BusTalk

[Hart Bus]

There is a very simple solution for making that old look Cookie Jar appear wonderful......Just load it up with Girl Scout Cookies. Then no one will care about the appearance just as long as some of those thin mints or sugar free chocolate chip cookies are still in there......Yium, Yum

[Mr. Linsky]

Many thanks to member Hart Bus for providing the vintage post card seen below which depicts some of the cream of New York City's bus museum fleet.

The shot appears to have been taken at an MTA facility although I do stand corrected on that point.

Descriptions are as follows beginning from the left end;

Fleet number 7144 - a 1957 GM Model TDH 5106.

Fleet number 4789 - a 1949 GM Model TDH 5101 Note; Fleet number was eventually changed to 2969 in memory of Ralph Kramden!

Fleet number 2124 - a 1938 Yellow Coach Model 735 (also known as a Queen Mary and originally operated by the Fifth Avenue Coach Company).

Fleet number 303 - a 1917 Model 'A' (built by and for the Fifth Avenue Coach Company in their Manhattan shops).

Missing from this scene of the pre- New Look collection are a 1958 GM TDH 5106 numbered 9098 and a 1930 Yellow Coach Model 'Z' numbered 1263 and built as a double decker for Fifth Avenue Coach Co.

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, NY

[Hart Bus]

WCA:

Thank you for putting up my post card card. I think I purchasd it at the Transit Museum in the mid 1980's. The card doesn't indicate what date or depot.

General Question to all members---Does anyone know when bus 4789 was repainted as the "Jackie Gleason Bus" and renumbered to 2969 ?

Hart Bus

[nycbusfan]

I am not 100% sure, but that may be the East New York Depot.

[Mr. Linsky]

'THE GMD ARTICULATED BUS'

Take one GMD (Canada) Classic, two GM New Looks, one huge accordion, and mix well and what do you get?;

The TA60-102N, or the GM Articulated Bus (as shown below), though known to Canadians as the 'Bendy Bus'.

Equipped with a bending or articulated middle to allow it to carry larger loads but still negotiate tight turns, the TA60-102N entered demonstration service with Canadian operators in the early 1980s

The advantage of an articulated bus is lower operating costs. Two articulated buses can hold as many people as three regular ones, meaning that operator's spend less money on maintenance and salaries, but still carry as many passengers.

However, in the early 1980s articulated buses were an untried form of transit technology. In an attempt to get transit companies to embrace the concept, the province of Ontario contracted with General Motors to produce 53 of these buses which were then leased to the transit authorities of Toronto, Mississauga, Ottawa, and Hamilton for $1 per year, with the option to buy the buses at the end of three years if the municipalities so desired.

At the time, articulated buses were a revolutionary idea for North American transit, although such vehicles had been in use in Europe for many years. The GM vehicles were also different because, rather than 'pulling' the trailing section of the bus, these buses used rear wheel drive, so that the trailer section pushed the rest of the bus. The 60 foot TA60-102N's boasted a seating capacity of 55 passengers, and were powered by an 8-cylinder diesel engine

In addition to the “unique ‘pusher-type’ turntable”, the bus was designed to limit its angular motion to 7 degrees whenever the bus was driving at normal speeds in a straight direction and 2 degrees whenever the bus was at highway speed. Automatic control systems were supposed to correct things should the vehicle exceed these limits.

GM ARTICULATED SPECIFICATIONS

• TTC 8500-8511 Model GMC-TA60-102N Delivery in 1982
• Length: 60’ (18.3 m)
• Width: 102” (2.6 m)
• Height (maximum): 121.5” (3.1 m)
• Wheelbase - 1st to middle axle: 235” (597 cm)
• Wheelbase - Middle to last axle: 281.7” (716 cm)
• Turning circle: 43’9” (13.3 m)
• Weight: 33,260 lb (15,087 kg)
• Engine: Detroit Diesel Allison 8V-71N
• Horsepower: 255 HP @ 2,000 RPM
• Displacement: 568 cu in (9,308 cc)
• Transmission: Detroit Diesel Allison V735 Automatic
• Fuel Tank: 125 Imperial Gallons (568 litres)
• Seating Capacity: 55
• Heating: 114,000 BTU (28,500 kcal) main system, 41,800 BTU (10,000 kcal) front and defroster system, 80,000 BTU (20,000 kcal) booster unit</LI<li>
• Ventilation: 4 roof hatches for ventilation and emergency, 9 fully opening windows.

Canadian operators were enthralled with the performance of the artics and, had GM continued in the bus building business, there is no question that TA60-102N's would have not only flooded the market north of the border but throughout the U.S. as well.

Photo credits (upper and center) appear within frames.
Lower photo showing a later all Classic MCI version courtesy of shortlineMCI.

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, NY

[Hart Bus]

Interesting that the first generation appears to be two cut up fishbowls with a Classsic front while the second generation looks to be all Classic.

[kevlaf983]

A few pics of OC Transpo 8222

[Mr. Linsky]

kevlaf,

Nice pictures - thanks for sharing.

Looks as though MCI improved the destination sign by widening it.

Mr. 'L'

[HwyHaulier]

Mr 'L' -

Maybe I am way too cranky (too much past operations experience?). Sorry, to me the large, Fishbowl artic seems much the same as a "dumb computer trick"!

Trying to recall how many riders could be seated in a TDH-5301, and why the coaches ever had the GM T&C designation...

....................Vern...............

[Mr. Linsky]

'YE OLD SHOCKS'


Some months or so ago, I did a short essay on Greyhound's preserved 1931 Mack Model BK coach (shown below) carrying (as coincidence would have it) fleet number 1931.

Of interest in the photo, and the subject of a number of inquiries and theories, were the two upright cylinders (one just inboard of each headlamp).

While some speculated that they held gas to light the headlamps, I suspected that they were shock absorbers merely because they were placed directly over the front end of each leaf spring.

The Mack Truck Museum in Allentown, Pa. has assured me that they are shocks and that they were designed, patented and manufactured by the Westinghouse Air Spring Company division of the Westinghouse Corporation.

While they were chiefly intended for heavy trucks and buses, some models were also found as optional equipment on the more expensive Cadillacs, Packards and Pierce Arrows of the era.

That should solve the problem!

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, NY operator

[Cyberider]

Thanks for solving the mystery, Mr. Linsky!

[HwyHaulier]

Mr "L" -

In your Alaska photos, it struck me you were hinting this particular accoutrement should have been included in the replica 1920s city busses?

Reports of Gas Cylinders for the head lights? Please! ROFLMAO! BTW. I don't like the turn signals used on the original, real thing, MACK.

The "1931" line number? The explanation is suspect. Problem being, I am not aware of any exhaustive Greyhound Lines rosters predating 1940.

......................Vern...................

[Hart Bus]

To the West Coast Wizard:

Is the above Greyhound kept in a garage near the bus terminal in downtown LA along with a PD-4501?

Couln't get there in 2005 but if it is, I will try to get there in 2010 if a hoped for West Coast trip can be arranged.


Alan Aron

[Mr. Linsky]

ECA,

I don't know whether you are referring to me as the 'West Coach Wizard'! - I'm hardly that!

All Greyhound owned vintage buses are kept at the Greyhound Museum in Hibbing, Minnesota (which was the original home of the company and where the first 'Hupmobile' began service in 1914).

However, the 1931 Mack is not mentioned on the museum roster but was listed as being stored at Greyhound's downtown garage in Dallas, Texas in a Motor Bus Society convention report dated 2002.

Hope everything went great on Sunday.

Regards.

WCA

[Mr. Linsky]

ECA,

BTW; here's a shot of Greyhound # 1931 during the shooting of the 1981 remake of the 1946 film 'The Postman Always Rings Twice'.
Enjoy.

WCA