Bus Nostalgia

[NS VIA Fan]

Greyhound operated through interline trips all over North America with a multitude of carriers’s.  In most, but not all cases, the pool carrier equipment had to be up to Greyhound standards, and be in a similar blue, white, and silver color scheme, even if the “regular” scheme differed.

SMT (Eastern Limited) buses did indeed come into The Port.  IIRC, at one time there was even a summertime thru trip all the way to Halifax, involving Acadian Lines.

Another “exotic” pool was a New York to Quebec City via Newport, Vermont with Quebec Central Transportation Company.

Thanks for that!

And I was going to ask you what the ‘Roll-Sign’ on those thru buses to Moncton, Saint John and St. Stephen might have displayed……but checking this out:

http://www.rollsigngallery.com/350-Intercity/Greyhound/page350-Greyhound.html

……It was just “Maritimes”…and I seem to recall seeing this on Greyhounds heading up I-95.

(And that roll-sign in the link above….almost as fun as watching the old Solari Board at Grand Central flip through all those long gone named trains and destinations !!)

 

[NS VIA Fan]

Is it correct to say though that the only benefit of this design is that passengers get a front window?

Here’s another bus designed to give passengers a better view…at least in the first couple of rows. (...and stock photos in that brochure. No mountains like that here!)

 

[trainman74]

(And that roll-sign in the link above….almost as fun as watching the old Solari Board at Grand Central flip through all those long gone named trains and destinations !!)

Guess they didn't have any buses terminate in Tampa -- it's not on the rollsign. (St. Petersburg is.)

 

[ehbowen]

Is it correct to say though that the only benefit of this design is that passengers get a front window?

Hey, it looked cool. Styling is everything.

Greyhound still has (or at least had, about ten years back) one of these buses in working condition as a heritage piece. I got to see it during a convention in Houston. The restroom was in the rear of the lower section, driver's side (Edit: Wikipedia says passenger side. My memory could be faulty, but I'd want to see pictures before I acquiesce.). The upper section did have good views, but leg room in the front row (with the best view) was limited. Passengers in the lower section had to contend with the upper portion of the front wheel wells, which intruded into the seating area and limited leg room. The dropped lower section cost the line a potential storage bay for luggage and ($ more importantly $) express.

So, yes, I guess you can say that the only benefit of this design is that passengers got a front window. You can judge its success by the fact that after the mid-50s when the newness had worn off, the design was discontinued.

 

[NS VIA Fan]

The Transcontinental Routes....with Thru Buses including: NY-LA, NY-San Diego, SF-Boston, Wash-LA etc....

 

[jis]

So I was finally able to jog my memory about names of Greyhound buses back in the '60s... AFAIR

The single deckers were called Americruisers.

The original 1.5 deckers were called Scenicruisers, and the upgraded ones were called Super Sceicruisers.

 

[railiner]

Thanks for that!

And I was going to ask you what the ‘Roll-Sign’ on those thru buses to Moncton, Saint John and St. Stephen might have displayed……but checking this out:

http://www.rollsigngallery.com/350-Intercity/Greyhound/page350-Greyhound.html

……It was just “Maritimes”…and I seem to recall seeing this on Greyhounds heading up I-95.

(And that roll-sign in the link above….almost as fun as watching the old Solari Board at Grand Central flip through all those long gone named trains and destinations !!)

They varied the roll sign's by the division that owned the coach.  I recall earlier EGL coaches having "St. Stephen" on the roll.  That was the end of the line for GL, with SMT (Eastern Limited), beyond there.  I recall the generic "Maritimes", not sure if they ever had a "Halifax", or other maritime cities on the roll.

 

[railiner]

Here’s another bus designed to give passengers a better view…at least in the first couple of rows. (...and stock photos in that brochure. No mountains like that here!)

View attachment 10925

View attachment 10926

View attachment 10927

In manufacturer, General Motor's parlance, the 35 foot PD-4107, was referred to in sales brochure's as the "Luxury Liner", and the 40 foot PD-4903 version, the "Super Luxury Liner"...

Bus fans refered to them as "Buffalo's" or "Batmobile's", in some area's....

 

[railiner]

So I was finally able to jog my memory about names of Greyhound buses back in the '60s... AFAIR

The single deckers were called Americruisers.

The original 1.5 deckers were called Scenicruisers, and the upgraded ones were called Super Sceicruisers.

The official name of the General Motor's PD-4501 built exclusively for Greyhound was the Scenicruiser.   When they were rebuilt in 1961 and 1962 by Marmon-Herrington, with the new Detroit Diesel 8v-71 replacing the twin 4's, amongst other improvement's, Greyhound dubbed them Super Scenicruiser's.   The single level PD-4104's originally called Highway Traveler's by Greyhound, and the new PD-4106 were dubbed Scenicruiser Service.   Later on, when the MCI MC-7 came out, it was dubbed the Super 7 Scenicruiser,  followed by the MC-8 Americruiser, and then the MC-9 Americruiser II.   MCI called all of them "Challenger's", replacing the previous name "Courier" used in Canada.   There was also a limited production MCI MC-6, built only for Greyhound called the Supercruiser.   Going back into the later '30's, 40's, and early '50's, Greyhound used names like Supercoach, and Silverside, for GM and Yellow predecessor models...

 

[NativeSon5859]

Sorry to resurrect this old thread, but would anyone happen to have screenshots of old Greyhound/Trailways schedules from New Orleans from the 80’s that they could post? Thank you!!!

 

[Willbridge]

Sorry to resurrect this old thread, but would anyone happen to have screenshots of old Greyhound/Trailways schedules from New Orleans from the 80’s that they could post? Thank you!!!

I'll take a look. In the meantime, this looks like the place to post this trip report from what now seems like a long-vanished era.

 

[railiner]

I'll take a look. In the meantime, this looks like the place to post this trip report from what now seems like a long-vanished era.

Thanks for that enjoyable read... brings back memories of my own in the sixties thru 70’s, “riding the cushion’s” across the country...

 

[Willbridge]

Thanks for that enjoyable read... brings back memories of my own in the sixties thru 70’s, “riding the cushion’s” across the country...

By the time I made the "post-Pioneer" trip GL had already reduced the number of stops and the number of trips on a lot of routes, including DEN<>PDX. You were riding when they were living off the rail passengers and package express that was handed to them due to train-offs.

The highlight was during the 1972-75 Energy Crisis. In February 1974, GL carried as much traffic in Oregon as in the previous summer and they called back all their furloughed operators to do it. Riding the Portland <> Salem Commuter Club bus on Friday nights in '74 a colleague and I would count the extra sections headed south: first usually the Portland>Albany>Newport run, then three sections on the premiere SEA >PDX > SFO overnight run and then sometimes two sections of the SEA > PDX > LAX Trailways Golden Eagle. And, because our bus was a charter (Hamman Stage Lines), we could raise a glass of wine to toast each.

I rode a lot of local GL and TW trips in Oregon, Washington and northern California between 1961 and 1976 (minus a couple of years away in the Army) when there were still some business travelers on those lines. Due to the low load factors it could be comfortable and in Oregon smoking was prohibited anywhere in the bus. During that era I made two overnight bus rides, Bozeman to Portland and PDX>SFO via the Coast Highway. The Bozeman trip was because the North Coast Hiawatha, try-weakly, ran on the wrong dates for my business. The Coast Highway fare was the same as via Medford or via Klamath Falls and it was Spring Break, so why not?

ALL of the above is gone now, except for bits and pieces run by independent or state-sponsored carriers and a single GL overnight PDX > SAC > LAX run in the premiere timeslot.

 

[railiner]

Sorry to resurrect this old thread, but would anyone happen to have screenshots of old Greyhound/Trailways schedules from New Orleans from the 80’s that they could post? Thank you!!!

I just noticed this request...sorry, but my timetable collection and old Russell's Guides are back in my Queens "archives"...haven't been back there since New Years...

 

[Willbridge]

Sorry to resurrect this old thread, but would anyone happen to have screenshots of old Greyhound/Trailways schedules from New Orleans from the 80’s that they could post? Thank you!!!

I don't know if you are still interested, but attached are what I have. Table 589 is complete, the others are condensed tables. These are all from the 70's. I do have some Official Bus Guides from the 80's, but they scan terribly. If it's a specific question that you have, I might be able to look up the answer for you.

 

[hlcteacher]

i went to school in idaho and took greyhound all the way all the time...thanks for the memories (cleveland, oh to caldwell, id) wonder if i have any old schedules around her (printed by call and post publishing in cleveland) will have to look

 

[NativeSon5859]

I don't know if you are still interested, but attached are what I have. Table 589 is complete, the others are condensed tables. These are all from the 70's. I do have some Official Bus Guides from the 80's, but they scan terribly. If it's a specific question that you have, I might be able to look up the answer for you.

Thank you very much! These are perfect.

 

[cocojacoby]

I have been wondering lately how well Greyhound is doing during this shut down. Can't think that a long confined bus ride filled with strangers getting on and off along the way is not a breeding ground for diseases.

I thought they were close to the edge before this. They got to be hurting. Amtrak might be the only option on some routes.

 

[Willbridge]

I have been wondering lately how well Greyhound is doing during this shut down. Can't think that a long confined bus ride filled with strangers getting on and off along the way is not a breeding ground for diseases.

I thought they were close to the edge before this. They got to be hurting. Amtrak might be the only option on some routes.

They're hanging in there, but owner First Group had them up for sale before the pandemic.

Most western main lines are down to one bus a day, although that's still more than independent lines that had suspended service.

It's an interesting twist, but Amtrak lines often were the only service already. As the long-distance networks of both bus and rail have been continually reduced (rail since 1917 or so, bus since the late 1960's), a situation has evolved in which smaller centers have only Amtrak or one intercity bus company. That's one of the reasons the politics of long-distance train service have started to change. The remaining transcons each have stretches where they are not paralleled by an Interstate and the bus industry has found that customers loathe not being on an interstate.

 

[Chazcop]

Whenever I see train scheds from the 50s or bus scheds from the 70’s I still shake my head...hard to believe we lost all that!
Re bus scheds I’ve written the owner of Russell’s Guides several times about making a copy of say the Summer of 1958 avail as a reprint (I have that but it’s so fragile that I am afraid to touch it ) but he has not been interested. Too bad...we can access many old Official Railway Guide reprints for free via Google—download them—or send away for DvD ,copies thru hobbyists.

 

[railiner]

Whenever I see train scheds from the 50s or bus scheds from the 70’s I still shake my head...hard to believe we lost all that!
Re bus scheds I’ve written the owner of Russell’s Guides several times about making a copy of say the Summer of 1958 avail as a reprint (I have that but it’s so fragile that I am afraid to touch it ) but he has not been interested. Too bad...we can access many old Official Railway Guide reprints for free via Google—download them—or send away for DvD ,copies thru hobbyists.

Agree...every time I access my 1959 Russell’s, the pages crumble away.
The NY Public Library does have an excellent set of them , now on microfiche, in one of their archive locations, but its a royal pain to get an appointment to access them. I don’t believe they think there’s enough interest to digitize them.

 

[Caesar La Rock]

Whenever I see train scheds from the 50s or bus scheds from the 70’s I still shake my head...hard to believe we lost all that!
Re bus scheds I’ve written the owner of Russell’s Guides several times about making a copy of say the Summer of 1958 avail as a reprint (I have that but it’s so fragile that I am afraid to touch it ) but he has not been interested. Too bad...we can access many old Official Railway Guide reprints for free via Google—download them—or send away for DvD ,copies thru hobbyists.

I also shake my head too at how much we lost. Greyhound cutting all service in Western Canada is just another nail in the coffin for the Hound. I feel bad for the drivers, cleaners, and mechanics who likely lost their jobs because of those cuts. To this day no one has a solution to the possibility of what happens if Greyhound faded away all together? Would Amtrak be in a situation to pick up the slack? Another example, at one time, all of New Jersey had some sort of bus service and it was served by actual buses rather than paratransit vehicles or vans like what has become of some bus routes in New Jersey today. I don't have any old schedules or maps of buses, but I do have a bunch of scanned slides of them. Maybe I'll post a couple here.

 

[railiner]

New Jersey, being the most densely populated state in the union, still enjoys much better than any other state, when it comes to both bus and rail public transportation. Some of these paratransit vans serve places that never had public transportation. When comparing now, and what used to be...you have to consider that back then, most families had one car, or even none. Now there may be one for every driver in the family...