyed with the descriptions of GM Old Looks simply because there are the old Old Looks and the New Old Looks (in my book), and there are vast differences between them;

Of course, the passenger window configurations were the easiest difference to spot with the old Old Looks having sqaure sashes and the new Old Looks having paired sets.

But the differences only started with the windows; the new Old Looks were fully one foot higher then their predecessors (probably to accommodate a new Hydraulic V or VH transmission and angle drive) and, from a driver's standpoint of view, were much more agile and responsive (truly, a whole new bus).

The changeover to more modern and brighter signals lights ocurred at Green Line with the delivery of the 5104's in 1952 with the 1950 4509's still sporting the old useless tiny arrows.

As the company modernized the later old Old Looks, they did upgrade signals as can be seen with 937 below.

What has always bothered me is how the Omnibus Corporation could have ordered virtually their entire GM fleet without signals at all! (see NYCO # 2814 below).

#837 photo courtesy of Green Line archive.
#2814 photo courtesy of Dennis M. Linsky

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, NY