I’m reading Richard Langsworth’s excellent history on Kaiser-Frazer “The Last Onslaught On Detroit” (first published in 1975, so I guess he didn’t consider Japan yet as a proper onslaught?). There’s no reference to this 1946 Kaiser articulated bus in it, but it reminded me that I want to give it a little exposure here. As a lover of buses, this one ranks way up there. It may not have been the first articulated bus of any kind, but it was very forward looking indeed. Magnesium body, supercharged diesel, air conditioning, and much more…
Here’s Henry J. Kaiser at the wheel, and enjoying that expansive view through the unusually large windshield for the times. Henry was a truly remarkable character, a classic American success story, having left home at thirteen with five borrowed dollars in his pocket to seek his fortune. Times have changed indeed.
Here’s a video of Henry greeting passengers, and of the bus in action, including passing on a good old three-lane highway, something that was eliminated some time ago.
Ray at classicbusdepot.com gives this thumbnail sketch on the Kaiser bus:
In 1946 Kaiser built a 60-foot articulated over-the-road coach was constructed as a speculation and operated between Los Angeles and San Francisco by Santa Fe Trail Transportation Co., a member of the National Trailways association. The body was constructed of a magnesium-aluminum alloy. A 6-cylinder Cummins diesel engine was mounted beneath the floor of the forward section, with a separate air-conditioning unit under the floor in the rear. There was space for 378 cubic feet of baggage in under¬floor compartments. Suspension was the so-called “Torsilastic” system of rubber bonded between the walls of concentric tubes, a design pioneered by Twin Coach and later used by Flxible and Bus & Car (on the Silver Eagle). The pilot was never duplicated; it operated in regular service until 1951.
The Kaiser Bus was a contract job between Kaiser Engineers and the Santa Fe Railroad. Like other western train lines, Santa Fe used busses to connect various areas rather than run regular train service between the cities. Busses were cheaper to operate on the low volume lines. They went into service during 1946-47.
As far as is known, all the busses were scrapped during the 1950′s. Their heavy % content of magnesium helped enhance their salvage value.
There is some disagreement as to whether just one or up to six were built. The bus ended its life in Trailways livery, until 1951.
Reminds me of the mythical creature “pushmepullu.”
Plenty of articulated buses on the streets here in Vancouver.
Where’s the swimming pool? I guess it wasn’t nuclear-powered, either. Sad.
Ever travel cross-country in a bus? It isn’t fun or desirable. While the vehicles are fascinating and good for short trips, unless it’s a charter motor coach, I vow never to try to travel on one again.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought of that movie while reading this…
My first thought on seeing the headline was that Kaiser came up with this to haul shipyard workers instead of the more common semi-trailer “bus”. I guess my worldview is too Portland centered what with the old Kaiser shipyards and Vanport. I do question the value of that big a bus for long haul routes, I recall the semi double decker Greyhounds from the 60s weren’t very successful, although I still treasure my Matchbox model.
The Scenicruiser was a “split-level”, in order to facilitate more baggage space below, as well as for stylistic reasons. It didn’t seat more than a conventional 40′ bus.
It was not just more room for passanger baggage..Greyhound buses also carry paying freight. Another 150+ Cubic feet of freight capacity adds additional revenue with zero effective marginal cost to run the bus.
So true. When in the air force, I had my component stereo and records shipped from St. Louis after I returned to California from being home on leave.
I packed all the components myself, very carefully in a very large box and mom and dad took it to the Greyhound terminal in downtown St. Louis and had it shiped to the Marysville, Ca. bus station.
I wanted it shipped REA (Railway Express Agency), but with the railroads’ passenger service prety deteriorated in the year before Amtrak, the bus line was the only way we knew of at the time.
My stereo arrived in perfect shape! I packed very well. For the record: E.J.Korvette Rolecor FM receiver, XAM speakers, Garrard 40 Mk II changer! Plus my record collection of, say, 30 LPs. This was spring, 1970.
After the California Zephyr quit running that winter, and before I found my avatar, the bus was how I got to and from Sacramento. I never got to ride in the classic Scenicruiser, but in the later versions on occasion.
For what it’s worth, before I met wifey, she worked for Trailways! Now, those Silver Eagles were nice coaches. Too bad the same type of people rode them as Greyhound.
Well yes; I meant baggage in the larger context. In fact, after the MC5/7 buses took over the main passenger hauling from the Scenicruisers, they were converted into mixed-use buses: a partition was put up about half way back, and the back half became strictly for parcel express hauling. The put in a big door in the rear. Used to see them come through Iowa City like that in the early seventies. It was the last work the Scenicruisers did for Greyhound before their retirement.
Langworth’s book on Kaiser-Frazer is on a shelf in my basement – I need to find time to dust it off and read it again. I recall it as an excellent account of the company.
What a great bus. I had no idea that this existed. I have seen some articulated busses around Indianapolis (which is reputed to have the most pathetic bus system for any city of its size anywhere in the counry) although none lately.
It would seem to me that this would be an ideal solution for medium length mass transit runs in places without good rail networks. Pave a new dedicated lane and run big, comfortable busses on it. A lot cheaper and more flexible (no pun intended) than trains.
Off topic, in my city (Grand Rapids, MI), the local bus system is attempting to get Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) off of the drawing table.
There’s been a lot of resistance to it, as taxes would go up in the city and the surrounding suburbs that are served by the bus system. The initial line would be one that runs in an area from downtown GR to one of the southern suburbs.
I would agree with critics that say that the coverage area is too small (and I live in the coverage area). But, OTOH, the bus system here can’t launch a half dozen routes simultaneously. It would be impossible to do so, at least with the amount of money they have now.
Back on topic, Henry Kaiser sounds like one heckuva guy. Need a big boat (Liberty ships)? No problem. When do you want it? How about a big bus? Sure. We’ll get right on that.
In a way it’s a shame his auto company didn’t survive here in the States. We could have used the competition in our own market.
Eugene is a BRT pioneer. We have two lines running, and planning several more. Way cheaper than light rail. I’m a bit surprised they didn’t buy natural gas burners instead of diesel; I guess they didn’t see the drop in gas prices coming.
Folks generally love it, except for the businesses along the route, because of the impact during construction.
Paul do your systems have a self-steering function for the buses on their specialist routes? Have a look at the O-bahn in Adelaide, they can do 60mph self-steering on just the one 7.5 mile dedicated section of ‘track’.
Interesting reading on this bus, compared with current similar layout city buses the small windows would save a lot of weight too. I can’t see the video currently, but does 3-lane highway mean a shared/split passing lane in the centre?
No; but I’ve seen/read about that. Our system is a “hybrid” BRT, in that it spends a considerable part of its time also mixed in with traffic, as well as dedicated bus lanes on some of the streets. But the drivers gave to be pretty good with the steering, it’s anarrow lane, and it jogs fairly abruptly along the way. I suspect the steering in these is much quicker than the old buses I once drove.
Yes, three lane highways had a shared passing lane; essentially first come, first served. All too often, that rule didn’t get obeyed. Lots of grisly accidents, with no escape route.
They were once seen as a big improvement, probably in the forties. But many were later converted either to four lanes, or the third lane was dedicated to only one side or the other, depending on terrain. We still have that in the mountains here; essentially an uphill dedicated passing lane. Some of those sections do allow one to pass on the other side’s passing lane, if there is no one in sight. Few folks do that anymore; they’ve lost the knack, or even knowing that it’s possible.
Cheers Paul. The buses in Adelaide do run on conventional roads also, the dedicated busway comprises only part of the route. Haven’t been on it myself but have driven on roads parallel so you get the occasional glimpse of it, being in a stretch of park or bushland for the most part.
Same scenario here on some highways, 3rd lane on uphill sections or for passing, often a sequential length for each direction, line-marked etc. Need more of them really, many 2 lane highways get too crowded for overtaking – too many city drivers who have never overtaken on a 2 lane highway around.
“Yes, three lane highways had a shared passing lane; essentially first come, first served. All too often, that rule didn’t get obeyed. Lots of grisly accidents, with no escape route.”
Ha ha! “Suicide lanes” is what dad called them! We had that on a section of U.S. 40 through Chesterfield, MO in the plain before the Missouri River and on sections of U.S. 66 west of St. Louis. They were paved over and converted to four lanes when I reached driving age in 1967.
I do recall on Sunday drives with mom and dad how, when dad was passing someone in the middle lane and there was an oncoming car, how mom’s and myself’s eyes would be as big as biscuits and our knuckles white as snow until dad eased back into the right lane!
Sure glad those are all gone – along with those rounded curbs they put on the U.S. highways that, while supposed to ease you back on the road if you were getting sleepy, would either cause you to over-correct and flip over, hit a tree, or do a head-on into the guy coming in the other direction!
Whew!
Natural gas can be used in conjunction with diesel as mandated in India to clean up emissions perhaps the buses will adopt that system in future
“Henry Kaiser sounds like one heckuva guy. Need a big boat (Liberty ships)? No problem. When do you want it? How about a big bus? Sure. We’ll get right on that.”
HJK was so effective during the war because it was all-out do-or-die wartime. If I’m not mistaken Gen. Eisenhower lamented how much harder it was to get things done as President compared with being a General. HJK must have felt frustrated in the peacetime car business.
PS: Only slightly off-topic, I have a new nephew – first-name Henry, last name starts with J. Looking forward to finding Henry J logos and little cars when he’s a little older.
The other thing that had driven a lot of Kaiser’s previous success was that it was primarily in B2B or government contract work. While bidding can be a very competitive process, once you’re selected, you know who your customer is and how much of your services or how many of your products they’re likely to buy before you get to work or begin full-scale production. (Of course, there are always cases where the contract gets canceled or cut back, either due to budget cuts or because the customer decides that your product will be obsolete by the time it’s ready to go, but those are more the exception than the rule.) While that kind of work has a lot of challenges of its own, it’s very different from making consumer products, where there’s no guarantee that anyone will buy your goods at all. A lot of the strategies that can pay off for contract work don’t necessarily go over so well for consumer products.
…which basically explains why kaiser-permanente healthcare is the one successful part of the empire still running.
There was a lot more of the can-do spirit abroad in the land in those days. People snicker about third-world countries and how you can’t get anything done there without bribing everyone you deal with, but I suspect that those people have never had to wait for an environmental impact statement or get the approval of the local Indian tribe and the shorelines commission and the EPA to get a project started, while the payments still have to be made every month.
We have bendy buses I didnt realise they existed this long ago, i see it has a self steering trailer with only one axle how was that rigged Ive towed quads, 4 axle trailers where the two rearmost axles self steer and they tow really well on twisty roads and do not cut corners. Must look this up for more info thanx Paul.
Good luck. Not much more info available. If I had to guess, I suspect that the rear steering may have been via a mechanical linkage. I could be wrong.
On the MAN coach, which was used in Chicago, Denver and San Francisco, the trailer section had a steering linkage tied to the fifth-wheel.
A brief overview of the model I’m familiar with here:
http://www.chicagobus.org/bus/7300
…and back to the subject of articulated buses, I find it interesting that their only use nowadays, at least in the US, is as transit buses in and close to big cities. Bus travel just isn’t what it used to be, I guess – there may not be enough intercity bus passengers to fill an ordinary bus let alone an articulated one or a Scenicruiser.
Public Transit carries a stigma in the US for many people.
If you’re commuting from the burb’s to the core in a metro it can be workable. When I worked downtown in Sacramento awhile ago I enjoyed talking the light rail; it added to commute time but I was able to use the time to study. If you are commuting between peripheral citys it is often not worth the hassle.
Low cost airlines have significantly diminished long haul bus service. Playing around with both websites a round trip from Sacramento to LA a month from now costs $45 on Greyhound or $75 on Southwest. Most people will happily pay the $35 more to not sit on a bus for 7-8 extra hours.
It’s not a stigma, it just sucks for most people in this country. We have a boarder who has epilepsy and can’t get a license. To get to the nearest grocery store in what takes me less than 10 minutes in my car takes her 3 hours and the same amount for bus fare as what it costs me in gas, You see, first you walk 4 blocks to the nearest stop, buy a $1.50 fare and a 25 cent transfer & ride the bus to the downtown hub, wait at that hub for the next bus that passes by the grocery store, and then ride to your destination. Reverse and repeat. Wait times at the hub are usually 45 minutes, as the bus you want will invariably leave 5 minutes before you get to the hub. and the bus routes are all 45-60 minutes long.
You guys need to play Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas.
Seattle’s Metro Transit uses articulated buses all over the city and on many inter city routs, such as out to Bellevue from Seattle, over half of its fleet are articulated and they have been a major proponent of their use since the late 70′s.
Sound Transit operates coaches, non articulated for buses that ply the interstate between Tacoma and Seattle but DO use articulated buses for shorter trips between cities and in downtown Seattle. Community Transit up in Everett sometimes uses double decker buses to get between Everett and Seattle.
Three weekends ago, I took the bus down to Tacoma so Mom and I could try to get pre-approved for a car loan (long story on that as we thought she would need to be a co-signer but ended up not needing to be one) and that meant I had to take the 6:37AM bus from Capitol Hill downtown via Metro to transfer the Sound Transit bus to get into Tacoma and then take Pierce Transit to Tacoma Community College so Mom could pick me up as my throttle was very iffy after crapping out the previous weekend after the big series of storms.
It took about 2 hours to do all that and the next weekend after I’d had the Mazda a week, I drove the truck down to get it traded in Friday after work and took the bus BACK to Seattle (same buses, different times) and got my car, the laundry and drove right back down!
I also commute to work via Metro most days of the week (except for the past 2 weeks). None of our buses do the auto steering thing but some ARE hybrid buses to be used in the transit tunnel downtown.
As for this bus, very cool and I didn’t know articulates had been around that long.
BTW, according to Metro, they have one of the highest concentration of articulated buses in any bus fleet anywhere. Also, thanks to Sound Transit, light rail and commuter rail (that shares BN rails) help to augment the buses to ferry people around the Sound and we have the common Orca card to pay for the fares and it’s so easy as all you do is ensure it’s filled and it electronically deducts the fares as you tap the readers with your card and it will also serve as a transfer where appropriate and all fares are less using it than with cash. I have one for work, and a personal one for personal trips, such as getting from Seattle to Tacoma and Vise Versa.
we have bendy buses here in nyc. they cause a lot of gridlock at the intersections. also, it must be frightening to ride in one at highway speed. even in the pr piece on the old newsreel paul linked to, it looked like a helluva bouncy ride!
btw, hybrid buses are taking over here. i think the latest ones are natural gas / electric. i have no idea who builds them. they look like giant bricks. they must be a real pita to drive but nobody ever gets over 20 mph here anyhow.
Years ago, as a Denver bus driver, I often piloted a 60′ (I think) articulated MAN coach. German design, built in a plant in Cleveland, Tennesee – to meet a bid by a consortium of cities including Denver and San Francisco. So, if the Kaiser bus didn’t make it, the idea sure did. The MAN had a diesel flat-six under the floor, and while it was loud inside, it was pretty near indestructible.
Denver now has other articulated coaches; not sure of the manufacturer. I quit driving to go work on the railroad 15 years ago. But many major cities have used them; including Toronto, which has a GM-design “pusher” articulated bus, engine in the rear section.
But…others have played with this idea. Wayne Works had, in the twenties, a fifth-wheel-design coach…put on a tractor; the passenger area would be managed by a conductor. No photos exist of one (of that era) but online, somewhere, there’s a promotional sheet scan.
And Wayne resuscitated the idea in 1972 for an Arab order for a 100-foot fifth-wheel coach, to move oilfield workers to the jobsite. Just one…