[PRCo] Re: Old Greyhound film

[Dwight Long]

Fred

The Dog was still using Silversides on the intercity runs making local stops 
in our area of western Pa. well into the mid-50s.  However, I do not know if 
they were PD 3751s or PD 4151s.  I did not, and still would not, know the 
difference unless I counted seats.  Perhaps more of a bus fan could tell, 
but I could not.

Ah, yes, the PD 4104--the Highway Traveler.  Not nearly as distinctive as 
the PD 4501 Scenicrusher, but a more practical and reliable bus. And a lot 
more of them were built!  Unfortunately, not all of them were rest-room 
equipped as I discovered to my great dismay and pain on a trip in 1957. I 
think my thighs still have the scars from compressing them so tightly.

On that same trip I rode in a few of the double engine Scenicrushers. One of 
them, on an Indy-St. Louis leg, required stopping about every 75 or 100 
miles for remedial action, including addition of some sort of fluid, which I 
suppose was for the coupling between the two engines.

As you probably know, in latter years of Scenicrusher use by GL, most if not 
all of them were converted to "combines" with a substantial section of the 
pax carrying area sacrificed to space for carriage of Greyhound Express.  I 
recall seeing these in Chicago in the 70s, but never rode one.  And, to my 
regret now, I never fotted any of these models, and even more sadly, never 
recorded the Beavers that formed the roster of the successor to Beaver 
Valley Traction nor the Twins that the successor to the SEL&BVT owned (they 
later got some GM Suburbans but sold them just before they went out of 
business with the pre-war Twins finishing out the service).

Dwight

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Fred Schneider" <fwschneider at comcast.net>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementix.org>
Sent: Wednesday, May 23, 2012 9:29 PM
Subject: [PRCo] Re: Old Greyhound film


>I remember photographing those PD 3751 Silversides, Herb, but I think I 
>only rode one once.   By the early 1950s in my area, they were pretty much 
>restricted to rush hour and extra use.
>
> The regular equipment on the Philadelphia - Pittsburgh US 30 locals that 
> ran through Lancaster were PD 4103s built in 1951 for the Pennsylvania 
> Greyhound.   Most of the turnpike expresses were using Air Ride PD 4104s 
> by 1953 or 1954.
>
> About August, 1955 Central Greyhound was exhibiting a brand spanking new 
> Scenicruiser at Parkersburg, WV when I was visiting my grandparents in 
> Marietta, Ohio.    I was still heavily into taking bus pictures in the 
> spring of 1956 and then I lost interest not long after that.   Up until 
> then I could bore people to death citing model numbers.
>
> A day's drive from New York?   My father claimed he averaged about 30 
> miles per hour on vacations in the 1950s.
>
> I am not sure when route 22 became four lane across as far as Lebanon, NJ. 
> The Pulaski Skyway goes back to the 1930s and that connected the Holland 
> Tunnel with Newark.   Newark is 25 miles from midtown New York.   It's 
> another 63 miles from Newark to Phillipsburg.  That probably took  two 
> hours.  The expressways around Easton, Bethlehem and Allentown were not 
> built until the 1950s.   So that bus had to drag through the city streets 
> and over two-lane roads.  And four lane route 22, which is today's I-78, 
> from Harrisburg to Allentown was not built until the middle 1950s … in 
> fact what was there was a dirt road until the mid 1930s and a mix of 
> asphalt roads into the 1950s.   The preferred bus route was probably 
> through Reading to Harrisburg …. 128 miles from Phillipsburg.   In 1945, 
> once you were outside the cities, you could push that bus at 45 to 50, but 
> you had miles and miles of cities and towns.   My guess is 5.5 hours 
> including terminal time in Reading and Allentow!
> n plus 2 hours from New York … 7..5 hours New York to Harrisburg.   (The 
> Pennsylvania Railroad would do New York - Harrisburg in 3.5 hours.)   Then 
> it was probably another 5 hours to downtown Pittsburgh … 12.5 total.
>
> Anybody got an old Russels Guide to tell me how wrong I am?
>
>
>
> On May 22, 2012, at 10:56 PM, Herb Brannon wrote:
>
>> Now that was probably a "days drive" on all those two lane roads. I can
>> almost smell the fumes inside that PD4151.
>> On Sat, May 19, 2012 at 10:36 PM, Fred Schneider 
>> <fwschneider at comcast.net>wrote:
>>
>>> Nice film that Peter Folger found ∑  It begins in Manhattan and ends at
>>> the old art deco style Greyhound terminal across from the post office at
>>> Grant and Liberty in Pittsburgh
>>> some of you may detect the fact that a westbound Hound entered Allegheny
>>> Mountain and then emerged from Blue Mountain Tunnel running eastbound 
>>> about
>>> 75 miles east of Allegheny Mountain before making the rest stop in 
>>> between
>>> at Midway Service Plaza (Bedford).   Immediately after Bedford we see 
>>> the
>>> bridge over route 119 at New Stanton.
>>>
>>> The nice thing about it, to me, is the memory of the Turnpike with the
>>> grassy medial strip and very little traffic.  This was a 1945 
>>> Encyclopedia
>>> Britannica film.   My father's memories of the turnpike during the war 
>>> was
>>> that the turnpike commission was rather fearful that they would be 
>>> unable
>>> to collect enough tolls to pay off the revenue bonds because of war time
>>> gas rationing.   My dad had to drive it a couple of times to get from 
>>> Penn
>>> Township to the B&O station in Ohio Pyle to catch a night train to
>>> Baltimore on business during the war and remembered that "if you passed
>>> another car on the turnpike, [there were so few other cars that] it was
>>> probably a policeman."   I have personal memories of a picnic along the
>>> side of the turnpike around 1946 or 47 ∑ traffic was so light you could
>>> easily walk across the road.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> "The Bus Driver" 1945 Encyclopaedia Britannica Films.
>>>
>>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgun6pcVoEE
>>>
>>> Peter Folger
>>> 157 Alfred Street, Apt. #1
>>> Biddeford, ME 04005-3225
>>> transitman at maine.rr.com
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> Herb Brannon
>> In Cuyahoga Valley National Park
>>
>>
>
>
>