BusTalk

[Free-transfer]

The street sign seems to indicate E. 60 street.

[Mr. Linsky]

[Mr. Linsky]

You might call this report a double header because not only does it spotlight a great shot of what was left of a prewar Brooklyn coach still in service for the city in the late forties but also a glimpse at the backbone of New York's innovative refuse collection equipment of the same era.

Seen in route on the #11 line heading for 18th. Avenue in the Borough Park section of Kings County is fleet # 725 - a 1936 30 passenger ACF modeled as an H-13-S and one of thirty likenesses numbered 700 to 729 originally purchased and operated for BMT affiliate Brooklyn Bus Corporation.

Taking over the Brooklyn Bus operation in 1940, which was reputed to be the largest of its kind in the country at the time, New York City did order and receive nearly 250 Twin Coaches in 1941 but not nearly enough to replace all of the inherited and antiquated prewar equipment in the borough and #725 and its ilk certainly show the scars left by the minimum maintenance that they received before their eventual retirement.

Our co-focus - a 1934 GMC modeled as a T-75 'COE' chassis and carrying an exclusive 'escalator loader' body by either Gar Wood Industries or The Heil Company, was one of 615 units ordered to augment a similar number of 1933 Autocar model U's making New York City the largest and best equipped sanitation department in the country - a record that I believe still stands.

Of note on # 320-460 (special license plates provided truck fleet numbers) is the plowing rig and a clever door locking mechanism!

The 'escalator loader' which was akin to a moving stairway that carried rubbish up a chute into the body, was designed by city engineers with the story on that below;

In between the first self-loading refuse bodies which appeared in the late 1920s, and the first American compactor trucks of the late 1930s lies an almost forgotten chapter in the evolution of refuse collection referred to as the 'escalator loader'.

The escalator-loader, the brainchild of New York City Department of Sanitation (DSNY) engineers was, for nearly two decades, the mainstay of the Department's fleet.

Though designed by the DSNY, these new units were to be built in collaboration with the country's two biggest truck body manufacturers, Gar Wood Industries and The Heil Company. These rivals competed for DSNY contracts, building nearly identical versions between 1937 and about 1947. Though relatively short-lived, the sheer numbers of escalator-loaders ordered by the Department may have single-handedly jump-started the U.S. refuse body industry, and set the stage for intense technical competition among the major manufacturers.

Upper photo courtesy of 'Vintage-Vault75' and is available at eBay as item # 171474991820.
Lower photo and some information courtesy of Hanks Trucks.

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

[W.B. Fishbowl]

[Mr. Linsky]

No, your eyes are not deceiving you - seen below in Brooklyn in early 1948 and in full Fifth Avenue Coach regalia working the #47 Tompkins Avenue line is fleet # 2500 - a 1940 55 passenger Yellow Coach originally modeled as a TD-5501.

As early as 1939 the Chicago based Omnibus Corporation, parent to both Fifth Avenue Coach and Chicago Motor Coach, began work in concert with Yellow Coach engineers to conceive the largest practical single deck bus to replace the company's flagship double decked fleets which were becoming too expensive to operate and maintain.

Dubbed by Yellow as demo EXP-204, the 43 foot long coach clad in the familiar Omnibus two tone green and cream livery toured the country with no takers until the war when it was both stored and altered to a TD-5401 to meet New York regulations governing access to emergency doors.

Post war saw #2500 back on the road and eventually reaching New York's Brooklyn Bus Division in 1947 after which trials at Fifth Avenue Coach resulted in its purchase in 1948 but not before the body was cut down by one window bringing its maximum length to 40 feet which remodeled it as a TD-5001.

I have no doubt that this rare one of a kind specimen would have eventually found a home at the MTA Museum had it not been destroyed by fire in Westchester in 1968.

Photo courtesy of 'Vintage-Vauly75' and is available at eBay as item # 171474986693.

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

[N4 Jamaica]

Thanks for posting the interesting scene. The following is a link to a page detailing the stages of conversion of Brooklyn trolley routes to trackless trolley routes with an interim stage as bus lines:
http://bus.nycsubway.org/trackless.html
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Buses replaced Tompkins Avenue streetcars on August 24, 1947. Trolley coaches (trackless trolleys or trolleybuses) replaced the buses on November 19, 1948. I suspect that the long delay was the decision to replace the streetcar wire with trackless wire while streetcars were not in service. At the time, much was made of the fact that Board of Transportation employees, not contractors, did the rewiring. Also, if memory is correct, the curved section shown in your photo was something new produced by Ohio Brass Co. Streetcar wire on curves was connected by many more horizontal stringers to form the curve, but the Board chose these solid curves in the sky. They fascinated me when I first saw them on Livingston Street.
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For the life of me, I cannot locate the scene. Could it be Washington Avenue at Empire Blvd.?
Joe

[Mr. Linsky]

[X-Astorian]

[N4 Jamaica]

Yes. The more I try to figure out that cylindrical tower, the more certain I am that the view looks north on Washington Avenue to Empire Blvd and, beyond that, to Sullivan Place. Maybe the tower supplied water to the Botanic Garden, as I have come across other much older photos of a stone water tower near Prospect Park. The location may be at the lower edge of the terminal moraine that Washington Avenue climbs.

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Edit: I have come across the cylinder in this 1916 view east across Flatbush Avenue towards Ebbets Field. A Fire Department signal station is to the right. The caption says this view is across Botanic Garden, but this property is only the southern tip of the Garden property.
Link:
http://www.brooklynpix.com/photoframex1.php?photo=/photo1/E/ebbets201.jpg&key=EBBETS%20201

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And the tower appears in a 1924 aerial view of the northeast corner of Sullivan Place and Washington Avenue.
Source of aerial views:
http://gis.nyc.gov/doitt/nycitymap/

Joe

[N4 Jamaica]

The New York Times's excellent search engine has come to the rescue. An article dated April 4, 1950, explains that the water tower, in use since before 1881, was sold by the New York Water Service Corp., which had used it to maintain water pressure. It was to be demolished and the property to be improved.
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I am rather certain that this is the same water company that extended "public utility water" through Merrick, Bellmore, Wantagh, and Seaford post World War II. The rates are considerably higher than the rates charged in governmental water districts east and west of us. New York Water Service Corp. has been replaced twice by nationwide companies. The Wantagh Fire District complains about their charge of hundreds of dollars per hydrant.
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In 1996, New York City bought out the Jamaica Water Supply Company. (Sorry for this off-topic meandering.)
Joe

[Mr. Linsky]

[N4 Jamaica]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ridgewood_Reservoir

http://untappedcities.com/2014/06/27/a-bike-tour-of-brooklyns-abandoned-water-infrastructure-with-nyc-h2o/
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In replying to Mr. Linsky about the Brooklyn Water System, I am assembling some links and will later edit this post. The two articles above include some needed clarifications.
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Bus routes n54, n55, n80, and n81 pass the easternmost collecting pumps for that old, long disused system at Massapequa Creek. The west end was the Ridgewood Reservoir, near the B13 on Cypress Hills St.

[Mr. Linsky]

In scanning New York City Archives I found a few very interesting candid shots at North Shore Bus Company taken in the mid thirties by photographer A. J. Foley of the City of New York Department of Plant and Structures.

In the top image we see some of the company's latest equipment on duty at their Flushing Terminal (of note is the price of a hot dog and an Orange drink).

In the middle shot, taken at North Shore's main shops, a State Public Service Commission inspector works with a company mechanic to certify a group of brand new Twin model 40-R's for road worthiness.

And in the bottom frame two mechanics are fine tuning door operations on new fleet # N700 - another of twenty five recently delivered 40-R's (note that a turnstile, which was used on all company buses, had yet to be installed).

Also of note on # N700 are the plush genuine leather seats and a generous use of stainless steel passenger railings.

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

[Q65A]

Interesting that "Downtown Flushing" still has not yet had an off-street bus terminal to replace that old North Shore facility (which became a Gertz department store, as well as other tenants of that same tract). Only the 165th Street Terminal remains as the sole off-street bus terminal in Queens...

[Mr. Linsky]