BusTalk

[MaBSTOA 15]

Here is Surface Transportation #1608, Mack C-41, in a snow storm in 1952.

[frankie]

Just leaving it's northern terminus and heading to reach (hopefully) Ashford Street is TDH-5301 #670, one of 305 (501-805) new looks delivered in 1960. The photo was taken on February 10, 1969 on 67th Avenue near 60th Place in Ridgewood.

Frankie

Courtesy of Harold A. Smith for educational purposes.

[Q65A]

People (not from this website, of course) may complain that they always "come in threes", but you can count on the buses to keep moving.

[Mr. Linsky]

I call this 'Fifth Avenue Snow';

Picture #1; # 2521 - a 1952 GM Coach Model TDH 5104 heading north on the avenue and just passing Rockefeller Center in blizzard like conditions - credit within frame.

Picture #2; # 2639 - a 1958 GM Coach Model TDH 5106 heading north on the avenue on the #4 line to Ft. Tryton (The Cloisters) - credit within frame.

Picture #3; numbered between 2600 and 2604 - a 1953 White Model 1150-D-7 seen at 47th. and 5th. running the #15 line between 25th. Street and Jackson Heights - these Whites were short lived with FACCO and were sold to Memphis in 1960 - photo courtesy of the Motor Bus Society.

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

[MaBSTOA 15]

Times Square dusted by snow...

[MaBSTOA 15]

Another dusting... this time it appears to be either a Fifth Avenue Coach and/or New York City Omnibus Yellow Coach 728

[Mr. Linsky]

MaBSTOA 15,

Attached image had to have been taken post mid 1946 - notice the ThermoMatic intake on the TDH 4507 standing at the recruiting station in the foreground (great picture though).

Best regards for the New Year.

Mr. 'L'

[Mr. Linsky]

Here's one of my favorite snow shots;

Seen in Queens during the December 1947 blizzard and making its way from the factory in Philadelphia to the then Woodside base of Queens/Nassau Transit Lines is fleet #103 - a 1947 43 passenger ACF Brill Model C-44 and one of twenty likenesses numbered 101 to 120.

Notice the manufacturer's transporter plate clipped to the rear bumper.

BTW; #'s 116 to 120 of this order never saw service in Queens as they were dispatched immediately to affiliated Portland Coach Company of Portland, Maine.

Photo owned by this writer.

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

[X-Astorian]

[frankie]

This has got to be my all time favorite photo of any bus anywhere! Aside from any TDH-4512 model GM, the TDH-5106 dressed up in NYCTA colors tops my list. One of the most handsome looking buses anywhere.

Here we see 7195, one of 209 TDH-5106 models (7000-7208) purchased in 1957 headed westbound along Murdock Avenue just about to cross 209th Street on the Q3A run to Queens Village Station.

Year is circa 1960 judging by the license plate.

Photographer unknown for credit, but used for educational purpose.

Frankie

[Q65A]

Where I grew up on Jewel Avenue @ 161 St., the westbound Q65A climbs a hill that crests at Parsons Blvd. During snowy weather, that hill was an especially tough climb, but those old TDH-5106's (and later TDH-5301's, 5303's and 5304's) were valiant snow fighters.

[B53RICH]

Frankie, the photo of 7195 can be found on this site at the NYC bus photo gallery. According to the date posted, it was February 5, 1961.
7195 had the original NYCTA paint scheme before the two tone green repaint.

[Mr. Linsky]

O. K., here's the 'pièce de résistance';

Things were so bad in this image that all the drivers could do was make their way to a nearby greasy spoon for 'coffee-and' to take back to their stranded buses.

It's the height of the famous blizzard of 1947 as we see no less than three 1936 36 passenger Yellow Coach Model 731's operating for the New York City Omnibus Corporation bogged down at the corner of 39th. and 10th. while on the 42nd. Street extension of the #16 34th. Street Crosstown line.

Note that heading away from the scene in the background there appears to be a Mack Model CM of unknown ownership possibly trying to get to the Lincoln Tunnel (if my coordinates are correct).

Credit within photo.

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

[Mr. Linsky]

Here's a little something I whipped up a few years ago that I thought would be appropriate here - enjoy;

'THE BLIZZARD OF ‘47’ (AS I REMEMBER IT)'

They say that the blizzards of 1888 and 1996 were lollapaloozas. Unfortunately I was present for neither (I say unfortunately because I happen to love a good old fashioned snow storm). I was, however, very much in the picture for the event of 1947 with a still vivid recollection of my experiences.

We were no strangers to snow in those days and, in fact, rarely did the remnants of one storm completely disappear before the next fell. But not in our wildest dreams did we ever imagine or suspect what was about to descend upon Kew Gardens the night of December 26th. 1947.

No reflection upon the efforts of the National Weather Service but forecasting in the 1940’s was very much akin to ‘crystal ball gazing’ as compared to the accurate radar, satellite and computer generated reports that we see today.

The radio and newspapers had predicted ‘flurries’ and that’s just how the storm began. But as the evening wore on and the northeast winds began to increase you became cognizant of the fact that someone had made a disastrous mistake and by dawn of the following morning we were feeling the full wrath of a blinding snowstorm.

The ‘whiteout’ conditions continued throughout the day and finally abated in the early evening hours accumulating to what the record books claim was about 26 inches of fresh snow (this estimate being only an average).
Kew Gardens was hit with an extremely powerful punch (possibly because if its higher elevation or the ferocity of the winds whipping through the hills and gullies which are unique to the area). Whatever the reason, we were literally and virtually ‘paralyzed’ from the waste down!.

At our house we finally pushed open the front storm door and looked onto a ‘winter wonderland’. The view was incredible (a picture postcard from the Swiss Alps couldn’t hold a candle to what we were seeing). The village was covered in a thick white blanket of snow with not a thing stirring and accompanied by the eerie silence that usually follows a massive storm.

The snow on 83rd Avenue was nearly three feet deep with drifts at three times that depth. We managed to shovel a path to our curb and, in a cooperative effort, all of our neighbors helped to hand cut a narrow trail down the center of the street to Lefferts Blvd. so we could at least reach the shops for provisions.

Surprisingly, the first plow to wend its way up Lefferts into Kew Gardens was not owned by the city but by the local transit company clearing bus stops and forging a swath all the way to Austin Street where, because they felt that they could not make the steep grade ahead of them, they turned up to Onslow and then down to Kew Gardens Road. The buses used this alternate route to carry passengers to the subway station (the only form of transportation still running to Manhattan).

The Long Island Railroad was stopped ‘dead in its tracks’ for a brief period until their heavy steam locomotives pushing what could only be described as huge snow blowers managed to open the right of way between Sunnyside and Jamaica.

The city was ill prepared for a storm of this magnitude and concentrated most of what equipment they had to plowing main arteries. It was fully one week before any side streets were manicured.

As youngsters, we had a great time rolling in the snow, fielding snow balls, making snow men, climbing the drifts and sledding down Beverly Road with enough momentum to get us around Audley all the way to the foot of the Homestead Hotel at Grenfell. We must have made the round trip four hundred times before the cinder trucks put us out of business!.

I now spend my winters in sunny Southern California away from the excitement of a good ‘Northeaster’.

Oh, excuse me but I think we just felt a slight earthquake!

Mr. Linsky (The Green Hornet)

[B53RICH]

Great story Mr.L.
I remember quite a few times the Q10 having difficulty making it up the hill to Kew Gardens Road. There were detours that sent buses along Grenfell.