Does anyone remember riding on one of these buses? The caption of the photo identifies it as a GM bus. Anyone know more about these buses? I used to ride on them in Kingston, Ontario. The main thing I remember is that the transmission - I assume it was automatic - shifted very abruptly, as if the driver were revving the engine and dropping the clutch. When the transmission shifted from 1st to 2nd the shift would be so abrupt it would almost knock you off your feet. 2nd to 3rd - same thing. I'm surprised little old ladies weren't injured on these buses. Maybe they were. I don't think it was the driver doing this because all the buses were the same. This photo is from 1967. By the time I was riding them in the late '70s they were covered in multiple layers of grey paint.
I lived in the city in the midwest. While my wife, GF then, rode school buses and buses shopping when I had the family car at work, I rode very few buses. Those were with little old ladies on AARP trips. Back in your bus riding days I'm sure little old ladies were tougher than those of today. They chopped wood, walked to the well for water, washed, cleaned, and cooked long hours. Today's little old ladies knit and watch soap opras.
True. I remember one time going to school and the bus lurched and I dropped my writin' slate and chalk and they broke in half. Teacher gave me a whuppin' when I got to school - wait a second, Cat! I'm not that old!
MY wife walked to school across muddy cornfields to a one room school house in lower Minn. In Illinois she rode a school bus about two miles every day before I met her. I felt sorry for her and started taking her home. That was my first mistake! I was under the mile bus limit so had to walk thru rain, slush, hot sun, muck, mud, and snow up to my cuzzo uphill......both ways, across busy RR tracks and a main highway. . My last year and half of high school I worked, saved, and bought my first car. I didn't know any better and we called the buses "farmer buses" thinking only the rural farm kids rode them. However, and this ain't no lie, I remember our desks with a hole for an ink well, straight pens to dip in the ink, and wearing gullases with those nasty metal clips. I remember actually learning cursive, the Palmer Method, and readin, rittin, and rithmatic. Every day we went outside for gym (PE) And iffin we were bad we had to stand in the classs room closet. I was never bad so don't know what was in the closets. We had recess and old Chinese men showed us how to use a Yo-Yo and sold them as cheap as $1. Other men sold switch blade knives and many people who live on the other side of the school yard cut thru to go shopping. No fences, crossing guards, guard dogs, police cars , or cops. We had a real playground with a tall sliding board, swings, monkey bars, a teather ball pole, and other dangerous things to have fun on. Evan metal bike racks. Only problem I remember was crazy Ruddy stuck his tongue on the cold monkey bar one winter. We carried metal lunch boxes or pails. As far as I know no one was killed with a dinner bucket, pocket knife, Y0-Yo, or carried drugs, other than aspirin and cough drops. This may not be true because I think I read it someplace.
I remember the Santa Monica Municipal Bus lines had those, in various configurations in the 50's, until they replaced their entire fleet with the newer GM's. I didn't ride the bus much, but when I did, it was mostly on these during the 60's:
So I think I've found the answer to why the transmission on these buses was so abrupt. Ain't the internet great! Quote from this article: "The Allison V-Drive has a wide-range torque convertor, which allowed the engine to spool up to almost maximum rpm on full-throttle take off (almost the only kind). Depending on gearing (and the whims of the particular transmission), at somewhere between 25 and 35 mph came a powerful clunk/lurch into direct drive. The reason it was so noticeable, is because top gear was a direct mechanical connection; the torque converter was locked-up or bypassed, for efficiency. That meant that the engine dropped quite a bit in the rpm band, and any further acceleration was leisurely, to say the least. Top speed on transit buses was 45 – 55, depending on gearing." Just as I remember it! The article includes a diagram of the Allison V-drive transmission placement: Apparently the bus I remembered is called the "Old Look" GM bus and began production in 1940. Followed by the "New Look" bus, not surprisingly. This is how I remember the Old Look buses looking in the interior: The author of the article says they were in service in Los Angeles and Southern California "probably right into the early eighties". Probably just as long as they were in service in Eastern Ontario.
I used to ride in a bus like that to and from junior high school. Certain girls with questinable reputations would always ride at the back
