(first posted 11/18/2017) I would imagine most readers would assume this “double decker” bus must be from the UK….or perhaps one of the “colonies” – Hong Kong? Actually, this is a 1936 Model 720 Series bus built by the Yellow Coach Corporation of Chicago Illinois. At the time this bus was built, Yellow Coach was majority owned by General Motors (GM would purchase the company outright in 1943). Given its exquisitely patinaed livery, this looks to be one of the famous double decker coaches operated by the Fifth Avenue Coach Corporation of New York City from 1934 to 1953.
Fifth Avenue Coach has a storied history in the Big Apple. It provided transit service starting in 1896 until 1954, using both regular coaches and specialized double decker models. It was considered a “premium” service – where five cents bought a ticket on other bus company lines, it cost a “dime” to ride on Fifth Avenue.
While the company had its own coachworks that assembled double deckers, in the 1920’s they began transitioning to buses from the Yellow Coach Corporation – like this 1930 model.
The last double deckers in service with the company were these Yellow Coach Corp. 720/735 models; 96 inches wide, 35 feet long, and almost 13 feet tall. Passenger capacity (seated) was 72. These were some of Yellow’s first transverse rear-engined models using Dwight Austin’s innovative angle drive. Austin had joined Yellow in 1934 after leaving Pickwick – and brought the patents for his angle drive with him. The engine was a big 707 cu in GM OHV gas inline six cylinder. This engine family was first introduced in 1933 and came in four sizes (cubic inches): 468, 525, 616 and the big 707, and was used in various GM truck, bus and industrial applications. The 707 made 174 hp @2100rpm, and a mighty 505 lb.ft. of torque at 1000rpm.
Similar to San Francisco’s cable cars, these double deckers were an iconic symbol of the city. But by the early Fifties, they were getting tired, and the last models were taken out of service in 1953.
In 1954, Fifth Ave Coach was sold to the New York City Ominbus Corp. The new company elected to replace the double deckers with diesel-engined GM Old Looks, certainly more cost effective to operate, but not quite as distinctive.
Interestingly, in the mid-1970’s, NY City Transit Authority (CTA) purchased eight Leyland A-N-68A-2L Atlantean double decker buses as a pilot program to see if it could bring back some of the old magic. It didn’t – the Leyland’s proved less than reliable and were retired several years later.
Fortunately NY MTA retained a 735 for its historical fleet and No. 2124, fully restored, is brought out on special occasions offering passengers a nostalgic ride down Fifth Avenue.
Very impressive. Looks far larger than the listed dimensions.
Thanks for this. I’d seen glimpses of one or two in old photos of NY, but never pursued what they were. It fills in a gap, and a big one at that. I bet they were fun to drive with manual steering and a crash-box transmission. But then that’s what the London bus driver dealt with for so many decades. Not an easy job.
A full crash box is quite easy to drive mostly in crawling city traffic not so nice, Wilson reselect trans were in many British brands
Thanks for the interesting history, details something I’ve only seen in photos and old movies. Quite impressive vehicles.
Yellow Coach also tried to enter the taxi market with a stretched version of the 1936 Chevrolet sedan. Apparently not a success as they didn’t carry on the next year. Checker and Desoto Skyview already had it sewed up, though that didn’t stop Packard from trying in the 1940’s, only to end in failure too.
Actually, the stretched Chevys continued through model year 1938. According to the Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942, the taxis after 1930 no longer used the Yellow name and were referred to as General Motors Cabs.
Cool bit of New York City bus history. Nice to see one was preserved!
The top photo is definitely a Fifth Avenue Coach, If you kinda sorta squint, you can almost make out “Fifth Avenue”! ?
Where did you find this old gal?
I found it posted on a vintage bus website Hector – unfortunately it didn’t say where the picture was taken – I’d have likely bought a ticket there to see if it was for sale….Jim.
What a curious beast. I would have seen this on occasional trips to The City, in the early ‘fifties — but I guess I only had eyes for cars, at that point. The design of this coach is most interesting: the side elevation is nearly symmetrical, coming close to a double-ended design. The overhang is almost equal at both ends — note where the window post falls, over the front axle (aligned) vs the rear one. (Yes, the front and rear designs differ substantially, it’s true.)
What is curious is the prominence of the rivets (bolts ?) of the bodywork, in the opening shot; we don’t notice them in any other photo shown. I really like this piece of work — almost Steam-punk meets Hi-tech ? The only concession to “styling” is the (again symmetrical) dropped beltline between the wheels.
To me double decker buses make more sense than a long articulated one for large passenger carrying capacity. Take up less road space.
A previous London mayor introduced single-deck articulated Mercedes-Benz Citaro buses into the capital. They failed on several counts – they needed a greater turning radius, so routes were restricted, the multiple entry points meant an alleged increase in fare-dodging, they had a propensity to burst into flames, and they weren’t double deckers, which are of course “real” London buses.
The next mayoral candidate made the replacement of bendy-buses with a “new Routemaster” one of his key election pledges, and thus Boris Johnson achieved his first major political appointment. His new Routemasters were poorly designed, over-priced and unpopular, but bendy-buses are gone for good..
I always learn new things thru this site. Today it was a double header!
New York had double decker buses in regular service and they were American made!
Alex I want bus trivia for 500!?
Never heard of them either. Quite fascinating, and seems compact. Love the abandoned one.
We had Leyland double-deckers (in cream and green also) after they got rid of cable trams in Melbourne (Aus) in 1940. They lasted only 15 years. They could only hold only half what a tram could, people didn’t want to sit upstairs, and they kept hitting poles and wires. My dad recalls that on heavily cambered roads, they would come to a stop resting on the edge of shop verandahs. In fact, some of that damage was still visible on their route into the ’70’s. Finally, the belching diesels had trouble climbing hills loaded. They looked good, but a total failure, and replaced by electric trams.
Remarkable fact; the upper decks were designed to be detachable in case needed for war requisitioning!
Some of those Atlanteans finished up in New Zealand theres one painted green promoting an Irish pub here in Napier and I saw a red version twice in the South Island last year the first time was in Springs Junction it had come over the Lewis pass, I saw it again a couple of weeks later hooked to a towtruck near Akaroa having failed to make it up a quite steep hill, the Commodore I was in worked hard on that hill I can only imagine how hard it was for the double decker loaded with tourists.
Sydney had the Atlanteans as well. Not a success, very unreliable if I remember correctly. Back then, lots of British automotive efforts were at best mediocre.
Hard to understand why? Altanteans ran for many years here in the UK.
I don’t understand why either, British city buses ran all day in stop start driving and clocked up astronomical miles.
The MTA had a pilot program to bring back doubledecker buses in 2008. They were Van Hool buses.
http://www.mta.info/press-release/nyc-transit/mta-nyc-transit-and-mta-bus-test-new-double-decker-bus-customer-service
Thanks George – didn’t know that. Jim.
Wow, how cool :
American made no less =8-) .
-Nate
(who still rides the bus now and then)
I think these were the ones nicknamed “Queen Mary”. Henry Austin Clark’s Long Island Auto Museum had one in the 60s and 70s, since I saw it around 76-77 on a vacation trip.
I don’t know who makes these open-topped double deckers, but they’re a fairly common sight here in the touristy areas of Miami and Miami Beach.
Fascinating , didn’t know the US built double deckers. They are still a common site in the UK, as a kid in the 70s we always wanted to ride on the top deck, it is an entirely different view point and can be quite exciting as the sway is exaggerated upstairs. In hilly Wales you can really get thrown about by an enthusiastic driver, it feels like you move sideways 6ft as you round the tight corner.
When we used to catch the bus to school, about 20 kids would fling themselves to the outside of the turn to make it sway even more, just the daft things kids do I suppose.
Fortunately the designers must have foreseen this as the angle it takes to actually tip one of these things over is extreme
Are you certain that 2124 has been ‘fully restored’? I ask because it has not been a part of the annual MTA BusFest for many years now. I posted several photos on the BusTalk website in 2010 when I visited the former dedicated maintenance facility for all the historic bus fleet in Brooklyn. At that time it was undergoing a ground-up rebuild with all the windows and interior stripped out. The underframe had been refurbished as had the engine which was still to be reinstalled. When I next visited New York in 2013 I was advised that the facility had been closed down and the fleet dispersed to other MTA depots. During my first visit another Fifth Avenue Coach Co double decker, 303, a 1917 Model A was also undergoing major rebuild work to the rear platform and stairs. Neither bus, to the best of my knowledge, has featured in the BusFest since then. The only double decker known to have taken part in recent years is 1263, a Yellow Coach Z type. A clue to the possible condition and present location of 2124 is a piece on “The Newtown Pentacle” website of May 4 2015, which shows two photos of it being pulled over the Grand Street Bridge by a heavy MTA Mack tow truck. It was still completely stripped, the only difference since I saw it in 2010 was an all over grey primer paint job. The photographer, Mitch Waxsman, speculated that it was being towed to the MTA Grand Street depot. If you visit the website you’ll find it under ‘DUGSBO, Down under the Grand Street Bridge’ Any news of its present state would be very welcome.
Where was the traffic in that opening shot? Well, it was 1943, with gas rationing, millions of men under arms and more and more people working in factories, not in downtown offices. The traffic dried up, pollution must have been reduced greatly as well.
Can you buy an HO-scale model of these NYC double deckers?
remember riding them as a kid during the summer. We would travel from the Bronx to Manhattan where we would catch the double decker bus and ride it to the last stop in Manhattan. The view from the front of the bus, over the traffic, was spectacular
You can catch a glimpse of these buses in an amusing 1947 Roy Del Ruth movie called It Happened on Fifth Avenue, with Don De Fore, Ann Harding, and Charlie Ruggles.
I never knew double-decker buses were once a NYC thing as well as a London thing. They still look incredibly tippy to me, like you better not take curves or corners too quickly. Did the bus driver ever re-distribute the passenger load if too many people were upstairs but the lower deck was lightly loaded, like they sometimes have passengers change seats on a half-empty plane if the weight is poorly distributed?