Louisville – home of the Kentucky Derby and the “Louisville Slugger” baseball bat…a beautiful city in a beautiful area. Here are just a few pics of the city during its earlier vintage mass transit era.
A typical GM Old Look coach in a typical urban setting in the mid-‘60s. This looks like a TDH 4512 model. Most of these in the Midwest where I grew up seemed to always have a good coating of grime.
Another Old Look downtown in the late 60’s. This coach is a TDH 4507, one of fifty purchased in 1948, with the last one being retired in 1974. It’s crossing the corner of Fourth and Chestnut Streets.
A “Downtowner” – which ran a circular route within the downtown area in the 60’s. This looks like a smaller (30 foot) TDH 3610, made from 1946-49 – the one in this pic would be twenty years old.
Here is one of Louisville’s new first-gen New Looks, as noted by the chrome strip (vs bullet) roof-side marker lights and six-piece windshield.
Several GM New Looks are waiting at the old Union Bus Depot that sits on the block now occupied by a Marriott hotel, on Jefferson and Liberty streets between Second and Third.
Louisville mostly preferred GM’s 35 foot New Look models rather than the longer 40 foot versions. This looks like a TDH 4519, one of over 19K GM churned out from 1963-67.
In the 70’s, Lousiville’s purchased several Flxible Flexettes as a circulator between Fourth Street and the Medical Center. Flxible would install whatever engine the operator desired but most left the old Southern Coach Manufacturing Alabama factory with Ford’s durable 300 cu in straight six.
Coach #1776 decked out in its Bicentennial livery.
Like many other cities, Louisville purchased AM General’s Metropolitan coach in the ’70s, and like most, regretted it. They were built to be the lowest common bidder and not as rugged or robust as buses from other manufacturers.
If interested, more pics are available at the Transit Authority of River City’s Flicker site here.
We’ve got trouble–right here, in River City!
The buses are huge, but they can’t carry a tune.
Great pics, thanks for sharing
I always liked the GM old looks. I noticed the 4512 has horizontal sliding windows while the 4507 and 3610 has vertical windows. There is nothing quite like the sound of a 6-71 Detroit Diesel. Indianapolis in the late ’50’s and early ’60’s used GM old looks exclusively with white tops and orange bottoms as the Indianapolis Transit System.
The establishing shots of the Mary Tyler Moore show have numerous shots of the GM old looks in downtown Minneapolis.
One other thing Jim. In your first photo I noticed the long narrow street lights. Indianapolis also had those in the ’60’s. Were those fluorescents? Anybody?
Yes they were fluorescent, attached to the old light poles.
Another nice group of memory inducing images =8-) .
I think you’re right, public buses were rarely if ever washed out side in the 1960’s & 1970’s .
I have so many pleasant memories of riding here and there in the old & new look GM buses trundling along, not too noisy apart from the deep rumble of the engines .
-Nate
The bus in the 2nd picture was the one I rode every Saturday morning to the downtown YMCA for diving lessons in the late 50s! Reading Mad Magazine!
Thanks for the memories.
Dave
Incredible as it may seem Ive seen a New Look live and in colour converted to a house bus but somebody went to the trouble to import it.
Wasn’t the Flexette built in the old Southern Coach plant in Evergreen, Alabama?
Love the article and pictures.
Indeed it was Bob – first one came down the old SCM line in 1964. Here’s a little more info if interested….
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/bus-stop-classic/bus-stop-classics-flxible-flxette-the-junior-leaguer/
Thanks for the catch – I corrected above.
I have a few newbie questions on why GM new look bus front window used faceted sections.
Purpose of window inward tilt at top?
Purpose of horizontal split just below steering wheel and window tilt inward again?
Did they use an electric heating element or just forced air?
Any issues with snow or ice buildup?
I’ve never driven a New Look but my take on your questions are as follows;
Purpose of window inward tilt at top? Mostly to decrease sun reflection off the glass.
Purpose of horizontal split just below steering wheel and window tilt inward again? Same reason. Both offered significantly increased vision over the narrow front windshield of the Old Look.
Did they use an electric heating element or just forced air? The ones I remember riding in had several ducts on the dash that forced air into the windshield. I don’t think there was an heating element embedded, but could be wrong.
Any issues with snow or ice buildup? Never saw any when I was a passenger.
Thanks Jim.
I suspected the tilts were help reduce reflection. Grandma and I likely rode a few of the New Looks but I don’t remember. The coin fare separator machine and its unique sound is what fascinated me.
Can’t get enough of old and new look GM buses. Thanks.
Reminds me of Iowa City; in the winter, to meet higher demand, they would lease a half dozen or 40′ old look buses from somewhere, in order to reduce the schedules from 30 minutes to 20 minute intervals. That’s how I came to drive both kinds.
That red #810 is a 40 footer, but I can’t quite tell if it’s a 96 or 102″ wide. I think it’s 96″.
Lot’s of memories here, Growing up in Oakland in the 1960’s I rode the bus all over town. Since the city streets were laid out as a grid it was easy to take the bus and end up close to your destination. San Jose on the other hand, has curving streets and the bus can’t drop you off as close. I remember those old buses. The noise, the frantically vibrating empty seats, and most of all the funky smells. Kids Today don’t know what they are missing!
You had to sit in the back to get the free massage. The “Old Look” TTC buses had crash box manual transmissions. Lots of good (or sometimes bad) noises came from there. But the operators were very skilled with these.
The 35-foot fishbowl was a Blue Motor Coach unit – they ran a few suburban routes. The Louisville Transit Company, which operated much of Louisville’s transit service including the (then) city proper, purchased 125 GM fishbowls in total and all were 40-footers. I’m pretty sure most of the old looks they were using at the time were also 40-foot.