BusTalk

[timecruncher]

Mark W mentioned on another thread that this year is the 50th Anniversary of the General Motors New Look transit coach. Didn't think of it, but by golly... it is!

Here in Louisville, at the fresh young age of 10, the future timecruncher's mother was accustomed to taking the family downtown to shop in Louisville, so it was no biggie to walk up to Broadway to look at this new bus that was on display.

While I am fairly certain there were several demo units touring the country for Truck and Coach Division, this one was here in Louisville, and it was painted ORANGE!

Up until now, all Louisville Transit Company buses had been painted green and yellow.

I didn't know at the time that Louisville Transit was owned by the same syndicate (group of investors) who owned Indianapolis Transit System and Milwaukee Transport Corporation. All of their buses were already orange. Ahh, but only Louisville's buses were being ordered with air-conditioning! That would be nice on those muggy Ohio River Valley summer days. Yeah!

So here is the demo, even lettered up for LTC by the paint shop. Later in the day they ran a couple of trips on the busy 4th Street route and I was on board soaking up every mile.



Never mind, of course, that the tiny 5-bus Bridge Transit Company across the river in Jeffersonville had actually purchased two new TDH4517's (without a/c) earlier in the year.

LTC went on to order 28 of these for December 1961 delivery, 26 more for delivery in summer of 1962 and ended up purchasing 117 more 40-foot new look coaches through 1968.

timecruncher

Oh, and hey mom, thanks for pointing that camera of yours at the bus for me!

[Mr. Linsky]

This would be the perfect opportunity to reprise my essay entitled 'My First Look at a New Look' as it originally appeared on BusTalk.net;

MY FIRST LOOK AT A NEW LOOK

It had to be sometime in late 1959 when I had occasion to go into Brooklyn on personal business and spotted my first ‘new look’ dressed in dark green city colors and parked along Grand Army Plaza (probably on a layover). It had to have been among the first 5301’s delivered numbered 1 thru 190 that arrived toward the end of that year.

Of course, we had all heard about the ‘radical’ new buses from GM that were about to hit the streets but we had never seen any pictures and new almost nothing of the details.

At first glimpse I was flabbergasted and thought that it was the ugliest thing I had ever seen. There was no question that it was ‘light years’ away from anything we were used to.
I was particularly taken by the starkness of the rear roof line and what seemed to be a completely misplaced window line (that was greatly improved and made much more handsome with the addition of the A/C units which came later on).

There was one other point that struck me as beyond revolutionary and bordering on dangerous; I was concerned about the larger then life windshield and how little protection it would afford a driver (we were all used to the ‘old look’ design with a front end wrapped around us like a tank!). Unbelievably though, I don’t think many if any drivers through the years suffered any great injury because of the added exposure.

While I was still with Green Line in 1961 new looks proliferated the company but were only originally assigned to Q10 and Q60 (Mr. Cooper’s pet lines) and I never had the opportunity to drive one (they would never have wasted them on the summer shuttles to the Rockaways). However, I did have occasion to ride in a new look sometime in the seventies on 34th. Street in Manhattan, and was very impressed by the smooth ride, the modern interior and especially the tinted glass windows that made everything outside look so clean and fresh!

The drivers gave them excellent reviews and, as history will reflect, the '5300’s' turned out to be the backbones of virtually every major fleet in the country for nearly three decades!

Note; if anyone would like to add a representative image of a 5300 to enhance my article, please be my guest (this line was written before I knew how to attach photos!).

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

[HwyHaulier]

Fifty Years! Indeed!

I don't happen to have supporting photos, but O. Roy Chalk's, D C Transit an early buyer. He had played the color palette card, in a
delivery of last of the "Old Look" types, with the splashy "G M Demo" paint and appearance design. The new 5301 coaches brought
forward the colors, so there was a continuity in the new look of the fleet ..

The newest coaches, though, did receive a great deal of enthusiastic response.

.................Vern..............

[Steve Carras]

Hi, I'm new here, and I'm awar eof the NL, or "Fishbowl" birthday. GM first came out with it in 1959, then Flxible followed. I like to call that the Jet Age or Space Age design, as opposed to the earlier Old Look [as we now call it] Art Deco. I often liken that New look to the Scenicrusiers and 4104 on up-era buses.[Flixbles were the ones that, though, I'd ridden for years.]


Anyway, this is my first post, and glad to be here.

[Mr. Linsky]

Steve,

I would say that the GM 'New Look' bus will undoubtedly go down in history as one of the most popular transits ever built.

This, despite the fact that some operators originally shunned them thinking that nothing GM, or anyone else for that matter, could possibly do to improve upon the proven and reliable 'Old Look' design.

My first impression is summed up earlier in this thread - but that certainly changed over the years.

Pictured below thanks to the lens of Doug Grotjahn and our gallery is fleet #1 - the first TDH 5301 purchased by New York City and shown at the Flatbush Depot.

Here goes my regular welcoming spiel;

As BusTalk's unofficial welcoming committee of one, let me do just that and say that we very much look forward to your contributions and valuable input.

Welcome aboard!

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

[Hart Bus]

First time I saw a New Look was in 1960 in Flushing NY. We had gone clothes shopping there and then walked south past the LIRR trestle to say hello to our relatives who owned and operated a liquor store. The bus was operating on the Q-58 and was at its starting point at 41st Avenue. I thought it looked "cool" and they had a sign in the front that said "Come Ride with us on this new 1960 Bus".

Wonder if any of those placards still exist?