BusTalk

[Mr. Linsky]

It's busy Congress Street in downtown Portland, Maine on a sunny day in the early sixties that we spot numbers of GM 'Old Looks' - both TDH 4507's and 09's operating for the Portland Coach Company of that New England city.

All are surplus and were supplied by parent company Queens Nassau Transit Lines (Q/N) and its affiliate Steinway Omnibus Corporation of College Point, New York.

Rumor had it that someone high up in corporate at Q/N (probably a Salzberg family member) maintained a summer cottage on one of the many beautiful lakes surrounding Portland and, in a busman's holiday venture, learned of Portland Coach's then financial problems and bought the company in the late forties.

In fact, to get Portland back on its feet as quickly as possible, the last five ACF Model C-44's that Q/N had ordered for itself in 1947 were immediately sent to Maine never seeing service in Queens.

Picture postcard courtesy of '4509bus' and is up for auction on eBay as item # 350712074325.

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

[traildriver]

Interesting photo. Some fascinating details, like the notation on the Hay's Drugstore clock--'corrected hourly'....
I vaguely recall the Salzberg family ownership of Queens Transit and Steinway. I know they also owned a bunch of short line railroads around the country, but wonder what other bus lines did they own, besides this one?