It seemed that the defacto paint scheme for most urban-transit buses in the 1950s and ‘60’s was a light cream over orange – at least in the Midwest where I was from. That was the livery for the Columbus Transit Company (CTC) in my hometown of Columbus Ohio, and for most of the nearby larger cities with public transportation systems that I visited. I was surprised to find that scheme even in Toronto during one trip. I always found those colors a trifle boring, but a little internet research shows quite a variety of different liveries throughout the rest of the US and Canada. Which is your favorite?
Here’s an attractive blue and white from San Bernardino Valley Transit – this bus is part of Omni Trans historical fleet.
White over brown from Boro Bus, a private bus company in NJ.
Any “Buckeye” would be a fan of this Scarlet and Grey livery, though surprisingly it’s not from Ohio but Lehigh/Northampton PA.
Milwaukee Public Transit preferred this light blue (green?) scheme.
Dark brown over light brown from Lakeshore/Racine Wisconsin.
A San Francisco Muni Mack in green and white.
A Canadian Car and Foundry (CCF) coach with interesting colors from Montreal.
It’s American counterpart, a yellow over blue ACF-Brill from Montclair NJ – looks sharp.
San Diego used this white with green trim – must have been tough to keep clean.
I liked this tri-color Pittsburgh (Port Authority Transit) pattern no matter what bus or trolley wore it. Locally it was called the “MOD” scheme from 1972.
Peerless Stages was based in Oakland CA used this easily identifiable vibrant red and yellow livery. This one is a restored model from the Pacific Bus Museum.
And finally a nice subdued tri-color suburban from New Jersey Transit.
Which is your favorite?
The Toronto Transit Commission’s classic dark red and creme colour scheme, is the best remembered old school bus livery in Canada. (1970)
Many schemes across the US and Canada, seeming quite austere.
Love this colour set up and the bus model.
I did like these Bluebirds (I think) and how roughly a certain driver we called “Wild Bill” drove them.
Yup, it is a Bluebird. Cool, very ’70s graphics! Canadian Armed Forces, used the same Bluebirds in dark green, as personnel transports.
It’s been mentioned here before, but I absolutely adore the DC Transit color scheme from the 1950s and early 1960s. The attached image is from a museum-held vehicle, which is why it has the modern “Metrobus” logo on the side. They obviously didn’t originally look like that.
They used the same scheme on street cars (which were all gone by the mid 60s)
Notice the “wide array of colors on the automobiles.. Miss those days..
The San Bernadino white over blue gets my vote. Seems like a cheery colour combo.
Edmonton had a cream and orange livery way back when I was a kid. Over the years that changed to a white and orange, then muted red. Later on Edmonton adopted white and dark blue which Edmonton Transit maintains to this day.
The city of Calgary for many years had a green and cream colour scheme very much like San Francisco buses of the same era (Sixties). These days Calgary Transit is an orange and white colour scheme.
Unfortunately, I have very little or no memory of what the “Old School” (and by that, I’ll assume you mean the “GM Old Look” busses. Interestingly, my grandfather on my Dad’s side actually drove one of the old Baltimore Transit Company’s Old Look busses. He passes away before I was born in 1960, so sadly, I have no stories to share…
FFWD to the next busses used, GM’s New Look, and I have to say I’ve always liked this livery pictures below. Baltimore’s transit company had changed its name to the MTA (Maryland Transit Authority) when these were roaming the streets.
This picture below was stolen from a previous post by TRIBUROUGH on what that livery looked like. If you scroll down in the comments, you’ll see a picture of what our busses look like now… they are emblazoned with the Maryland Flag, as is everything in this state these days…
Edit: that pic won’t post because it’s not a JPEG file.
Here’s the link instead:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/bus-stop-classic/cc-illustrations-gm-fishbowl-buses-part-2/
That “early 70’s , Pgh pic” really brings back memories!!
I rather like the last one, from NJ Transit.
In Iowa City at the time I was a transit driver there (1975-1976), we had a backup bus in case one of the fairly new fishbowl buses was down. It was an early 1948 steel-spring 40′ old-look bus, but had a totally unique one-off paint job that was something of a cross between op-art and psychedelic. Apparently it had been painted by an artist at the university as some sort of public art program. Pretty wild!
It rode really hard on its steel springs. And one time its almost 40′ long accelerator pedal rod became stuck wide open after I took off from a bus stop. I had a moment of panic, but then I just turned the engine controller switch to Off, and it cruised to a halt.
Here’s a pic of the McMahon busses I remember in Baltimore. We bought my first “English” 3 spd bike in that very Hochschild-Kohn shown in the background at York Rd & Belvedere.
Kingston, Ontario Transit, has always had light blue and white buses. As the city had a population under 100,000, they employed under 40 foot length buses for years.
First New Looks purchased in 1968.
The visual knockout for me is the red and yellow Peerless livery. It just screams Forties!
Growing up here in inner-suburban Australia, I was most familiar with the straw over green of the Melbourne and Metropolitan Tramways Board, and on the suburban buses run by the Victorian Railways to link some rail lines. They ran these old AECs well into the seventies on some routes, like past my high school.
I LIKED the cream and green.
The things looked like a bus, like a service, like a formal event, with uniformed operators, like an enterprise to be taken seriously, rather than a grudge form of getting about. Ding ding! (The reality that they were universally pongy, super-slow, and dirty, matters not in this time-crazed recollection).
Now, buses all look like those ads you try to speed past on the internet.If they have livery, it’s blotched over by a huge ad for erectile over-function or somesuch.
Calgary Transit was reorganized from the former Calgary Transit System in 1970, and adopted this handsome two-tone blue paint scheme in the same year. #874 shown in this photo was their last active 1977 General Motors T6H-5307N “New Look”, retired in the summer of 2013 after 36 years of faithful service.
From CC in 2000, my favorite is the white over green Los Angeles bus in back.
I’m a wee way from the Mid-West, in fact, massively south-east thereof and on a whole ‘nother continent but, strike me purple! Half our bloody trams in the ’70’s were painted cream and orange, just as pictured!
I mean to say, why? It’s not as if it’s some natural colour arrangement (is it?), and it seemed always more food-related than public transport-connected to me.
I dunno. Maybe some folk like to think of eating their trams, or their Mid-Western buses, but then, I’m no marketer.
That said, that colour scheme died out pretty quickly. In a stroke of apparent genius, they then gave all the trams in a city prone in most months to grey skies with a matching colour scheme.
Fair dinkum, you look foward to the f*kin’ ads on the things, for a bit of colour!
Newcastle upon Tyne and later Tyne & Wear PTE. Not a difficut question!
Wonderful pictures .
I miss those PCC cars and the electric trolly buses that were always warm in winter and never got stuck no matter what .
As far as the favored color scheme, I like them all but probably would choose the cream over blue or green .
I just wish any one of these would come trundling down the street so I could get on and ride a while .
-Nate