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'Ye Old New York City Bus Stop Signs'

 
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Mr. Linsky
BusTalk's Offical Welcoming Committee



Joined: 16 Apr 2007
Posts: 5071
Location: BRENTWOOD, CA. - WOODMERE, N.Y.

PostPosted: Sun Aug 12, 2007 1:36 am    Post subject: 'Ye Old New York City Bus Stop Signs' Reply with quote

Ye Old New York City Bus Stop Signs

Long before the New York City Street Sign Department took over the obligation of manufacturing, posting and maintaining Bus Stop signs, private bus operators, by franchise agreement, were responsible for these tasks.

By convention, probably as early as 1920, all such signs were designed as free standing and arrow shaped as depicted in the center of the picture below.

Aside from the words ‘Bus Stop’ in large letters in the center of the fixture, the authority for such placement (Police Dep’t) appeared in smaller letters above, with ‘No Parking’ below.

The signs were bolted to stanchions which, in turn, were mounted on weighted cast iron discs which usually had the names of the bus companies embedded in their surfaces.

Suddenly, sometime in the thirties, capturing these signs, whether as fraternity pranks or as souvenirs for bedroom walls, became vogue and quite irksome to bus companies that were faced with continuous replacement costs.

I can’t say who gets the credit for the idea but some resourceful mechanic took a used bus wheel, filled it with concrete and then machined the stanchion to its base.

While this system caught on rather quickly and solved the theft problem, delivery of each sign became a cumbersome task requiring at least two men to set them in place.

I remember as a kid going into the yard behind what is now JFK Depot (Green Bus Lines) where there were so many of these signs standing around that it looked like a Bus Stop sign cemetery!

Photo courtesy of Vince Syrek of 'GMOldLookBus'.

Note; while the bus in the picture is not the focus of this essay, it is a brand new Triboro Coach TDH 4507.

Mr. Linsky
“The Green Hornet”
Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica & Rockaway, NY

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