BusTalk

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

Speaking of ACF's.......

TRIBORO once operated ACF coaches, including 24 Model 45-S's; these buses (with underfloor HALL-SCOTT engines) were, at the time, the largest prewar ACF city bus available............

"NYO"

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

ACF's operated by TRIBORO........

http://bus.nycsubway.org/perl/show?1312

http://bus.nycsubway.org/perl/show?1313

(courtesy: bus.nycsubway.org)

[traildriver]

The ACF-Brill popularity with the railroad owned bus lines may have been because they were familiar with railcar and streetcar products made by American Car and Foundry and the J G Brill companies for many years.

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

Recall, also, that QUEENS-NASSAU TRANSIT operated 15 C-44's; these buses were delivered in 1947.

Outside of the lone C-44 BoT demo unit #2 (this bus was sold to the CTA, and was renumbered #2700) , the QUEENS-NASSAU C-44's were the only ACF-BRILLS to operate on the streets of New York.......

"NYO"

[MaBSTOA 15]

The ACF demo for the BoT, #2, was a model C-48 not a C-44.

CanCar built this bus as a model C-52 with an AEC horizontal diesel engine.

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

"MOHAWK COACH LINES, INC." ("BLUE COACH") also operated C-44 suburbans; this company served New York, Mt. Kisco, New Hyde Park, Beacon, Poughkeepsie, Bear Mountain, and Haverstraw.

This company was based out of Little Ferry, NJ........

"NYO"

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

Several vintage views of classic, colorful, handsome, and stylish Canadian BRILLS (Hamilton, Ontario).........

http://bus.nycsubway.org/perl/show?1408

http://bus.nycsubway.org/perl/show?4034

http://bus.nycsubway.org/perl/show?4038

http://bus.nycsubway.org/perl/show?4042

(courtesy: bus.nycsubway.org)

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

In 1939, the "JERSEY CITY & MONTCLAIR BUS COMPANY" took delivery of several ACF Model 26-U buses; these small buses (only 50 were built) operated between Caldwell and Journal Square, Jersey City, where connections could be made for the H&M tubes to Manhattan.

This long forgotten company was founded in 1927, and, the following year, was extended from Montclair to Caldwell.

In addition to the new ACF buses (1939), this company also operated Fitzjohn-bodied (front-engined) WHITES.

In later years, this line became DE CAMP's #22 (Caldwell-Jersey City); GM Old Looks and ACF-BRILL C-44's were used on this now long-abandoned "stepchild" route well into the 1960's (I knew this line well as a youngster, as Mom and I would ride out to Verona to visit my uncle, aunt, and cousins in West Orange)......

"NYO"

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

Regarding "classic" buses, the GMC "Buffalo" was a true classic, and I still fondly remember them today, many years after they vanished from my area.

Though, of course, never operated by the MTA, these buses were very commonplace rumbling in and out of the PABT; I can remember PSNJ/TNJ, DE CAMP, and MAHATTAN LINES (among other "fallen flags") rostering them.

My folks (may they rest) and I rode a DATTCO (Parker Tours) "Buffalo" from New York to Canada and return for a wonderful week-long summer getaway, back in the summer of '73.

The last "Buffalos" I rode were the "fallen flag refugees", then operated by early-era NJT in the early/mid-80's, on the former ORANGE & BLACK (MAPLEWOOD) rush hour "RIVER ROAD EXPRESS".

The last I recall seeing (early 90's) were running for ACADEMY.

I always have (and still do) referred to these distinctive, now-classic buses as "Baby Scenicruisers"(!)

I also recall LIBERTY LINES operating them; ditto SHORT LINE.

The "Buffalo" also had the dubious distinction of being the last GM-built bus purchased by GREYHOUND........

"NYO"

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

....oooooh, give me a home, where the "buffalo" (and other GMC's) roam.......(!!)

http://bus.nycsubway.org/perl/show?496

http://bus.nycsubway.org/perl/show?1497

http://bus.nycsubway.org/perl/show?3429

http://bus.nycsubway.org/perl/show?617

http://bus.nycsubway.org/perl/show?2359

(courtesy: bus.nycsubway.org)

[traildriver]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

SamTrans Fishbowls* in 1979; by this late date, GREYHOUND was, of course, no longer operating the Bay area commute routes.........

(AFAIK, the newest Fishbowls that GREYHOUND ordered for Bay Area commuter service were the sixty TDM-5303's, purchased in 1965)

http://bus.nycsubway.org/perl/show?3846

http://bus.nycsubway.org/perl/show?3847

(courtesy: bus.nycsubway)

Interestingly, CAPITOL TRAILWAYS operated two suburban Fishbowls (S8M-5303's) in Harrisburg-area commuter service.

CONTINENTAL also operated suburban services in the Dallas and Kansas City areas using ACF-BRILL C-44's (these buses also had transit-style rear doors)

Also, GREYHOUND was involved with commuter service out of Kansas City; the "CROWN COACH COMPANY" operated two TDH-4509's, and prominently displayed "RUNNING DOG" logos on their flanks.

Until 1963/1964, EASTERN CANADIAN GREYHOUND LINES operated Old Looks in commute service in the Windsor/london areas.

The newest of these buses were TDM-4517's, added to the fleet in 1957.