[PRCo] Re: PAT's 1964 bus company acquisitions

Thu Mar 17 11:44:04 EDT 2011

Because they were cheap.....   

I think the price of a TGH-3102 was about $10,000 but a TDH-3612 was around $16,000 or more.   

And he probably knew how to change plugs and points and adjust timing.   It was a rather simple engine.   The old man would have had to learn all over if he bought a diesel.  

And that is just what you said.

On Mar 17, 2011, at 11:36 AM, Dwight Long wrote:

> Fred
> 
> A piece of vanishing (or I guess I should say vanished) Americana!
> 
> But why in the world would anyone want to buy a TGH in 1968?  
> 
> Our local bus company (Beaver Valley Motor Coach, successor in interest to Beaver Valley Traction) where I grew up was, as early as 1956, buying up all the second hand diesel buses they could afford--to replace gas Beavers that were in some cases less than 5 years old and for the most part less than ten.  The die had long since been cast for the diesel bus by the time your outfit bought a NEW gas one!  Very strange.
> 
> I suppose there are two plausible reasons:  1) Lower acquisition (but not long term!) costs; and 2)  Familiarity with gas but not diesel engines.
> 
> Otherwise, it makes no sense.
> 
> Dwight
>  ----- Original Message ----- 
>  From: Fred Schneider 
>  To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org 
>  Sent: Thursday, 17 March, 2011 11:10
>  Subject: [PRCo] Re: PAT's 1964 bus company acquisitions
> 
> 
>  That story reminds me of a tiny little bus company that was running out of Elverson, PA in the middle 1960s to Blue Ball and New Holland in Lancaster County and to Reading in Berks County.    The owner was the driver, mechanic, scheduler, jack-of-all-trades.  His schedule had him back in Elverson at lunch time so his wife could feed him.   Of course in the evenings he washed the bus.  I think the name might have been Tri County Lines because he might have also touched Chester County.   
> 
>  My wife was coming home from New Holland one evening and took him by mistake and discovered his fare was cheaper than Conestoga Transportation Company ... non union, of course.   We figured that the local farmers were helping him out with donations of food baskets.
> 
>  About 1968 his General Motors finally got enough orders to produce a run of TGH 3102s and his long on-on-order new bus arrived.   After that the old Marmon-Herrington became his spare, to be used on rainy and snowy days when he didn't care to risk the new bus.  
> 
>  Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), he died before the GM did.  Those gas GMs with their Oldsmobile engines and transmissions didn't live more than a few years but I saw some 1955 40-foot diesels in Philly still running in the mid 1980s with perhaps a million miles on them.   About 1969 I saw his GM sitting in a gas station / use car lot in Lancaster hunting a buyer.  I guess some church bought it.
> 
>  And the bus company?   Well, what could the PUC say when they found out after the fact that the company quit because all the employees had died?   Who are they going to take to court because it isn't running?
> 
>  That is just a little like the story of the Fairchance and Smithfield Street Railway, which, if I can remember Ed Lybarger telling me what he read in the PUC archives, the F&S wrote to the PUC saying something to the effect, "We quit running last month.   We ran of money.   Is that OK?"      
> 
> 
> 
>  On Mar 17, 2011, at 12:20 AM, Bob Rathke wrote:
> 
>> 
>> 
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Dwight Long" <dwightlong at verizon.net> 
>> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org 
>> Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2011 8:55:34 PM 
>> Subject: [PRCo] Re: PAT's 1964 bus company acquisitions 
>> 
>> Bob 
>> 
>> Carnegie Coach Lines was the last of the 29 independents acquired by PAAC.  It was a one man operation--the owner was the driver, mechanic, scheduler and every other position needed to run a bus company with five (mostly short) routes and two buses--a 1952 Marmon with a Chevy school bus as backup, both purchased used. 
>> 
>> Dwight 
>> 
>>  ----- Original Message ----- 
>>  From: Bob Rathke 
>>  To: Pittsburgh Trolley List 
>>  Sent: Wednesday, 16 March, 2011 18:57 
>>  Subject: [PRCo] PAT's 1964 bus company acquisitions 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>  In the Fall of 1964 I started to compile a summary of PAT bus company (and PRC) acquisitions that year - company name, location, date acquired and purchase price. My sources were articles in the Pittsburgh Press and input from some trolley fans who lived in towns along the acquired routes. 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>  I'm looking forï¿½ the final summary.ï¿½ In the meantime, attached are my incomplete working notes. Apologies for the messy presentation, but it's allI can find right now. 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>  Bob 
>> 
>> 
>> Dwight, 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Were you able to open the three Carnegie Coach newspaper articles that I attached to a recent e-mail to the Trolley List? If not, I can re-send them to your personal e-mail address. 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Bob 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>  -- Attached file removed by Ecartis and put at URL below -- 
>>  -- Type: image/jpeg 
>>  -- Size: 171k (175379 bytes) 
>>  -- URL : http://lists.dementia.org/files/pittsburgh-railways/PATbusAcquisitionReport1964.JPG 
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