BusTalk

[Mr. Linsky]

Presenting Green Bus Lines (NY) fleet number 730 - a 1938 Mack Model CT-3G and one of 35 (701 to 735) delivered to the company in that year.

# 701 is seen no earlier than 1949 (judging by the 49 Chevy heading in the opposite direction) on the Marine Park Line crossing the then Marine Parkway Bridge for Rockaway Park.

For whatever the reason, the Q35 designation has been covered by a small placard the writing upon which is impossible to read.

100 CT's became the backbone of Green Line's fleet from the mid thirties until the first GM Diesels appeared immediately after the war.

Many thanks to HartBus for finding this photo for me on eBay.

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

[Hart Bus]

To Mr. L - No need to thank me for finding the picture. Its the least I can do to thank you for sharing your knowledge with members of the board.

It funny that you should put this picutre up. It was last Saturday that I made my annual s/b trip over the bridge. If I had stood at the same spot and taken a picture of the bridge, there wouldn't be much change. Its still two lanes in each direction. However there is a concrete median now to prevent head-on collisons. Also the bridge is now known as The Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge

I'm pretty sure that the toll is a lot higher today than when the picture was taken

[Catfish 44]

Wow that is some picture! I believe the toll was 10 cents from 1939 til 1969 then it went up to whatever maybe a quarter. There was no rail on the ped walk yet I wonder when they installed it. The bridge is the Marine Parkway Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge and was renamed in 1978. Its a bit different looking now with the median as you mention and the railing on the right was lost during rehab almost a decade ago. Plus that walkway is on the outside of the bridge on the western exposure in order to widen the traffic lanes. I love that picture though! Keep them coming!

[Mr. Linsky]

Catfish,

Thanks - it really is a great shot.

Here's another one (below) of Green Line # 306 taken in pretty much the same place and time.

HartBus mentions the lanes on the bridge as now being two in each direction with a barrier in the center to prevent head-on collisions.

Well, let me tell you how it used to be; I drove the Q35 a few times during the summer and on the weekends they had three lanes heading south in the AM with one northbound, and just the other way around in the evening.

The lane direction was controlled by overhead red and green arrows when they were observed - unfortunately some drivers didn't and some of the resulting accidents caused fatalities.

Any one as old as I am will also remember the old Grand Central Parkway between Queens Boulevard and the Northern State which was built by Robert Moses back in the late twenties.

It was four narrow lanes and for a time there it was like a killing field until the city installed something like a concrete bumper down the center (a friend of my father (another doctor) was killed when he stupidly attempted to change his own flat tire).

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

[Catfish 44]

Oh yes Mr. Linsky I remember the three and one lane setup as well. They installed new traffic signals in the rehab and in poor weather one lane will be open each way. I don't recall the Grand Central like that but what about the Interboro before it was closed and rehabbed! I remember a kind of pipe as a barrier. Oh well. Both pics are a marvel, most of the buildings if not all of them in Floyd Bennett are gone now, its a different view from that spot now. I would assume those photos were taken the same day? Made my day to see them.

[Mr. Linsky]

Catfish,

You're absolutely correct - the buildings in the background of the '306' photo were active military barracks during WWII, and were demolished sometime in the fifties.

Now, when you talk about the 'Interboro Parkway' (now Jackie Robinson), you're talking about the grand-daddy of suicide alleys.

It was one hair-pin turn after the next on lanes that were just as narrow as the old Grand Central (because it was an extension of the GCP).

One good thing about the Interboro; if you were killed, you were already in a cemetery!

The interesting photo below provided by the Library of Congress shows the intersection of Queens Boulevard and the newly completed Interboro/Grand Central exchange in Kew Gardens circa 1936.

Notice the tracks of the old Manhattan and Queens Traction Company running along the boulevard.

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

[Hart Bus]

[Mr. Linsky]

ECA,

I have to agree that the location of the barracks would put # 306 traveling south-bound to the Rockaways.

It might be that the bus was dead-heading back to the Arverne Garage from Flatbush (or from where ever the placard in the windshield was signed for).

Good observation!

WCA

[ripta42]

As an aside on the Queens Boulevard photo, that's the Fox Kew Gardens theater on the right, at the corner of 78th Avenue, which has the dubious distinction of having been open for only three months! It opened in September of 1929, and with the area still sparsely developed and the impending stock market crash, it closed in December of that year, had all its seats removed, and was converted to an indoor miniature golf course in 1930!

[Catfish 44]

That is a fantastic photo of Queens Blvd! I think its great! The Green Line 306 is most certainly heading south from Brooklyn to Rockaway and the photo was taken on the Brooklyn approach. There is only one walkway on the west side of the bridge and the perspective is that the photographer is facing north therefore both photos show the bus rolling toward rockapulco

[Mr. Linsky]

Here's another great shot from the Library of Congress looking east from Queens Boulevard at Union Turnpike.

The photo was taken immediately after the opening of the IND stop at the turnpike and just as the final touches were being put on the Interboro/Grand Central interchange.

Notice how new the parkway stone work is and the fact that the trolley tracks and overhead wiring have been removed from the boulevard.

Enjoy!

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

[Catfish 44]

Holy cow! as soon as I pulled the page all the way down I knew what I was looking at. In the past I would stand on that corner to take the bus out to St John's. I thank God they had some sense of style in the 30's with the stonework and I think it reflects what they hoped Queens would be in the future. Anyway these photos is certainly a real treat and I thank you for sharing. (Next time I'm stuck there in traffic I won't curse as much I'll recall the bucolic setting it once was) haha

[Mr. Linsky]

All right Catfish - here's another one for you and it's not off topic!

The photo below (top) was taken on December 27th. 1947 by Jay Rogers in the aftermath of the great blizzard of that year.

The building in the background located at the intersections of Kew Gardens Road, Queens Boulevard and Union Turnpike is the old Kew Gardens General Hospital - formerly the Kew Forest Inn and now replaced by a high rise office tower.

What make this picture so interesting (and you'll need a magnifying glass to see it) is the 1946 GM model TD 4506 flagged for the Manhattan and Queens Bus Corporation (Green Bus Lines) passing by the hospital heading south to Jamaica on the Q60.

The lower photo courtesy of Dennis M. Linsky (no relation) is a real close look at one of the ten buses in the series under much better conditions.

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

[Catfish 44]

Awesome Mr. Linsky! I see the 4506 rolling by. I suppose that storm rivals the 1888 event and I suppose the 1969 ? Those cars look stuck too! Thank you very much for that. And that post war bus is a handsome vehicle, I wish I had one to knock around with.

[Mr. Linsky]

Catfish,

The cars in the foreground of the photo were trying to make the hill up to Queens Boulevard on Union Turnpike.

I was present for the storm of 1947 and recorded the memories on another channel and will re-run them for you here;

THE BLIZZARD OF ‘47’ (AS I REMEMBER IT)

They say that the blizzards of 1888 and 1996 were lollapaloozas. Unfortunately I was present for neither (I say unfortunately because I happen to love a good old fashioned snow storm). I was, however, very much in the picture for the event of 1947 with a still vivid recollection of my experiences.

We were no strangers to snow in those days and, in fact, rarely did the remnants of one storm completely disappear before the next fell. But not in our wildest dreams did we ever imagine or suspect what was about to descend upon Kew Gardens (NY) the night of December 26th. 1947.

No reflection upon the efforts of the National Weather Service but forecasting in the 1940’s was very much akin to ‘crystal ball gazing’ as compared to the accurate radar, satellite and computer generated reports that we see today.

The radio and newspapers had predicted ‘flurries’ and that’s just how the storm began. But as the evening wore on and the northeast winds began to increase you became cognizant of the fact that someone had made a disastrous mistake and by dawn of the following morning we were feeling the full wrath of a blinding snowstorm.

The ‘whiteout’ conditions continued throughout the day and finally abated in the early evening hours accumulating to what the record books claim was about 26 inches of fresh snow (this estimate being only an average).
Kew Gardens was hit with an extremely powerful punch (possibly because if its higher elevation or the ferocity of the winds whipping through the hills and gullies which are unique to the area). Whatever the reason, we were literally and virtually ‘paralyzed’ from the waste down!.

At our house we finally pushed open the front storm door and looked onto a ‘winter wonderland’. The view was incredible (a picture postcard from the Swiss Alps couldn’t hold a candle to what we were seeing). The village was covered in a thick white blanket of snow with not a thing stirring and accompanied by the eerie silence that usually follows a massive storm.

The snow on 83rd Avenue was nearly three feet deep with drifts at three times that depth. We managed to shovel a path to our curb and, in a cooperative effort, all of our neighbors helped to hand cut a narrow trail down the center of the street to Lefferts Blvd. so we could at least reach the shops for provisions.

Surprisingly, the first plow to wend its way up Lefferts into Kew Gardens was not owned by the city but by the local transit company (Green Bus Lines) clearing bus stops and forging a swath all the way to Austin Street where, because they felt that they could not make the steep grade ahead of them, they turned up to Onslow and then down to Kew Gardens Road. The buses used this alternate route to carry passengers to the subway station (the only form of transportation still running to Manhattan).

The Long Island Railroad was stopped ‘dead in its tracks’ for a brief period until their heavy steam locomotives pushing what could only be described as huge snow blowers managed to open the right of way between Sunnyside and Jamaica.

The city was ill prepared for a storm of this magnitude and concentrated most of what equipment they had to plowing main arteries. It was fully one week before any side streets were manicured.

As youngsters, we had a great time rolling in the snow, fielding snow balls, making snow men, climbing the drifts and sledding down Beverly Road with enough momentum to get us around Audley all the way to the foot of the Homestead Hotel at Grenfell. We must have made the round trip four hundred times before the cinder trucks put us out of business!.

I now spend my winters in sunny Southern California away from the excitement of a good ‘Noreaster’.

Oh, excuse me but I think we just felt a slight earthquake!

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