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| W.B.'s Bus Almanac for August 27th (350424) | |
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W.B.'s Bus Almanac for August 27th |
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Posted by W.B. on Wed Aug 27 05:26:41 2025 August 27, 1956 - The Book of First Runs Manhattan, New York Fifth Avenue Coach Lines, Inc. Test runs begin on an experimental air-conditioned demonstrator bus numbered 3200, with a display at City Hall Plaza in the morning, and a special run (on which Manhattan Borough President Hulan E. Jack made a trip) from Fifth Avenue and 110th Street to City Hall. The bus, an air-suspension modified TDH-5105 and designated EXP-305, had a colorful history dating to 1950 as TDH-5103 (serial #0001) and went around parts of the country, beginning with tests in Detroit for the Department of Street Railways (DSR) in 1951 (a page with a photo of this bus at Columbus Circle can be found here). It also made the rounds in Washington, D.C., where it formed the basis for that city's first order of air-conditioned buses (likewise TDH-5105). During its time in New York, 3200 plied several FACL routes including 5 - Fifth Avenue-Riverside Drive and 15 - Jackson Heights. While the tests have some success, 3200's 102-inch width falls afoul of New York regulations of the time which prohibits such buses on their roads and it is subsequently returned to GMC. This bus will ultimately be sold in 1958 to New Orleans Public Service, Inc. (NOPSI) where it would be numbered 1967 and remain in service well into the early 1970's. (Sources: "Cooled Bus to Be Tested," The New York Times, August 26, 1956; "Air-Cooled Bus Starts Test Here," The New York Times, August 28, 1956.) |
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