Friday, March 27, 2009

Well, we are back from New York and my Mother's funeral. Still having NY on my mind (and thank goodness for HOV lanes--otherwise we'd still be sitting in traffic on the Staten Island Expressway!), I thought I'd discuss NY City Transit's Vintage Bus Fleet.

While chronological gaps in their collection certainly exist, when displayed together publicly, it is a most impressive array of bus equipment. The bulk of the vintage fleet is made up of a wide variety of "new look" or fishbowl buses, so named for their sleeker design from the 1960s. These models featured much larger windows than their predecessors. Rounding out the collection are two models from the next generation of advanced design buses. First making their appearance in the early 1980s, many are still on the road today. This includes the "RTS", the most common workhorse of the NY City Transit buses in use over the past two decades.

Here's a quick rundown of the fleet:

Bus #303 - 1917 Fifth Avenue Coach open top double decker bus (used 1917-1930)
Bus #2124 - 1938 Fifth Avenue Coach Queen Mary double decker bus (used 1938-1953)
Bus #2969 - 1949 NYCTA GM 5101 - photographed in the classic TV series "The Honeymooners" (used 1949-1966)
Bus #3100 - 1956 GM 5106 Fifth Avenue Coach (used 1958-mid 1970s)
Bus #6259 - 1956 Mack C49DT (used 1956-1969)
Bus #7144 - 1957 GM 5106 (used 1957-1971)
Bus #9098 - 1958 GM 5106 (used 1958-1972)
Bus #100 - 1959 GM 5301 Fishbowl (used 1959-1973)
Bus #1059 - 1961 GM 5301 Fishbowl (used 1961-1981)
Bus #2151 - 1962 GM 5301 Fishbowl (used 1962-1982)
Bus #3758 - 1963 GM 5303 2nd Generation Fishbowl (used 1963-1982)
Bus #5117 - 1964 Flxible F2D6V-401-1 (used 1964-1983)
Bus #8466 - GM 5303 (used 1966-1990)
Bus #8928 - GM 5305A (used 1968-1984)
Bus #4727 - Flxible 111CC-D51 (used 1969-1988
Bus #5227 - GM "Blitz" 5305A (used 1971-1995
Bus #7340 - Flxible 53102-6-1 (used 1973-1990)
Bus #236 - Grumman 870 (used 1980-1984)
Bus #1201 - GM RTSII-04 (used 1981 - Present)