images courtesy my.net-link.net
(first posted 2/5/2014) This is not the typical school parking lot in 1964. Except for that lone Rambler in the front, every vehicle here is a Chevrolet or Pontiac Stageway Coach stretch wagon, ready to take fourteen boys back to their respective homes. Not their paternal homes, but the various “group homes” they lived in, as Milton Hershey was strictly a boarding school, but the residences were not at the campus.
The full story is here, but the short version is that Milton Hershey, located in Hershey, PA., is a residential school that serves children from low-income and social-need homes. Prior to 1962, Milton used buses to ferry the kids between their various houses and the school, but by switching to these Armbruster/Stageway wagons, each house could have its own car. According to the school Superintendent, the switch to the wagons “brings to a fuller realization the family organization of homelife created here.” Yes, fighting over who gets which seat in these longboys must have been a bit like being in a family of thirteen kids.
According to the article, the 1962 Chevy wagons were equipped with 250 hp 327 V8s, three-speed transmissions (manual, obviously), power steering and power brakes. It turned out that the Chevy’s weren’t quite up to thirteen of the older students, so some presumably sturdier ’63 and ’64 Pontiacs were added to the fleet. In the 1980s, the long wagons were passed out in favor of more traditional vans.
Here they are, running to their so called “cattle wagons”. I call dibs on the third row left side!
This reminds me of the William George Agency for Children’s Services that I would bike and drive by on my way to college. However, those kids have criminal history or run-ins with the law so the full sized vans that would shuttle them between the main building and the various Victorian (farm) houses turned Dorms were quasi-prison vans.
Thank you for these photos they are a sight to behold and it probably got difficult to keep these Cattle Wagons running by the 1980s between the mechanicals, PA strict safety inspections, and trying to find people who can drive a three on the tree. I assume most were scrapped.
Wow, never heard of those.
Wonder if any survived. I hope so.
You could turn one of those into quite the limo.
Know how long they are?
I like how they use many doors.
At least one. The AACA Museum has it. Last I saw it, it was a shell in need of total restoration.
Never heard of these were they meant as competition to the Checker long passenger wagons?
Various full-size stretch cars were fairly common in the ’60s and ’70s. A lot of it was the airport shuttle trade. Chevrolet and Pontiac were the dominate brands, followed by a few Buick and Old’s cars. I’ve seen a few Chrysler products. Hard to think of anything Ford. I’ve seen a few box era Panthers – usually Mercury Grand Marquis.
were they meant as competition to the Checker long passenger wagons?
Must have been, or the school didn’t know that “airport” limos were a regular catalog item orderable from the Checker factory.
This was in the pre-van era, and passenger car stretches were seen as more civilized than truck-based vehicles, which were rather crude back then.
Very cool photos.
I had always thought that Armbruster Stageway did more Chrysler stretches than others, but that may have been later. I recall seeing a 57-58 Chrysler sedan that was either a 6 or 8 door stretch, but it was back before the days when I would stop and photograph such things. I wish I had, it was just sitting outside of an auto parts store in a small Indiana county-seat town.
These must have been a real pain to drive, especially trying to muscle one of those Chevys around a corner with its 6 turn lock to lock steering while downshifting at the same time. I spent some time in the late 70s driving a couple of 6 door Lincolns (also A-S stretches) and they felt like buses more than they felt like Lincolns. Those things had a really wide turning radius, so I cannot imagine adding another set of doors and seats to the length and increasing the necessary steering input by 35%.
Kinda like the stretched Lincoln and Humvee here locally they have great fun with small roundabouts.
Kind of gives new meaning to the term “longroof”…
Interesting. I keep forgetting that Armbruster Stageway is an hour south of me in Fort Smith, and today I usually associate their products with the funeral business.
Are you sure this is 1964? In the first photo I see what look’s like a ’65 and ’66 Pontiac in the background, and in the far background a ’67.
Very interesting photos and story, that is quite a fleet.
I’m not. I just wrote that, since my eyes aren’t as good as yours 🙂
Stretching those X-frame GM wagons seems a little dicey, structurally speaking. The “wide track” Poncho’s had a different rear suspension subframe, but was still the same mid and forward structure as the Chevy. Those Checkers probably rode on a ladder frame, more like a truck, and pre-1958 GM cars.
Pontiac didn’t use the X-Frame. Which may be why they switched to them. Although it wouldn’t surprise me if the Stageway stretch also included some frame side rails.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/automotive-histories/automotive-history-an-x-ray-look-at-gms-x-frame-1957-1970/
Disney had two ’56 Lincoln sedans stretched to the four doors per side configuration to transport staff to movie shooting locations. One is visible in the movie, The Parent Trap, both were owned by a Lincoln collector and at least one was being restored.
Wow!
I wonder how many drive shafts and u-joints those things had?
Phil,
These had a 2-piece drive shaft with a fixed front shaft ending in a frame mounted pillow block bearing unit, and a 3rd u-Joint on the rear drive shaft leading down to the rear axle. Basically just like those you can see on larger big trucks, only on a smaller scale.
When I was in Trade School, I would occasionally drive past the Indian School, which had a four-door (each side) Mid-60’s Mopar.
After all this time, I’m no longer certain just what that car started out as…but I’ll take a stab and say that it was based on a ’68 Chrysler Newport 4-door sedan, with two more doors added on each side. Two-barrel 383/Torqueflite, most likely.
“No fair! It’s my turn to ride in the WayWayWayWayWayWayWayWayWay (gasp, exhale) WayWayWayback!”
in 1971 found a 1958 Chrysler A-S 6 door stretch sedan that I bought. It had New Yorker name script, but no side trim, I believe it may have been a Saratoga base, the engine was a four barrel 354 wedge, with TorqueFlite, ps and pb and dual unit a/c. It was a solid California car, but very bad gray paint, and some body damage. Since my business was auto restoration, fixed the body and painted black. I used ’59 rear wheelwell trim and 2 ’64 Imperial wide rocker stainless panels per side and trimmed the interior as a limo, had ’59 Imperial slotted LeBaron ‘gold gear’ center wheel covers, with wide whitewalls, used it for friends weddings and a relatives funeral, which led the funeral home to purchase it from me. Corners, you had to drive half way through intersections before turning, otherwise handled well, even with the tail hung out, topped on the speedo at between 105 and 110 mph Around the same time I did some restoration work on a A-S 1968 Imperial limo, it needed more care driving, drove like a 40 ft motorhome, but dripped with class.