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'Bus Nostalgia'
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Mr. Linsky
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Joined: 16 Apr 2007
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Location: BRENTWOOD, CA. - WOODMERE, N.Y.

PostPosted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 4:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Herewith are just a few more of Prevost's ornate offerings from back when;

Photo #1 represents their first bus in about 1924.

They've sure come a long way since!

Photo credits; within frames.

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






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Mr. Linsky
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Location: BRENTWOOD, CA. - WOODMERE, N.Y.

PostPosted: Thu Aug 13, 2009 12:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Seen below in two poses is a 1945 ACF Brill Model IC (Inter City) 41A carrying serial number 1 and in Demonstrator service.

The 41A was among the first post war offerings from the newly merged American Car and Foundry Company and the Brill Corporation - both being extremely successful transportation equipment manufacturers.

Powered by an amidships underfloor Hall Scott 180 horsepower gasoline engine, this 41 passenger parlor coach weighed in at nearly six tons with a length at 35 feet and a width of 96 inches, and featured an Air Conditioning option as noted in the images.

1375 were built between 1945 and 1950 with almost 500 going to the Greyhound Corpoartion - an additional 303 were produced by the Canadian Car and Foundry Division of Montreal during that same period.

While prewar ACF buses were considered to be well designed and built for reliability and long service, devout customers found that the post war models no longer met those attributes with few reorders which led to the cessation of all bus production in 1950.

Photo credit; within frame.

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


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Mr. Linsky
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Joined: 16 Apr 2007
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Location: BRENTWOOD, CA. - WOODMERE, N.Y.

PostPosted: Wed Aug 26, 2009 11:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks to Ricard Silagi of NorCal Bus Fans we are treated to the image below of a Crown Coach Articulated operating for the Coast Counties Charter Company presumably of the San Francisco Bay area.

A number of assumptions must be made here because so little information is available. However, it would very possibly be a model 286 built sometime around 1980 and is very likely one of the original collaborations between Crown and Hungarian based Ikarus Coach - a forerunner of North American Bus Industries (NABI).

The bus, dubbed Miss America, stands tall, straight and very handsomely (for a Crown) and undoubtedly shares the same underfloor pancake Diesel as its School Bus cousins of the era and, in this case, it appears that the plant is amidships in the lead section.

Some very interesting history presented by NABI;

NABI's history can be traced to the attempts of its former parent, Ikarus Coach, to enter the North American market. In 1980, Crown Coach entered an agreement with Ikarus to produce the model 286, an Americanized model 280 articulated bus under the Crown Ikarus name. After the venture with Crown ended in 1984, Ikarus entered an agreement with Orion to continue production of the 286 for the Canadian market as the Orion III. Regardless of name, the 286/Orion III was beset with a multitude of problems ranging from poor construction to inadequate build quality which played a role in Crown's demise in the US.

In the wake of the 286 problems, Ikarus regrouped and entered a deal with Union City Body Company of Union City, Indiana, to market and assemble a new bus for the American market. In 1989, Ikarus reentered the US market as Ikarus USA and introduced the model 416 (an Americanized model 415). The next year, Ikarus USA introduced the model 436, an articulated model of the 416. Though the company had modest success, the end of the Cold War led to a vast decline of Ikarus' European output and to a period of uneasiness at the company. These problems contributed to Union City Body Company declaring bankruptcy in 1992, in turn putting the future of Ikarus' US operations in doubt.

Amid these problems, Hungarian-born/US-residing investor Peter Rona, director of the First Hungary Fund Ltd of Jersey, United Kingdom, purchased 75% of Ikarus USA in mid-1992 with Ikarus retaining 25%. With the purchase came many changes, most significantly the name of the company to American Ikarus and the base of production from Union City to Anniston, Alabama.

Though American Ikarus was more successful than its predecessors, by the mid 1990s Ikarus decided that they wanted to leave the North American market given increased competition in Europe. In 1996, Ikarus sold their share of American Ikarus to the First Hungary Fund which took on the current NABI brand name and NABI Rt. corporate name upon closing. Subsequently, NABI expanded into the European market with the purchase of Optare in 2000 and is now a rival to its former parent.

With its independence, NABI began expanding its product line to gain a foothold in the then-fledgling low-floor bus market with the launch of the LFW series in 1997, NABI's first original model. The LFW series has been successful, in turn launching the Compobus series (2001), the BRT series (2004), and the expansion of the LFW series into articulated buses (2002).

On January 23, 2006, NABI Rt. announced [1] that it had a preliminary agreement with NABI Gyártó és Kereskedelmi Kft and Homerica Investments B.V. for the acquisition of all of the stock of NABI Inc. and substantially all of the business and assets of NABI Rt. NABI Inc. then announced [2] that the purchase was by affiliates of Cerberus Capital Management. The transaction was completed on February 15, 2006.[3] According to the August 4, 2006 Interim Report, the Hungarian company changed its name to Exbus Nyrt. and became an asset management company, and the current directors are endeavoring to preserve the equity and use the directors' experience in the capital markets.[4]

On August 21, 2006, NABI announced their purchase of the Wichita, Kansas-based Optima Bus Corporation for an undisclosed amount. This will add the popular Opus low-floor minibus and American Heritage replica streetcar (rubber-tired trackless) product lines to NABI's roster. One week later, it was announced that Cerberus had acquired Blue Bird Corporation, thus giving Cerberus a full line of school buses, and 30 to 60 foot transit buses.[5]

On June 6, 2007, it was announced that Optima Bus Corporation "would cease operations in Park City on Aug. 8 or shortly after." [6] Soon after, Blue-Bird stopped producing commercial buses. Both operations were moved to the existing NABI plant, except for the Commercial Express product line, which was sold.

In 2008, NABI updated the look of its 416 and 40LFW, adding a new style front and rear as well as optional frameless windows. The new style front is available on a special order only. The Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada were the lanuch customers for the restyled low-floor model, with NJ Transit being launch customer for the high floor model.

A footnote; the mentioned Union City Body Company of Union City, Indiana did build all of Ford Motor Company's Transit Buses.

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

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Mr. Linsky
BusTalk's Offical Welcoming Committee



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Location: BRENTWOOD, CA. - WOODMERE, N.Y.

PostPosted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 1:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

A while back in this forum I did a piece accompanied by the upper image below on a Mack C-50 'sample' sent to Scania-Vabis in Sweeden as a model for a series of buses to be built for the Stockholm Transit System.

The Mack ad shows a demonstrator that appears to be similar to a 'Bingham' class C-50 with right hand drive and slide open transom glasses.

It took some time but I have now been fortunate enough to obtain the lower photo which is one of the actual 200 buses that Scania built for the Sweedish operator.

As can be seen, there are a number of differences between it and the demonstrator including a European style destination sign, semaphore signals in place of traditional blinkers and unusually hinged front doors along with odd shaped door sashes.

You might also notice that the rain water troughs over both sets of doors are extended to the first standee window (both sides in rear).

The livery is a bright red and cream not to dissimilar to that of Surface Transportation in New York.

Certainly an interesting bus!

Lower photo thanks to Hank's Truck Pictures.

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

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ripta42
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 6:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mr. Linsky wrote:
Thanks to Ricard Silagi of NorCal Bus Fans we are treated to the image below of a Crown Coach Articulated operating for the Coast Counties Charter Company presumably of the San Francisco Bay area.

A number of assumptions must be made here because so little information is available. However, it would very possibly be a model 286 built sometime around 1980 and is very likely one of the original collaborations between Crown and Hungarian based Ikarus Coach - a forerunner of North American Bus Industries (NABI).


The "Miss America" above isn't a Crown-Ikarus, it's all Crown. It may be a custom job built from two old school buses, as opposed to an artic that came out of Crown's factory.

The Crown-Ikarus Model 286 was simply an Ikarus rebranded as a Crown. Nothing in its styling indicated that it was a Crown product. Pictured below is a 1980 Model 286 demonstrator at Queens Transit in 1981 (Photo by Doug Grotjahn)

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roymanning2000



Age: 75
Joined: 01 Aug 2007
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 7:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

ripta42 and all,

I believe you are right on the money about the origins of that Crown artic. There was an mention of it in one of the bus or trade magazines (maybe MCA) some years ago.

My recollection is that it was a couple of school buses rebuilt to an articulated. One or both may have been previously wrecked. I also seem to recall that the work may have been done by someone other than Crown. Gee, I wish my memory was better!

Roy
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Mr. Linsky
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Joined: 16 Apr 2007
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Location: BRENTWOOD, CA. - WOODMERE, N.Y.

PostPosted: Sun Sep 27, 2009 6:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pictured below (top) is a GM 'New Look' that just arrived by rail car for delivery to AC Transit of Oakland, California.

It was a policy of most east coast (and mid west) bus manufacturers to delivery their coaches by rail road to customers west of the Rockies.

I was puzzled by the image because for the life of me I couldn't figure out how they loaded and unloaded the buses from a freight car.

Well, thanks to Jim Husing of NorCal Bus Fans, I now see how it was done.

The lower photo shows a Twin-Fageol being delivered to Key System, also of the Bay Area, and being driven out through the front of the car to a ramp - I never knew that freight cars could be opened that way!

Upper photo courtesy of AC Transit.

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


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Mr. Linsky
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Location: BRENTWOOD, CA. - WOODMERE, N.Y.

PostPosted: Sun Oct 04, 2009 1:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

'THE PIERCE ARROW MODEL Z BUS CHASSIS'

Most of you who remember the name 'Pierce Arrow' probably associate it as being among the upper crust of elegant American automobile manufacturers in the days of yore.

And, you'd be right except for the fact that they also made a name for themselves as a first rate builder of chassis for trucks and buses, and did so to the same high standards as their fabled roadsters.

The chassis, a Model 'Z', (see upper image) was introduced in 1924 and designed specifically for both truck and bus applications with a dropped frame and featured Pierce Arrow's famous series 33 Dual Valve 6-cylinder engine with availability in either a 196 or 220 inch wheelbase.

You couldn't mistake a Pierce Arrow for anything other than just that because whether it was a car, truck or bus its trademark headlights that swept out of the fenders made it unique.

Pierce Arrow of Buffalo, New York did well for many years and gave its chief competitors Cadillac and Packard a run for their money but the depression years of the early thirties took its toll on the company which found itself in receivership and takeover by Studebaker of South Bend, Indiana.

By 1938, the Pierce Arrow marque faded away leaving only fond memories of a great auto maker.

Lower photo shows a 1925 Pierce Arrow with a Brown Body Corporation body operating for the Boise Street Car Company of Boise, Idaho.

Photos borrowed for educational purposes only.

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


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Mr. Linsky
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Location: BRENTWOOD, CA. - WOODMERE, N.Y.

PostPosted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 2:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mr. Linsky wrote:
STATEN ISLAND COACH COMPANY

Thanks to the New York Public Library’s vast collection of New York City street scenes, I have come up with some interesting pictures of the ACF’s of the Staten Island Coach Company.

It appears that the company was a major player in the borough with a history that may go back as far as the twenties but very little has been written about it except for the fact that at sometime just after World War II SICC was sold to the Isle Transportation Corporation – an employee owned operator which was almost immediately taken over by the city’s Board of Transportation.

In fact, thirty-five White model 798’s that had been ordered by Isle to replace SICC’s aging ACF fleet were delivered to the city in the same manner as North Shore Bus Company’s 1947 order for twenty GM TDH 4507’s were.

The pictured buses in various poses around Staten Island are ACF’s popular H-12-S models from the early thirties powered by the company’s famous amidships under floor mounted Hall-Scott gasoline engines which enabled the installation of the rear door behind the rear wheels for a more orderly passenger egress.

Ironically, this article answers a question as to the origin of a Queens Bus Division converted ACF service car (also pictured below) that I had posed in an earlier forum.

I was in the dark as to where the city would have gotten this one time bus because, to my knowledge, no NYPBL used this particular model of ACF including Queens Nassau (Queens Transit).

It is very obvious now that this service car came from Staten Island Coach Company and may well be one of the pictured coaches below.

SICC photos taken in 1935 by Percy Loomis.

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









To add to our meager pictorial roster of early thirties ACF Model H-12-S's operated by the Staten Island Coach Company, I present number 142 shown on layover along a main trolley line in the borough and signed for route number 2 to New York Ferries.

I will graciously leave it up to you trolley car mavens to identify the route and the car passing 142 - the ornate livery under the windshield should be a good starter!

Photo courtesy of the New York City Archives.

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

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HwyHaulier




Joined: 16 Dec 2007
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Location: Harford County, MD

PostPosted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 7:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mr 'L' -

In the fourth view down, an ACF, posed in a frontal shot, to right of center, and an "UNK" (?), more of a 3/4 view at the left...

"Zoom" in on the photo, and check the "UNK" closely. To begin, where's hints of a door? A "trick question" bus?

Otherwise, my own experience with Staten Island trolleys in this summary: I know there is such a place. Yes, it is said there
were trolleys on the streets long ago. Apparently, it never had any PCC cars! <G>

..................Vern................
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Mr. Linsky
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Location: BRENTWOOD, CA. - WOODMERE, N.Y.

PostPosted: Wed Nov 04, 2009 2:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

'THE GM OLD LOOK'S OF SANTA MONICA MUNICIPAL BUS LINES'

Normally, I give credit for images at the end of an essay but, in this case, I want to thank both Jim Husing of NorCal Bus Fans and Jay Roberts of GMOldLook in advance for the wonderful photos below.

Pictured in order of arrival at the company are;

Fleet # 125 - a 1954 TDH 3714 and one of 26 (101 to 126) delivered between August 1953 and September 1954 - these were Santa Monica's first ever GM coaches.

Fleet # 4505 - a 1955 TDH 4512 and one of 26 delivered between February 1955 and July 1956.

Fleet # 4801 - a 1957 TDH 4801 and one of 8 delivered in that year - the 4801's were 48 passenger buses built specifically for California to meet weight constraints.

Fleet # 5113 - a 1958 TDH 5105 and one of 13 delivered in that year - these were 40 foot coaches with 102 inch widths.

Notice that as did many other Southern California operators, SM ordered their Old Looks sans Thermo-Matic systems and came equipped only with the standard dashboard and under seat heaters.

The first two digits of the fleet numbers on all SM's Old Looks with the exception of the 3714's denoted passenger capacities.

Some history of Santa Monica's Municipal Bus Lines (now known as 'The Big Blue Bus');

While records show that the company began serving the seaside community with a handful of rented buses in April of 1928, legend has it that their first attempt at rapid transit with a 'blue' horsecar along Wilshire Boulevard ended abruptly when the horse dropped dead at 26th. Street.

The enterprise grew rapidly but with competition from the Bay Cities Transit Company seeking prime franchises from the City of Santa Monica, and made up of a group of 'Jitney' owner operators (much the same way as Green Bus Lines of New York did back in 1925).

A bankruptcy in 1950 forced Bay Cities to sell its assets to Santa Monica and the rest, as they say, is history.

Today, Santa Monica's 'Big Blue Bus' is considered to be one the finest (and most profitable) operations in the country serving many millions of commuters per year with lines extending as far as downtown Los Angeles.

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






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Mr. Linsky
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 21, 2009 3:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pictured below is fleet number 1204 - a very early thirties (or very late twenties) 37 passenger Versare built by the Versare Corporation of Albany, New York and operated for the Boston Elevated Railway Company of Boston, Massachusetts.

Little is know about Versare (a French word meaning Versatile) other than that they did build buses between 1925 and 1931 and eventually became a division of the Cincinnati Car Company.

However, they were ahead of their time in that they were one of the first to offer a gas/electric power plant.

It is said that in the brief history of the marque their coaches were sold throughout the U.S. and Canada and included not only Boston but Albany (NY), Montreal, Cleveland and New York City.

In that the name Versare is unfamiliar to me and competition from Mack, Twin, Yellow, White and ACF would have been impossible to surmount in those days, I would have to say that their efforts were meager at best.

Information and photo courtesy of the Walker Transportation Collection News.

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

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HwyHaulier




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PostPosted: Sat Nov 21, 2009 7:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mr. 'L' -

This brief account of Versare on Coachbuilt site. http://www.coachbuilt.com/bui/v/versare/versare.htm

In the photo here, a notable feature is the rear engine placement...

...................Vern..................
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Mr. Linsky
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 23, 2009 12:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Shown below in two poses is a one of a kind intercity design from Mack designated as the Model MV620D and built in 1958.

It was the time of the Justice Department's antitrust actions against General Motors that Mack saw the opportunity to cash in by offering its own version of GM's popular PD 4104 for both Trailways and Greyhound.

In fact, the coach did see demo service for Greyhound between Chicago and Los Angeles during 1958 but neither Greyhound nor, for that matter, any other operator sought to purchase a fleet of them.

At forty feet in length, the 39 passenger MV620D powered by Mack's own END-864 V-8 Diesel engine, featured all the latest amenities including Air Conditioning, Air Suspension, Lavatory and gold-anodized aluminum exterior trim.

After its test runs with Greyhound, the MV620D was sold to Schenectady Transportation for its Nationwide Tours division and then to a handful of other operators before being repurchased by Mack and restored for use as a shuttle for VIP's between Mack truck plants, and flagged as 'Bulldog Surface Lines' (note; this disposition was as of 1974 but it wouldn't surprise me if it were still on the job!).

Photos courtesy of Classic Bus Depot.

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


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roymanning2000



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PostPosted: Mon Nov 23, 2009 8:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mr. L,

Several years ago, Mack sold the MV620D to Charles Wotring of Mechanicsburg, PA. Mr. Wotring was the owner of Royal Coach Transportation, a small charter and tour operator.

He completely rebuilt the MV620D to its original condition and appearance, including the Greyhound dog and lettering. He was given access to all of Mack's records on the coach so when finished, it really was just like it left the factory. I believe the bus now resides in a private vehicle collection in Ohio.

Mr. Wotring no longer operates a charter and tour company. However, for many years, he has owned Royal Coach Buses, specializing in toy and model buses. Here is a link to their website:

http://www.royalcoachbuses.com/

Mr. Wotring also posts on the TrailwaysBusDriver Yahoo group.

Roy
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