BusTalk

MaBSTOA 15 · Age: 70 Joined: 27 Feb 2013 Posts: 1059

A great view showing three items of long ago… New York’s finest directing traffic that seems to be made up of buses and taxis only!

From left to right a Checker model Y (introduced in 1935) , two Queen Marys (one a model 720 on route 15-Jackson Heights) and an M. P. Moller Motor Car built town-car cab built on a 1936 Diamond T light duty truck chassis and operated by the Town Taxi Company of New York. These town-car cabs were built in 1936 and 1937.

The officer proudly wears the traffic patch on his left upper sleeve on what this writer believes to be the most elegant police uniform in the U.S., the style known as “choker” with double breasted front and ten brass buttons.

Photographer, date and location unknown and used for educational purposes.

Taxi cab information from “The American Taxi: A Century of Service” by Ben Merkel and Chris Monier

andy47 · Joined: 17 Feb 2011 Posts: 96 Location: New York State

This photo appeared in the July 1939 edition of Fortune Magazine, which was completely devoted to New York City on the occasion of the World's Fair that year. The FACO bus to the left directly above the taxi is not a Queen Mary but one of the earlier front-engine models. The police officer is directing the taxi to turn off Fifth Avenue because in those years cruising cabs were not permitted on that thoroughfare. If a taxi had a fare dropped off along there, the taxi had to leave Fifth Ave. immediately. This regulation was in effect till the early 1960s as I recall.