Historic Photo! Chicago Motor Coach Comapny General Motors 40 foot TDH series transit bus # 577 heading southbound on Michigan Avenue. Chicago Illinois. 1950.
Originally uploaded by Eddie from Chicago
I spotted this very historic photo from Chicago's past on the internet recently. However....I forgot what website this was from. Darn!
One of the transit companies that made up todays Chicago Transit Authority, was the transit bus operating company known as The Chicago Motor Coach Company.
The Chicago Motor Coach Company began operations around 1917, and was acquired by the 1945 created Chicago Transit Authority in the year of 1952.
This photo wich was taken in the year of 1950, appears to be along the west side of Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago Illinois at the Orchestra Hall building I believe.
Although this is an old black and white photograph, I had previously seen a color photo or two of these GM buses from the CMC in this
very complicated but stylish color scheme.
The lower body colors, were a two tone green combination with yellow or gold striping, highlights and numbers. The roof top lettering above the standee windows, I believe was done in red paint.
A handful of these former CMC buses rolled around on Chicago's main streets for the CTA after 1952 in this color scheme, but were eventually repainted into simplified CTA colors after a few years of service during the 1950's.
2 comments:
Nice photo! I last rode one of this type of bus back in 1980 on a visit to Los Angeles. They had been gone from the CTA roster for a few years at that point.
Let's straighten out the record on CMC Fleet # 577 shown above;
#577 is a 1948 GM Coach Model TDH 5502 and one of one-hundred (501 to 600) plus one demonstrator (#500) delivered to the Chicago Motor Coach Company division of the Omnibus Corporation in December of that year.
Built exclusively for Chicago, the 5502's were '43' feet in length, 96 inches wide with seating for 55 passengers.
The 5502's were also the longest transit buses ever built by GM and were banned from operation in most states because of their over length.
The Chicago based Omnibus Corporation also owned Fifth Avenue Coach and its affiliates in New York including New York City Omnibus Corporation.
Regards,
Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, NY
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