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| Bus Tales From The Early Days Of MaBSTOA 1968 (199862) | |
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| (199866) | |
Re: Bus Tales From The Early Days Of MaBSTOA 1968 |
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Posted by heypaul on Sun Jun 27 06:59:22 2010, in response to Bus Tales From The Early Days Of MaBSTOA 1968, posted by SUBWAYSURF on Sun Jun 27 02:41:54 2010. Great story. I didn't know that your father worked on buses. And it really was cool to have been able to hang out at the garage as a kid. You got a feel for the behind the scenes side of transit, which was a world of its own. I worked for many years in the garage at Railway Express and a midnite to 8 shift was a whole nother world. I really learned how to curse there. If a wrench slipped off a nut and the mechanic skinned his knuckles, he would usually let loose with some highly charged sexual remarks. I have fond memories of working there. The mechanics enjoyed their beer and were just down to earth friendly guys. |
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| (199873) | |
Re: Bus Tales From The Early Days Of MaBSTOA 1968 |
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Posted by BigBusDriver on Sun Jun 27 10:18:53 2010, in response to Bus Tales From The Early Days Of MaBSTOA 1968, posted by SUBWAYSURF on Sun Jun 27 02:41:54 2010. The snow bus would get crewed up and loaded with sand/salt and as the bus was rolling, the operators would actually shovel the muck out the open holes in the floor! No fancy spreaders, just muscles! 132nd St(NOT Manhattanville) used a fishbowl. Most of the rear windows were removed for when the "spreader" function was needed. No safety chains or ropes, just warnings: "You fall, you walk back to the depot.... IF you can!" Seniority necessary-about 120 years on the job!The other senior job was the money room. Pre vac days, when vaults were pulled by hand, moved by hand, sorted by hand and counted by machine. Do a vault, have a beer. Repeat as necessary, until the money was done, or the beer ran out! Now, THOSE were the days.... |
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| (199883) | |
Re: Bus Tales From The Early Days Of MaBSTOA 1968 |
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Posted by Mr Mabstoa on Sun Jun 27 12:44:13 2010, in response to Bus Tales From The Early Days Of MaBSTOA 1968, posted by SUBWAYSURF on Sun Jun 27 02:41:54 2010. Thanks Surf. I always enjoy speaking to does with real stories from the past. There's a guy I drove with in Amsterdam whose Father was a streetcar operator for Third Avenue. |
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| (199888) | |
Re: Bus Tales From The Early Days Of MaBSTOA 1968 |
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Posted by SUBWAYSURF on Sun Jun 27 14:30:30 2010, in response to Re: Bus Tales From The Early Days Of MaBSTOA 1968, posted by Mr Mabstoa on Sun Jun 27 12:44:13 2010. Maternal grandfather: Conductor Third Ave El, my Mother has a great hand written log of an incident when his train got switched to the subway portal and lost power. Gotta find that, Mom never throws anything out.Paternal Grandfather: One of 3 architectural engineers that designed the Concourse IND. He wanted 4 tracks the other 2 said lets make it 3 to save money and make our selves look good. Majority ruled the rest is history. The money was there for the asking IND construction was a giant cash cow, one of the reasons it was so overbuilt. Almost immediately after the Concourse line opened the crowds made it apparent that it should have been 4 tracks. Every time my Grandfather saw those guys, until the day he died, he would walk up to them and say just one thing "I told you so", no handshake or other social niceties, turn and walk away. The original IND planners intended for the Concourse to be 4 tracks one look at 145th St lower level is proof of that. So I guess you could say: 2, brown nosing, ass kissers only concerned for themselves are the reason the Concourse IND has 3 tracks. My Birthday October 27th. Same date the IRT opened in 1904 (I'm younger though, by a year or so 8-)). When I was a new volunteer at the NYTM the Curator thought I was some deranged foamer when I told him my Birthday. He told me this a few years later. No wonder I'm a bus and subway fan. It's not as if I have any say about it. With me it's positively genetic. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. |
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| (199891) | |
Re: Bus Tales From The Early Days Of MaBSTOA 1968 |
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Posted by SUBWAYSURF on Sun Jun 27 14:46:49 2010, in response to Re: Bus Tales From The Early Days Of MaBSTOA 1968, posted by BigBusDriver on Sun Jun 27 10:18:53 2010. You speak the truth. My father tells a story about how he and a co-worker. went out in a tow truck to pick up an old look. My father driving the tow truck and the partner sitting at the wheel of the bus. My father starts driving, about 3 blocks later he see's the other guy running alongside the tow truck. Turns out the guy in the bus "forgot" to release the parking brake on the bus. My father took off, tearing the entire face of the bus off, below the windshield. Let us just say they both may have had a beer or two to chase down a quart of Seagram's 7 consumed earlier. Whole thing was swept under the rug. This was 1959 IIRC and my father only had 2 years seniority. Yeee hah. |
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| (199893) | |
Re: Bus Tales From The Early Days Of MaBSTOA 1968 |
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Posted by SUBWAYSURF on Sun Jun 27 15:02:04 2010, in response to Re: Bus Tales From The Early Days Of MaBSTOA 1968, posted by heypaul on Sun Jun 27 06:59:22 2010. When I had to stay in the garage. I would pick a bus sit in it change the signs. If a bus i chose didn't have enough air I would start it up to charge it up so I could play with the doors. I did prefer playing pretend in the, then brand new, fishbowls. But the old looks were also very cool with their massive amount of toggle switches to the left of the driver. Fishbowl controls were remarkably simplified 2 large chrome dials with a black start button. Position the chrome dial push start and you're off. The floor buttons for the directionals fascinated me too. I liked when the bat-wings started to come in with their push button side sign control. No more cranks to turn! Being the curtain sign freak I am I thought this was great. |
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| (199894) | |
Re: Bus Tales From The Early Days Of MaBSTOA 1968 |
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Posted by heypaul on Sun Jun 27 15:03:59 2010, in response to Re: Bus Tales From The Early Days Of MaBSTOA 1968, posted by SUBWAYSURF on Sun Jun 27 14:46:49 2010. Sounds a lot like Railway Express. You found a home when you went to work there. |
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| (199895) | |
Re: Bus Tales From The Early Days Of MaBSTOA 1968 |
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Posted by heypaul on Sun Jun 27 15:15:30 2010, in response to Re: Bus Tales From The Early Days Of MaBSTOA 1968, posted by SUBWAYSURF on Sun Jun 27 15:02:04 2010. Did the old looks have a mechanical hand brake that you'd have to pull forward or up, or did they have a button that would only release the brakes if the pressure was above 60 or was it 90?I used to shift tractors around the garage at the Railway garage at 21st near 10th, right alongside the High Line. One night I had to move an International tractor, which usually had an air operated parking brake. This one had a mechanical pull arm, that I released even though the buzzer was warning that there was no pressure. I glided into a pole, coming close to taking out a mechanic. It taught me to be more careful about moving without having air. In later years, we got some GMC over the road diesel tractors. I got a real bang out of them as they sounded just like a bus. In your father's day, if you finished your job early and could show 8 hours of work done, could you retire for the evening on a midnight shift? |
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| (199902) | |
Re: Bus Tales From The Early Days Of MaBSTOA 1968 |
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Posted by WayneJay on Sun Jun 27 16:11:07 2010, in response to Bus Tales From The Early Days Of MaBSTOA 1968, posted by SUBWAYSURF on Sun Jun 27 02:41:54 2010. Great story! Thanks for sharing. I used to live 1.5 blocks from the original West Farms depot on Vyse Ave in the late 1970s. I'd often walk over to the depot, especially on weekdays when buses were pulling in after the PM rush hour. It was cool watching them line up along Boston Road as well as Vyse Ave to pull in. Then watching them vacuum the farebox, go through the wash and the drillers take them over to the other building to park them. I also remember when they used to park a many of teir buses outside the depot along 176th Street and on Crotona Parkway. In those days WF's fleet was mainly: TDH-5303 Approx 6515-6582, '75 Flxible 7878-7917, '70 Flxible 4600-4663, '77 Flxible 9185-9204 and scattered GMC 5303s from the 5201-5525 group. |
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| (199903) | |
Re: Bus Tales From The Early Days Of MaBSTOA 1968 |
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Posted by BigBusDriver on Sun Jun 27 16:56:40 2010, in response to Re: Bus Tales From The Early Days Of MaBSTOA 1968, posted by heypaul on Sun Jun 27 15:03:59 2010. You found a home when you went to work there.Yup. That's the OLD MaBSTOA. One of the young guys that hired on right before me took a shortcut one day, and went down a street that wasn't an authorized bus route. Got stuck behind a double parked truck, and took his bus UP on the sidewalk, to go around. Dropped the ass end into a sidewalk elevator, and called for a road truck. Road truck guy says he needed a tow truck! While he was waiting, he took off and had a "few" (more....) Tow truck and bosses show up, and he ain't around. Shows up a little later, and says "I'm off duty, and couldn't drive the bus anyway!" Amazingly, after the smoke cleared, he still had a job! Good Old MaBSTOA! |
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| (199904) | |
Re: Bus Tales From The Early Days Of MaBSTOA 1968 |
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Posted by BigBusDriver on Sun Jun 27 17:04:35 2010, in response to Re: Bus Tales From The Early Days Of MaBSTOA 1968, posted by heypaul on Sun Jun 27 15:15:30 2010. Mechanical hand brake. You used to pray that the guy you relieved wasn't Gorilla Monsoon, because if he jacked that sucker up HARD, you needed help to get it released!If your relief was a minute man, you would jack it up on him, to bust his .... chops! The buttons came IIRC with the Flexibles. 9000 series I believe, but I might be wrong. The ones I remember had both ratchet and air valve button. GMC Old Look and Fishbowl were ratchet only. Oh, and the old Flex's, GM's and Blitzes all had NO power steering. |
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| (199937) | |
Re: Bus Tales From The Early Days Of MaBSTOA 1968 |
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Posted by heypaul on Sun Jun 27 22:11:56 2010, in response to Re: Bus Tales From The Early Days Of MaBSTOA 1968, posted by BigBusDriver on Sun Jun 27 16:56:40 2010. You said the OLD MABSTOA. How were things run when Fifth Avenue ran the buses. Did they run a tight ship?One of the bad things about working at Railway Express was that you began to doubt that you could ever work for a real company. We would look at UPS and realize that we worked in a dream world. |
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| (199938) | |
Re: Bus Tales From The Early Days Of MaBSTOA 1968 |
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Posted by heypaul on Sun Jun 27 22:14:27 2010, in response to Re: Bus Tales From The Early Days Of MaBSTOA 1968, posted by BigBusDriver on Sun Jun 27 17:04:35 2010. Did the mechanical hand brakes ever freeze up in the winter time? Even with a car, I seem to remember telling you not to set them in freezing weather. |
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| (199974) | |
Re: Bus Tales From The Early Days Of MaBSTOA 1968 |
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Posted by BigBusDriver on Mon Jun 28 03:10:17 2010, in response to Re: Bus Tales From The Early Days Of MaBSTOA 1968, posted by heypaul on Sun Jun 27 22:11:56 2010. Didn't really know anyone from Fifth Avenue Coach, but I never really asked! I'm sure some of the Old Hands were first generation, but I never asked. |
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| (199975) | |
Re: Bus Tales From The Early Days Of MaBSTOA 1968 |
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Posted by BigBusDriver on Mon Jun 28 03:13:54 2010, in response to Re: Bus Tales From The Early Days Of MaBSTOA 1968, posted by heypaul on Sun Jun 27 22:14:27 2010. Never heard of a bus hand brake freezing. A car would because, apparently, the cable was more exposed under a car than the cable under a bus. At least thats what I've been told. |
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| (199977) | |
Re: Bus Tales From The Early Days Of MaBSTOA 1968 |
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Posted by SUBWAYsurf on Mon Jun 28 04:48:39 2010, in response to Re: Bus Tales From The Early Days Of MaBSTOA 1968, posted by BigBusDriver on Mon Jun 28 03:13:54 2010. One other thing I recall from my experiences at the REAL West Farms was parking the buses outside, because of no space, in very cold weather. They had to keep the buses running. Was this to prevent the diesel fuel from gelling? |
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| (199978) | |
Re: Bus Tales From The Early Days Of MaBSTOA 1968 |
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Posted by SUBWAYsurf on Mon Jun 28 04:52:32 2010, in response to Re: Bus Tales From The Early Days Of MaBSTOA 1968, posted by BigBusDriver on Sun Jun 27 17:04:35 2010. Hah, my father always used to say they had power steering made by Armstrong.I think about 75% of todays drivers wouldn't cut it if they had to drive back then. |
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| (199980) | |
Re: Bus Tales From The Early Days Of MaBSTOA 1968 |
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Posted by SUBWAYsurf on Mon Jun 28 05:04:40 2010, in response to Re: Bus Tales From The Early Days Of MaBSTOA 1968, posted by BigBusDriver on Mon Jun 28 03:10:17 2010. My father started with the subsidiary "Surface" in 1957. In 1962 MaBSTOA appeared. The rest is history.Did you know the reason the TA kept MaBSTOA as a separate entity is so the employees are not civil servants. To this day it is the only part of the TA in the city that is not civil service. Today the TA uses it to place all kinds of employees that they don't want to be civil servants. For example, employees of the NYTM paychecks are all employees of MaBSTOA. IIRC, it's the same with property protection people that are street hires. The MTA also maintains MTA bus separately for this same reason. MaBSTOA used to be the only arm of the TA where spouses received passes to ride free, hold over from private ownership. Is this still true? |
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| (199992) | |
Re: Bus Tales From The Early Days Of MaBSTOA 1968 |
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Posted by BigBusDriver on Mon Jun 28 08:47:40 2010, in response to Re: Bus Tales From The Early Days Of MaBSTOA 1968, posted by SUBWAYsurf on Mon Jun 28 05:04:40 2010. Back in the day, spouses did get passes. But, no more. |
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| (200007) | |
Re: Bus Tales From The Early Days Of MaBSTOA 1968 |
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Posted by TheHat on Mon Jun 28 11:14:57 2010, in response to Re: Bus Tales From The Early Days Of MaBSTOA 1968, posted by SUBWAYsurf on Mon Jun 28 04:52:32 2010. I think they would and save some money at it too. The B/O nowdays would save on gym membership after working out on a Flx new look, hell I'd be in better shape driving those. |
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| (200026) | |
Re: Bus Tales From The Early Days Of MaBSTOA 1968 |
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Posted by Mr Mabstoa on Mon Jun 28 14:09:05 2010, in response to Re: Bus Tales From The Early Days Of MaBSTOA 1968, posted by SUBWAYSURF on Sun Jun 27 14:46:49 2010. Oh yeah. No matter what depots are always havens to drinking even with drug testing. Its part of the flavor of every depot. As a super once told me every depot has a drinking area/club.I imagine before randoms it was much more open! |
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