BusTalk

[roymanning2000]

Santa Fe got five 4106's in September, 1962. They were fleet numbers B114-B118 and serial numbers 1501-1505. Delivered to Santa Fe Transportation Co., Wichita, KS. They purchased some 4104's several years earlier, too.

Roy

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

[traildriver]

When the ICC ordered the railroads that had large holdings in several Greyhound and Trailways companies after WWII ended to divest them, M.E. Moore's Continental Bus System purchased Santa Fe Trailways, and the new entity became Transcontinental Bus System, Inc. This occurred around 1948, I believe. That, and several other companies Moore controlled, than did business as Continental Trailways, by far the largest member of the National Trailways Bus System of independant operators.

The Santa Fe Trail Transportation Company remained railroad owned, and was primarily a motor freight carrier, supplementing its parent AT&SF railway operations. So it had nothing to do with the Trailways bus system after that point. It did however operate those buses used in California to connect SF with the trains across the Bay.
I rode in one of those 4104's when I got off the California Zephyr at Middle Harbor Road, in 1969...have a photo somewhere in my 'archives'...
I didn't see any mention in that link, unless I missed it somehow...

Even though Continental Trailways was no longer railroad owned, they did keep a cordial relationship with their former parent, right up to the beginning of Amtrak in 1971.
They shared the railroad's 44 Fourth Street Terminal in SF, until they moved into the Transbay Transit Terminal in the '70's. They also used the intermodal depot in La Junta, Co., and even ran a connection bus between there and Denver for the Railway.
The other major Continental Trailways company that ran connections for its former RR owner, was American Buslines, which prior to being purchased by Continental Trailways in 1953, had purchased the original Burlington Trailways from the CB&Q RR in 1946...

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

GREYHOUND operating RAIL BUSES????

The following is from the March/April 1993 issue of "MOTOR COACH AGE", from the feature on SOUTHWESTERN GREYHOUND LINES:

"..........during 1932, one of the Type W's was converted to a rail inspection car, by installing a drive mechanism supplied by the Four Wheel Drive Company, and steel wheels designed by Cotton Belt engineers....."

"..........the success of this vehicle persuaded the railroad to institute rail bus service in 1933, by converting two of Southwestern's Z-250's. These vehicles were put into service between Pine Bluff and Texarkana (162 miles)......"

"..........conversion of the buses involved design and the installation of lavatories, pilots, sandboxes, and auxiliary water tanks, adding 2500 pounds of weight to the buses, and this eventually required changing the brake linings, because the adhesion factor or rails prevented use of the usual high brake chamber pressure, while maintenance of low pressure proved difficult......

"NYO"

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

Here's a bit of interesting SCENICRUISER trivia, regarding SOUTHWESTERN:

".........SCENICRUISER #S100 had the distinction of being SOUTHWESTERN's first PD-4501; she drew quite a crowd when it was put on public display at the Fort Worth terminal in August of 1954. Eventually, SOUTHWESTERN had 86 SCENICRUISERS, plus three transferred from CENTRAL....."

(from: Motor Coach Age, March/April, 1993)

"NYO"

[traildriver]

Anyone remember the small fleet of Scenicruiser's that had those unique Motorola personal radio's installed?
There was a separate unit installed in the o/h rack above each seat, connected to a power source, and a antenna lead. The whip antenna was on the roof of the lower level, clearly visible thru the upper deck windshield.
The control panel above each seat has a volume and a tuning knob, so each passenger could select their own volume and station. The earphones were of the "soundtube" design....you plugged one end into the hole in the panel, and then the hollow plastic tubes had foam ear pieces...worked like a stethoscope.
They were in individual sealed plastic pouches placed on each seat, with an extra supply near the driver's compartment. They were of disposable design, (the era before recycling), but I managed to save one for my archives.

These coaches were only used on thru routes from Florida to from the Northeast, and Midwest. All were Southern Greyhound Lines coaches in the 5,000 series.

In around the late sixties, some of them were transferred to be used on the no extra fare, "VIP Executive Limited" service, between St. Louis and Kansas City, and a couple of other runs around the country.

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

traildriver:

From: "GREYHOUND SCENICRUISER" (McNally/Rayman)

".........in 1967, five SCENICRUISERS were rebuilt and assigned to GREYHOUND's new Executive Limited non-stop bus service. Three of these special buses ran daily round-trip service from downtown St. Louis to downtown Kansas City. The other two dedicated SCENICRUISERS ran daily round-trip schedules between Houston and San Antonio....."

"......passengers had reserved seats each way, as well as the rarely-seen 'Personalized Radio Service". which was standard on all five of these XL coaches. The floors were red carpeted, as well as coat racks on the lower level....."

"..........these XL buses also wore a special paint scheme, and were equipped with whitewalls. Oddly, XL service never expanded beyond these cities; service ended sometime around 1971......."

"NYO"

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

Also from the aforementioned book:

"..........in early 1971, GREYHOUND inaugurated its Executive Coach Service, operating one round trip a day, Monday through Friday, between New York (Wall St) and Hartford, Conn. The bus was available exclusively to Aetna, Travelers, and The Hartford insurance companies....."

".........the upper level was furnished with not only standard high back seats in pairs, but also revolving lounge chairs. The bus was also furnished with curtains, high intensity reading lights, wall to wall carpeting, and tables with drink holders......"

".........other changes included the removal of the overhead parcel racks, as well as the removal of the sunken aisle in the upper level, to create more headroom. The lower level housed a small galley, restroom, and wardrobe....."

The bus (#4121), under contract, was not allowed to be used on weekend charters; the lone exception was the once a year Army-Navy football game; this was for SHELL executives only....."

"....when the contract between GREYHOUND and the insurance companies expired, the SCENICRUISER was replaced by an MC-7....."

"NYO"

[traildriver]

That brings up a couple of other Scenicruiser's with custom interior's...
When Arthur Genet was hired from the C&O Ry, to be GL's new CEO in the mid-fifties, he brought with him a railroad practice of having an exclusive "Business Car" to tour the properties around the country in. So they took one, and put a plush custom interior into. Mr. Genet turned out to be a 'mistake', and they replaced him rather suddenly, with a real bus man, long time financial officer F W Ackermann, in a year or so...
The Scenicruiser was quickly restored to regular configuration, and returned to service, making money, instead of wasting it.

They also had one on a long term charter to Anheiser-Busch brewery, with an executive interior. It too, was converted back after the contract ended. AB used it for various promotional campaigns around the country, along with it's famous Clydesdale's and truck.

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

traildriver:

In 1959, SCENICRUISER P-2216 was used to promote the new Warner Brothers film, "THE YOUNG PHILADELPHIANS" (starring Paul Newman); the cross-country publicity tour began in Burbank and ended in Philadelphia (3,475 miles)

The ten "star" passengers arrived in Philadelphia for the premier, after stopping at 27 cities and 200 towns along the route.....

"NYO"

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

Another SCENICRUISER tidbit.....

Another bus with a special paint job was SCENICRUISER E-5627 (EASTERN GREYHOUND LINES); this bus began running on the "TURNPIKE EXPRESS" in 1957.

The bus only stopped three times en route to change drivers, and allowed passengers four rest stops (including a supper break)

Rental pillows were available for 30 cents.

The trip took 17 hours and 55 minutes, and never left toll roads en route; GREYHOUND paid $36.10 in tolls, and charged passengers $20.10 one way ($36.20 round trip)

This was one of the very first express services to be offered by GREYHOUND.......

"NYO"

[traildriver]

I rode that trip a few times in the late 60's, when EGL got it down to only 16 hours including all those stops...matching the famous 20th Century Limited's time end to end.
In the fall of '67, that trip was chosen to test the two MC-6X prototypes, as I related previously. Only 4599 with the DD 12-71 ran reliably...4598 with the Mercedes engine spent most of the three month trial in the shop.

When I rode it, it left The Port at 6:00 PM, made a rest stop at the then fairly new Breezewood, Pa. Post House, continue on to Butler Rest where a relief driver brought a Company Chevy up from Pittsburgh. The driver from New York took the car back to Pittsburgh. The relief driver only ran to Great Lakes Plaza, Oh, where another change was made with a driver who brought a car from Cleveland. That driver took us to our breakfast stop, at Indian Meadow Plaza, Oh, and then continued on to Chicago, arriving on time, just prior to 9:00 AM, Central Time...
We operated thru the Lincoln Tunnel, the New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Ohio Turnpikes, the Indiana Toll Road, the Chicago Skyway Toll Bridge, the Dan Ryan and Congress Expressways, Lower Wacker Drive to Garvey Court, then down the ramp to the underground Chicago Loop Greyhound Terminal at Clark and Randolph

When they completed Interstate 80, they could probably have shaved an other hour or more off that time, and with one less driver. But later, nothing would bypass Cleveland.


When that trip started in 1957, with the last link in the all express route between New York and Chicago completed, it was touted as the world's longest "non-stop" (for passenger's), bus run.
Popular Mechanic's even published a reporter's story about riding it.
The only major change thru the years, was when the new Breezewood Post House opened, they made the first/last rest stop there, instead of the original stop at a Turnpike rest area.

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

traildriver:

Speaking of GREYHOUND expresses.......

There is an early 60's "ROAD RUNNER" cartoon (I cannot recall the title) where the cartoon closes with the ever-hapless Wile E. Coyote (on a Southwestern desert highway) being chased at a good clip, by a SCENICRUISER-type bus, just emerging from a tunnel!

On the dash is a herald reading:

"NEW YORK EXPRESS-NON STOP"!!

In fact, in the first Road Runner cartoon (circa 1948), the VERY first vehicle to ever clobber poor ol' Wile E. is a YELLOW 743.........it is obvious by the colors what company it belonged to!

GREYHOUND, back in the day, had countless "cameos" in both movies (1934's hit "IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT" is a MUST for any and all die-hard GREYHOUND enthusiasts/historians!) and theatrical cartoons; a late 40's "Little Lulu" cartoon, "THE DOG SHOW-OFF", has a parade of dogs whose owners look just like them; the VERY last dog in the parade is a GREYHOUND......and, what's at the other end of her leash?

A SILVERSIDES!!!

This cartoon is (or at least was) available on youtube; it is indeed worth a look!!

"NYO"

Note: Almost all vintage tin toy GREYHOUND buses (whatever type) have "EXPRESS" displayed on their destination signs; more rare are those that display readings for other cities.

One tin SCENICRUISER I have in my collection has a roller sign that can be changed to show several different cities!

[traildriver]

That Atlantic Greyhound Yellow Coach didn't have a 'cameo' in "It Happened One Night"....it was the STAR!

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]