Great video. Love that bus, the sound of the engine, the style, everything. I remember riding on these buses back in the late 70's. Thanks spectacular66 for uploading this wonderful video.
I love how the old jimmys Rattle and bang going over bumps. Always held together for the long haul. I damn sure miss seeign them on the regular. GM Truck and Bus Division for life!!!!
Around 1961 in Cincinnati, I remember as a child, these newer GMC buses (they were called "Dreamliners") replacing the older GMC "orange" buses. I loved the sound of the engine and would always sit in the front of the bus so I could watch the driver and listen to the sounds that were made by the "Grant Electrolock Farebox with Vault". Those fareboxes were fun to watch (the coins would follow a path down and go around a wheel) and all of Cincinnati Transit's diesel and trolley buses had them.
this baby sounded real nice and had some gitty up , smooth shift , brings back memories of back in the day . Wished a few were still around here in my city ..
This video was uploaded on the exact date it was recorded. Back in the 2010 Christmas season the NYCTA put out a number of their vintage fleet buses on select routes in each of the five boroughs, rotating every week. I managed to find and ride two of them that season, 1059 and 5227.
@gmcbuses From 1980 on New York City Transit should of bought all of the buses WMTA was retiring, rebuilt them, and used them to increase the fleet service increases, kept them in service 8 years longer. In 1979 all of the 5301s should of been rebuilt that NYCTA had. They could of ran till 1987. More should of went into the museum fleet. RTS buses bought through 1987, should of been only to increase the fleet.
1:00 People don't realize how good these busses accelerated when they are maintained well. Detroits are amazing engines that can take abuse and lack of maintenance and still keep on going. In the northeast, these busses idled almost around the clock in the winter, so who knows how many hours some of them had racked up.
@WMATAvids Come to New York City, for 10 days. They are running on 2 routes in each borough. You can make some fantastic videos, that will rival TTC2353s videos.
I like these buses. The thing that GM should have done was that when they built them, they stated that if they added the wheelchair lift that they had to take the opera window out that sat behind the door. I find that to be rubbish. Also if they would have built these with a Lift-U lift, they could have remained in production. Also what would have also saved them was the relocation of the motor for the windshield wipers. If they would just take the right hand one out and relocate the left one, that would have settled the air pressure problem since both wipers would have been running at once and would be no draw on the air lines leading to the brakes. These had some good visibility out the windshield.
@gmcbuses If not for Pataki with that emissions thing. I think that was pure utter BS, because they could of ran with the low sulfer diesel fuel. As far as the accessable thing, the strategy then should of been to have them ride para transit, giving them portal to portal service, 100 para transit vehicles running in each borough. These buses wher still being made in Canada. More should of been bought from there, from 1979 on. 50 Flexible, RTS buses purchased each year to shut up the activists.
sadly i never got to ride a gm fishbowl.they had retired in my are norfolk va around the same time i was born.i did get to ride the flxble new look though
