I came across the below interesting, short twenty-two minute industrial video on Youtube the other night – it’s a recruitment film made in 1947 by the Los Angeles Transit Lines (LATL), the predecessor to today’s LA Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), to recruit new operators. It’s interesting on a couple of levels; it’s in color and shows some great street scenes from that era, and it highlights operation of a trolley car, and both diesel and electric trolley buses. If you’re a trolley or bus fan, grab your change maker and operator’s cap and pull up a chair…
As was mentioned in the film, the trolley is a Saint Louis Car Company H4 model. It was in service with LATL from the late 1920’s to 1955. It had four electric motors, hence the H4 designation. It was 41 ft long and could seat 44 passengers. Fortunately, several have been preserved at various railway museums.
1941 GM (Yellow Coach) TDH 4502 (Canted Windshield)
1940 GM (Yellow Coach) TDH 4501 (Flat Windshield)
The gas/diesel bus looks like a 1941 or immediate post-war 1945 GM TDH 4502 Old Look. While it could be had with a gas engine, after 1940, most came with the more economical 6-71 inline diesel. These pre and immediate post-war models had “bug-eye” extended headlights rather than the flush-mounted ones seen on updated post-war versions introduced after mid-1946. The later post-war models also had a vent above the front route sign for the “Thermo-Matic” heating and ventilation system. For more on the Old Look, check out Paul Niedermeyer’s superb post here.
Brill TC-44 in service in Dayton
The trolley bus is a ACF-Brill TC-44, forty of which LATL bought in 1945/46, and served faithfully until 1963, where still going strong, they were sold to Mexico City. There they trundled along the streets for another decade.
A fun video. That last shot with the bus was kind of ominous – the end of the trolley was not far off then.
It is interesting to see the number of prewar cars still on the road in 1947. There are stories in my family of an aunt and uncle as a young couple who were still driving a Model A every day as late as 1950-51.
Wonderful!
Funny to watch LA in 1947 with no conductors on the tram, or buses. In Melbourne, Aus, the transport unions here were very powerful, and conductors removed only in about 1995, to great public consternation. Even then, we got a (stupid) auto ticketing system, and drivers are still in separate little cabins even now.
Rather remarkably, it was pretty normal to catch trams that looked much like these up until about 7 years or so ago, though certainly not on all lines. By then, they were locally made ones dating from the ’40’s, the ’20’s jobs having all gone about 10 years earlier. That business of having to put the trolley pole back onto the wires happened a bit, except I don’t remember Melb trams having some nice retractor system for the rope!
Very nostalgic to hear the old “dugga-dugga-dugga” noise of the underfloor compressor for the brakes in the video, though to prove nostalgia is not as good as it used to be, that intermittent racket actually always woke me up on a longer ride just when I didn’t bloody well want to be!
That video was great, thank you! I just returned from a trip to L.A.; my how things have changed.
I remember the street car system in Baltimore, it existed until 1963 but I don’t recall their “trackless” trolley system; I think it ended before my time. The recurring thought that I have is thinking about how much maintenance that catenary (over-head wire) network must have taken.
Reminded me of my days as a city bus driver. The training was a bit briefer, but the intensity and stress of my first time out driving the public, and dealing with making change, fares, transfers and such while staying on schedule was captured well in this film.
You may not be surprised to know that the office got a complaint or two about me driving too fast. 🙂 I liked to get to the end of the line every half hour so that I could read my book for a few minutes.
But on the other hand, I had zero accidents, unlike one or two of my new driver cohort.
I assume you must have scored a New Look for your first day, as I doubt you could do much speeding in the Old Look 🙂
I’ve been meaning to ask you – I can remember a couple things from my bus riding days and was curious if you did the same;
I remember at the end of route turnarounds, the drivers pre-punching the times on the transfer tickets so that they didn’t have to take the extra time during stops – I guess this shaved a few minutes off the tickets but helped them stay on schedule. Did you do that too?
Again at the turnarounds, I remember drivers putting the Old Look buses in Park or Neutral, then heading off to use the restroom at a nearby gas station or restaurant. When coming back, it was a real tussle trying to get the bus out of Neutral and back into Drive. Lots of gear crunching. Most gave it one or two tries with lots of Grrrrrrrr. Then just giving it a strong yank back with produced louder crunching, then a big “thunk” when it went into gear. Did your Old Looks do this too?
Iowa City Transit was of course pretty small. They had 12 35′ New Looks, and two 40′ New Looks, and an ancient steel-ride 40′ Old Look as an emergency backup. We were trained on a 35′ New Look.
Because it was dominated by the university, in the winter the bus schedule was increased, to every 20 minutes instead of every 30 minutes. They would lease a number of 40′ Old Looks (with air ride) from a private company. This was all new to me; it might have been the first year they did that, or maybe I just never noticed, as I used to never ride the bus. It surprised me when these old buses just showed up.
As a new hire, I was a relief driver, a different route every day. One day shortly after these old buses showed up, I was ferried to downtown where all the buses converged, and saw that my route was being served by an Old Look. I just got in, tried to adjust my seat so I could see out the windshield enough to see the street lights, and took off. After only driving New Looks, it felt very odd: like I was in a big submarine with very small windows.
The steering was substantially heavier, and they were of course slower. But they rode great, and were great in the snow. One day it was snowing, and I actually passed the bus on my route that was supposed to be 20 minutes ahead of me. Of course I was determined to stay on schedule, and drove like a fiend.
The complaints I got about driving too fast came from an old lady after I got my regular route, with a 35′ New Look.
And once or twice, I drove that steel-ride back-up 40′ Old Look. Now that was a revelation! It rode like a big old empty truck; really harsh. The difference was day and night. No wonder air-ride revolutionized the bus industry. In order to accommodate a jammed-full bus, the steel springs had to be very stiff. An air ride bus just keeps pumping in more air. Prefect for the job.
Yes, the transmission levers could a balky, sometimes badly so, as you describe.
I was very relaxed about transfers. I don’t think I ever punched them or looked at them. I really didn’t care. 🙂
I’ve forgotten; where did you drive?
Thanks for all the great info. I can imagine riding in that steel sprung Old Look was definitely bone-jarring.
I never drove for a transit company, so never had the chance to drive an Old or New Look – but since we didn’t have a car in our household when I was growing up, it was the bus pretty much every day…Old, New Looks and up until 1965 Marmon-Herrington trolley coaches.
Closest I’ve come was occasionally driving 29/44 pax school bus types in the Air Force.
Thanks again. Jim.
I remember the “trackless” trolley, which we called electric bus, in downtown LA. They were in light green MTA livery by my time.
Where would a film like this be shown? Unemployment office? High School career day?
That’s a good question. I assume with all the Vets returning after WW II, it was primarily aimed at them – and shown at Vet Halls, etc. Jim.
I recall trolleys running down Frederick Rd in Catonsville MD back i 1964 but were gone by 1966. To us kids they were big green monsters that ran down the street and then made a right turn into the forest. Just like a monster it disappeared into a forest but today that forest might be different.
The video above, where they are trying to make their connection with the overhead lines, is very familiar as that is done in San Francisco. Saw that all the time in the City between 1989-1999 when living there. The City still has trolleys come out to run special routes in the summer.
A red one. I have ridden the cable cars, the trolleys, the electric buses, and the diesel buses.
If you find yourself in Southern California and would like to ride in many types of Los Angeles streetcars:
https://www.oerm.org/