BusTalk

[traildriver]

Regarding pooling of buses...
I used to marvel at the huge variety that Greyhound pooled with...
A real treat in The Port, was to see the daily thru New York/Fort Kent, Me. thru bus that Eastern Greyhound operated to Bangor, then handed off to the Bangor & Aroostook Railroad (Highway Division), for the remainder. Approxiamately every other trip had a BAR bus on it. You had to be up late to see it, though...
IIRC, it departed New York at 9:00 PM, and arrived in NY at 4:15 AM.
It's schedule was designed to serve all the once a day BAR portion of the route in daylight. For the GL portion, there were many more trips to choose from.

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

traildriver:

Like yourself, I truly enjoy delving into the "finer points" of old TT's; it truly is nothing short of amazing (as well as sobering) to see just how much has vanished in the course of the past several decades.

A few other old bus TT's from my archives includes one very interesting one (from 1938) for for the "MAINE CENTRAL"; this TT includes trains, buses**, and planes * (*LOCKHEED Electra, 10 passengers!)

**B. & M.T. MOTOR COACH

I also have a "wartime" GREAT LAKES GREYHOUND tt from 1943; this features a drawing of a SILVERSIDES on the front.


TERMINAL LOCATIONS (some of the "stations" were at local stores, hotels, and filling stations).....

BALDWIN

BAY CITY

BIRMINGHAM

CHEBOYGAN

CLARE

CLARKESTON

DETROIT

EVART

FAREWELL

FLINT

FRANKENMUTH

GAYLORD

GRAND BLANC

GRAYLING

HOUGHTON LAKE

INDIAN RIVER

LOUDINGTON

MACKINAW CITY

PETOSKEY

PINCONNING

PONTIAC

PRUDEBVILLE

REED CITY

ROSCOMMON

SAGINAW

ST. IGNACE

SAULT STE. MARIE

SCOTTVILLE

TOPINABEE

WATERFORD

WEST BRANCH

WOLVERINE

Yes, indeed........the legendary "Hound" truly went virtually everywhere and anywhere, back the halcyon days........

"NYO"

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

A more "recent" GREYHOUND timetable I have is from 1970, featuring a "Bison" and an MCI on the front, along with cities served:

SEATTLE

BUTTE

FARGO

CHICAGO

PORTLAND

SALT LAKE CITY

(Washington local service)

Connecting bus companies:

BLACK BALL TRANSPORT

EMPIRE LINES

INTERMOUNTAIN TRANSPORTATION CO.

J.J. LAFFERTY STAGE CO.

NORTHWESTER STAGE LINES

SUN VALLEY BUS LINES

LAS VEGAS-TONOPAH-RENO STAGE LINES

[traildriver]

Another good timetable folder..."no. 3"?

Black Ball Transport was actually not a bus...it was the ferry operator of the MV Coho, which ran between Port Angeles on the Olympic Peninsula, and Victoria...

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

See also:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Kalakala

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Coho

http://www.cohoferry.com

[traildriver]

After becoming something of an "expert" (IMHO )...in reading and studying timetables thru the years, I have gained much admiration for the way Greyhound's schedule writer's at their peak, put together such well constructed, and interconnected system of schedules.

If one took a ride on a thru coach from say, New York City, to say, Los Angeles, via Oklahoma...one would go thru a succession of busy "hubs" where many routes met. Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, Columbus, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Amarillo, Albuquerque, Flagstaff, and Los Angeles.
At each of these, several times each day, buses criss-crossing from many compass points would arrive, have a rest stop, and then depart, offering unlimited possibilites of connections. It took years to develop such a grid.

And besides those major hubs, there were about as many intermediate crossings of other routes, where there were also connections possible...
for example... Breezewood, Cambridge, Zanesville, Dayton, Terre Haute, Effingham, Springfield, etc....

One of the biggest challenges for the writer's, came in 1973, when the country went to the 55 mph national speed limit...you can imagine what that did to the inter-connectivity from one 'hub' to another...what a nightmare!


IMHO, nobody did it as well as Eastern Greyhound Lines during their hayday in the late fifties and the sixties. Their timetables and schedules were simply brilliant...

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

traildriver:

Agreed, all the way!

I have LONG, LONG been totally amazed at how those old GREYHOUND timetables, literally, left "no stone unturned", "no room for doubt".

Concise, comprehensive, intricate, highly-detailed......the GREYHOUND scheduling of decades ago truly were "works of intricate art", in their own right.

One can only imagine how the fellows who actually planned and coordinated these timetables could be as accurate and as concise as they were, WITHOUT the use of electric aids.....good ol' fashioned BRAIN power.....along with pen, papers, and pencils!

It HAD to be one heckuva monumental task, back in those days, to coordinate schedules to the umpteenth degree as they did, when one factors in the running times, connections to other carriers, etc.

Now THAT was a TASK that was NOT for the "faint-hearted", for certain!

"NYO"

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

Regarding my early posts (w/links) on ferries.......

I'm wondering if, in any area, GREYHOUND buses once used ferries as part of their route.

I've seen old photos and postcards showing highway coaches aboard ferries in different parts of the country; this, in itself, makes for interesting photo images!

In the book "FERRIES OF PUGET SOUND" (Stephen J. Pickens) there is a photo from the 1950's, showing a highway coach (just visible) on the deck of the handsome, ex-Maryland vessel, "M/V GOVERNOR HARRY W. NICE"

I recall, long ago, seeing a photo of one of the ferries in that "neck of the woods" with a "Bison" on board.

As a sidenote, in London, the "WOOLWICH FREE FERRY" carried both LT buses and long-distance coaches aboard their ancient sidewheelers, which lasted into the 1960's.

"BUS AHOY!"

"NYO"

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

See:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woolwich_Ferry *

*Note photos of LT buses in queue for the ferry.......

[traildriver]

[traildriver]

And how could I not mention the Virginia Ferry Commission route from Cape Charles to Little Creek that carried tons of Greyhound and Carolina Trailways buses across, before the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel opened...?

[traildriver]

Another busy route that still exists is the BC Ferry that the Vancouver-Victoria buses use. I believe the Washington State system may also carry some commuter buses...

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

traildriver:

Ahhhh, "Buses On Board".......I LOVE IT!

Appreciate the interesting info as well!

I had mentioned an old (1970's) photo I had seen of a "Bison" on board a (open deck) ferry; I now recall that it was the "KULSHAN" (b. 1954), which later sailed east to New York, where she operated on the Governor's Island crossing for some years (the last I heard, she was operating during the summer months up at Matha's Vineyard)

I also have an early 70's battery-operated toy (sold at Woolworth's), called the "SHUTTLING FERRY BOAT", which has a small battery-operated bus shuttling between "A" and "B" via a plastic ferry (mine still works, and has the original box!)

"NYO"

[traildriver]

One of my "fun activities" was putting together some thru bus schedules, to link far off places, but using combinations of different routes that did not actually have such thru services. Other things were to run the fastest possible schedule from coast to coast, by using the current fastest running times between the fewest and longest segments currently used....

Or...try to go as far a distance as possible, using only independent carrier's, and not using Greyhound or Trailways....

Hours of diversion, if you have a Russell's Guide...