BusTalk

[Mr. Linsky]

As airline passenger traffic increased exponentially with the introduction of jet transportation in the early 1960's decreases in over the road bus ridership were simultaneously being felt by operators who then began to seek other and innovative forms of additional revenue sources.

While Greyhound did always relegate a small portion of their under floor bin capacity for parcels and even U.S. Mail, they saw the expansion of that service as a viable answer to the problem.

Shown below sometime in the sixties in San Francisco is fleet # 0606 - a 1950's GM Coach (dubbed a Scenicruiser) modeled as a PD-4501 and one of 1,001 built between 1954 and 1956 exclusively for the Greyhound Corporation.

Of note in part of what was the aft most passenger window and below it to the belt line is a hatch to a petitioned off section of the rear of the bus devoted to commercial freight service.

Apparently the loss of a few seats was felt to be far outweighed by what might be gained in profit.

Photo courtesy of the Motor Bus Society.

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

[traildriver]

Bus Package Express was a very vital part of the business in that era....the Railway Express Agency or "R E A Express", was shutting down, as the railroad's lost their US Mail contract, and subsequently, started an accelerated elimination of many passenger trains that eventually caused the creation of Amtrak.
In addition, United Parcel Service was a much smaller carrier in those years, and Federal Express was not yet in existence....

Those "combo" coaches added much needed capacity for the growing business. The GMC PD-4107 and later, similarly designed "Buffalo's", were designed hi-level, primarily with the additional package carrying potential in mind.

In Greyhound's case, prior to converting the Scenicruiser's into '"combo's", in the weeks prior to Christmas, they would often take an old PD-4106, and fill it with express top, and bottom....yes, even in the seats and aisles, and ran "B-Cars", between major hubs carrying no passengers. The PD-4501 Scenicruiser combo's were of two main designs....the 06xx series contained 18 seats--ten on the lower level, and eight on the upper. The 07xx series contained thirty seats--ten on the lower, and twenty on the upper level. Having the restroom on the lower as built, made the conversion easier. The doors cut in on the curb side, was a powered rollup, controlled by a switch panel adjacent. They used belt-loaders at major terminals to load and unload the express.
At the end of the Scenicruiser's service life, some early MC-7's were converted into combo's. They even salvaged the tandem dual axles from some scrapped Scenicuiser's to support these converted MC-7's, to carry the extra weight.
All of these had a secure bulkhead installed to separate the cargo compartment from the seating section, with a secure door in the aisle for inside access. Some regular assignments included an Omaha-Chicago local run, and a Pittsburgh-Chicago local run, among others....

Continental Trailways also operated some combo's....they had at least one PD-4104 on their Detroit/Toledo shuttle run that had about half the seats removed, and a fence to separate the cargo space. They carried a huge amount of Ford parts on those runs. They also converted some Eagle's. These had doors cut in to the side, but were a pair of hinged, swing open type. These were used on the Denver-Caspar-Billings run, and on some satellite terminal trips like Commerce City-Denver, and also similar in the Dallas-Fort Worth area....

Another combo operation was on Coachway's AlCan Highway route from Dawson Creek to Whitehorse and on to Fairbanks...they used some Western Flyer "Brucks". On that route, they carried almost anything...like canoes, and even caskets!

Combo coaches operation goes way back, almost to the beginning of bus transportation. Many of the railway owned bus operations used them, such as Northern Pacific Transport, and the Great Northern Railway...
Crown Coach used to make a factory combo for those and so did Kenworth, among others... probably took the idea from the railroad "doodlebug" motor powered railcars....

[JimmiB]

Thanks for the very interesting history lesson! I would think you are right about doodlebugs being the inspiration.