BusTalk

[Mr. Linsky]

[MaBSTOA 15]

As we look over the driver’s shoulder we get a “tunnel view” of traffic in bad weather . Note the top pf the old Johnson fare box, Johnson money changer (with five barrels – two for nickels) and the canvas money bag pouch on the dash and the transfer pad in the coin tray. I venture to say this is a TDH-5106 in the 7000-7208 series.
(Image solely used for educational purposes )

[Mr. Linsky]

MaBSTOA 15,

Great photo and while your clues as to the model might help in identification, the lead pipe cinch here is the set of pantographic windshield wipers that only appeared on the city's 5106 7 and 9000's.

This was elementary Watson!

BTW; my Johnson change carrier has the fifth barrel for tokens.

Thanks for sharing.

Mr. 'L'

[Q65A]

I'm right with you, Mr. L; that is a great shot indeed.
Those Old Looks were aesthetically very pleasing, but they were a bit short on forward visibility.
Imagine how bus operators of the late 1950's (accustomed to the small windows then common on transit buses) must have reacted when they first sat behind the wheel of a Fishbowl!
Back then B/O's also had to make change (something not seen on MTA buses since 1969, many years before the word Metrocard had been coined).

[Jimbo]

May 1960, I sat behind the wheel of a brand new Fishbowl, SDH5301, serial # 0002. At nine years old I figured buses would/could never be any cooler than that! All that glass reminded me of a greenhouse.

[Hankg42]

[Mr. Linsky]

I had originally written this essay for BusTalk.net and would now like to reprize it for your enjoyment below;

'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.

Mr. Linsky


"The Green Hornet" Green Bus Lines, Jamaica, New York (LA 7 2400)

[frankie]

I would have to title this "Dad's Little Secret"!

I was 12 living on Madison St. just a few houses from the 60 Wilson Ave line in Brooklyn. After years of Bingham Macks passing our street either westbound to Bridge Plaza or eastbound to Glenwood/Williams, you knew the distinctive engine sound especially when they accelerated. There was a bus stop at my corner on both sides of Wilson.

It was an early Saturday morning late 1959 when while laying in my bed I heard the sound of a bus that I knew was not a Mack. I dismissed it until I heard another one. Since my bedroom window was on the third floor and overlooking the intersection, I decided to watch out the window and then I saw it! Wide eyed and full of awe, I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

After breakfast and much anticipation, I spent the rest of the morning standing on the corner watching what Mr. L mentioned, a bus that looked light years away. Not all of the buses were new fishbowls as Macks still made up the roster, but what fishbowls I did see were well worth the wait.

Dad held two jobs. His daytime job was with the NYCTA East New York shops as a mechanic. One evenings and all day Saturday he worked for a Chevrolet dealership.

Dad knew my interest in buses (thanks to him) and when he got home that evening, I couldn't wait to share my excitement about my day and the fishbowls. All along he knew about them and knew it was a matter of time before they started hitting the streets. He told me that he was one of the mechanics readying them for service and didn't want me to know until I saw my first one. I can tell he was excited to see me excited.

After church Sunday morning, Dad greeted me and surprised me with 15 cents to use for my first solo ride on the new fishbowl. How exciting was that? As luck would have it, the first bus to pull up was the new fishbowl which took me to Bridge Plaza and back. For a 12 year kid, that was about as close to heaven you can get! I was extremely impressed with the air ride, the vast panes of glass and the enormous windshield.

Wonderful memories!

Frankie

The buses I rode:

Sources unknown except for top photo, used for educational purposes

[Q65A]

Frankie,
Those are great shots! My cousins lived in Maspeth and sometimes during the late 1960's I would stand at Grand Avenue and Hamilton Place watching low-numbered NYCTA TDH-5301's assigned to Fresh Pond Depot working the B58 toward Ridgewood, or the later NYCTA TDH-5303's assigned to Crosstown Depot working the B59 toward Williamsburg. I remember seeing 5301's numbered in the single-digits, feeling like I had discovered an "ancient" treasure. By that time, those earliest TA Fishbowls had a lot of miles on them.
I remember seeing my first Fishbowls when I was in kindergarden at PS 200 in Flushing. They were Queens Transit's TDH-5301's, painted a deep, bright orange with black lettering and numbered in the 929-952 series. A few years later, they were repainted in cream and orange. The enormous, curved windshield, the slantline windows and that fluted aluminum silversiding looked like something from outer space as compared to the veteran QTC TDH-5106's that plied the streets of my neighborhood along the routes of the Q65, Q65A and Q25/34.
Great memories!!!

[frankie]

[MaBSTOA 15]

My first glimpse of a GM New Look (I hate the term "fishbowl") was from my uncle's apartment window overlooking Eighth Avenue and 47th Street, Manhattan on route M104 and operated by Surface Transit. This was in very early 1962.

My initial reaction was... "Wow"... It was strange and totally different.

My first riding experience was on Triboro Coach's TDH-5301s. Interesting to say the least. The ride was great! I took in every detail. The chimes and gongs from the Grant fare box just made it even better (I just dropped some coins in my restored Grant and the musical interlude brought back great memories).

The pleasure of the 5301s was replaced in 1966 when Triboro acquired some of the ex-Greyhound World's Fair TDH-5303s. Great buses and totally different than was found on city street. Padded seats and jack-knife rear doors!

These were my favorite until MaBSTOA received their 400 TDH-5303 with billboard and air conditioning. These were, in my opinion, the pinnacle of the New Looks.

After watching the Yankees in a double-header at the stadium, my brother and I rode to Times Square on the subway. Had dinner in TS (hot dogs) and rode to Grand Central on an M104 in a brand new 8300-8700 series TDH-5303. I was enthralled with the bus. Everything was gleaming, new radio, new Johnson K-25 fare box, etc.brand new bus smell (better than brand new car smell).

On Madison Ave. we transferred to the route 15 Jackson Heights line. The 15 was still running some of the last TDH-4510s. Everything was old and great! The 4510s, next to the TDH-3612s were my favorite Old Look buses.

BTW, the Yankees lost!

My first glimpse of a Flxible New Look was in the route Q33 bay at the Victor Moore Arcade... that is another story for another post/topic...

[traildriver]

I got my first glimpse of a NYCTA 5301 passing thru Brooklyn in 1959, when they were brand new. Totally radical! and nothing like their cousins, the PD4104 and PD4501, other than the large slanted windows and silver siding.

I didn't get to actually ride in one until a year or so later, when Queens Transit got their's. My first ride was on the Q65A, from Parsons to Main Street, on the way to school...way too short a ride to absorb all the details, but I do recall the feeling of "being on tv" as described by the driver....the distinct sound of the Detroit 6v-71 compared to the straight 6-71 in the older buses...the bright flourescent light fixture....the 'krinkle' aluminum wall coverings....etc...
Then a year or so later, saw my first air-conditioned 'Arcticooler' while on a class trip to Washington.....

[B53RICH]

6345 on the B53. Those 5309A's replaced the last of the Old Looks that ran out of Fresh Pond depot. It was like on a Friday evening, 7030, a 5106 made its way up Metropolitan back to Ridgewood. Then the next morning on Saturday, a brand new 6336 made its way down Metropolitan towards Jamaica. It took me a week or two to realize that the Old Looks were gone.

Bus #1 made its way around. Was probably the late 60's when I saw it on the B53 and pointed it to my friend, "Look, it's bus #1!"

[Mr. Linsky]

Readying for the shredder in a photo taken at the company yards in Woodside, Queens in 1949 we see as the focus fleet # 2005 - a 1939 24 passenger Mack modeled as CW-3G and one of twenty likenesses numbered from 2000 to 2019 that operated for Steinway Omnibus Corporation (SOC).

The versatile # 2005 and its siblings were the first buses ever ordered by the fledgling SOC and were assigned to the shortest and least traveled traction routes that the company had taken over in Northern Queens.

These CW's represented the only order of Macks ever by not only SOC but its affiliate Queens-Nassau Transit Lines and were quickly followed before the war by groups of higher capacity Twin Coaches.

Of note on the CW model is the ability to open the rear window frame for easier access to the engine.

All of SOC's Macks were gone from the scene by the late forties.

Photo courtesy of 'autolit.com' and is avail;able at eBay as item # 371037208090.

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

[Mr. Linsky]

This little ditty is dedicated to Q65A - my good friend and colleague here at BusTalk.

It must be post 1967 that the image below was taken as the mighty 32 story Kennedy House apartments now stands imposingly in the background along Queens Boulevard in Forest Hills.

The focus of our photo though is fleet # 946 - a 1961 53 passenger GM Coach modeled as a TDH-5301 and one of twenty seven likenesses numbered 926 to 952 operating for the then Queens Transit Corporation of College Point, New York.

# 946, standing at the Boulevard and 108th. Street, is preparing to make its next short run crosstown via Jewel Avenue to 164th. Street in Fresh Meadows.

The granite faced Ridgewood Savings Bank in the background was home to this (then 10 year old) writer's first savings account.

Photo courtesy of 'autolit.com' and is available at the vendor's eBay website.

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