BusTalk

[Mr. Linsky]

Seen on a snowy winter day in 1964 trudging along the streets of suburban Chicago is fleet # 508 - a 1944 GM Coach Model TG-3609 and one of thirty numbered 500 to 529 (all with mechanical transmissions) delivered in increments to the West Towns Bus Company division of the Chicago and West Towns Railway Company in Oak Park, Illinois between 1944 and 1946.

Fully one year before the end of the war, the Office of Defense Transportation (ODT) began permitting the restart of civilian bus production probably because the military complex had enough equipment and supplies on hand to end the conflict and that operators across the country were clamoring to replace aging and tired pre war coaches.

The 3609's were among the first to hit the streets but still reflected the austerities of war with either painted steel or wooden passenger hand rails and wooden seat backs inside and no stainless steel or chromium detailing on the body.

# 508 was updated sometime after the war with the addition of the familiar GM wings and emblem under the windshield and the replacement of the original 'bug eyed' sealed beam headlights with recessed models.

The pictured bus is signed for Western Springs - a bedroom community some twenty miles west of the Windy City.

Photo thanks to Bruce K. of eBay.

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

[andrethebusman]

"Western Springs" would mean this bus was on the 47th St line, which went out Joliet Rd and 47th to the Cook-DuPage county line. It was given up, along with quite a few other West Towns routes that had been started during the War in 1948.