Trolley Bus Department

Two new acquisitions arrived this past week.  The first is Bee Line 512.  Historically, the focus of the Motor Bus Department has been exclusively transit buses.  This is our first intercity bus.  It is a Yellow Coach Model 743 (Our first Yellow Coach), built in 1939 and just oozes 30's inside and out.  Photos simply don't do it justice.  There are so many little details, you could look at this coach 10 times and find something interesting every time.  Yellow made 1,256 of these and ours coincidentally is serial number 1256.  It will be stored in the Hoffman Garage so visitors will be able to see it.

Bee Line 512 - 1939 Yellow Coach Model 743 - Front View - Photo by Richard Schauer (10/22/2015).

Bee Line 512 - 1939 Yellow Coach Model 743 - Rear View - Photo by Richard Schauer (10/22/2015).

Bee Line 512 - 1939 Yellow Coach Model 743 - Interior View - Photo by Richard Schauer (10/22/2015).

The second is a Twin Coach Model 40 from St. Louis Public Service, coach number 3529 (x529).  This one was built in 1932 and seated 40, which was an unheard of number back then.  Over 1,000 of these were built but only 4 survive and only 2 of those are complete.  Ours and one beautifully restored at a museum in Tucson, AZ.  For both coaches, we do have the parts that appear to be missing such as bumpers and headlights.

St. Louis Public Service 3529 (x529) - 1932 Twin Coach Model 40 - Front View - Photo by Ray Piesciuk (10/24/2015).

St. Louis Public Service 3529 (x529) - 1932 Twin Coach Model 40 - Rear View - Photo by Ray Piesciuk (10/24/2015).

As you can see from the photos, both these coaches need work.  However, we feel they are significant enough to be saved and added to our collection.

With these new arrivals, it is necessary to maximize the indoor storage that we have in the Andersen and Hoffman Garages.  We came up with a plan to put more buses than ever under cover.  For the first time we are mixing motor buses and trolley buses in both garages for the simple reason of fitting them into the garages more economically (space-wise).  Of course this means moving virtually every single vehicle in our collection.  Yesterday's moves completed our reorganization of the Andersen Garage and we started on the Hoffman Garage.  We hope to complete the moves within the next couple weeks.

I would be remiss if I didn't thank Richard Schauer, who assisted in unloading the two new coaches and was the driving force in the planning and executing of the garage rearrangement.  He also supplied the historical and technical information on the coaches.  I don't know what we would do without him!!  Thanks also to Greg Kepka, Vince Allen, Fred McGullam, Thomas Slater, and Joel Ahrendt.  They were a HUGE help in getting so much accomplished yesterday.  Also a shout-out to the track guys who finished using the big forklift and bought it over for us and to the Steam guys who lent us their small forklift for working in the Andersen Garage (the big forklift won't fit through the doors there).