RUN #21 OFFICIAL NEWSLEITER OF THE OMNIBUS SOCIETY OF AMERICA, INC. DECEMBER 1983

DECEMBERMEETING QUIICY TRIP

:OQ.r final meeting of 1983. will be heldat the Bismarck Hotel in downtownChic-ago on December2nd at 7: JC)pm.in ourusual room (Parlor E). OIlr guest willbe OSA,Charter MemberJeff Wein$ Jetfwill present slides of his.recenttravels around the country.. Featuredwill be the operations of SEPTAandHUN! (Philadelphia and San Franciscorespectivl1). Following Jeff'spresentation will be our famous "news...cast.N So bring those slidesttl!llllt

NOVEMBERMEEma

OUr Novembermeeting was held at CTA'sTraining Center located on Clark streetabove Limits Garage. OUr program waspresented by John Perkins and Joe ...Valtierra. both CTAbus instructors.Although we got oft-to a s()Jiiewhatlatestart, a lot of interesting materialconcerning the training of CTAbusoperators was covered. The present-ation was well received and we hopeto do it again soon. Special thanksare due to eTA managementfor makingthis rare opportwrl.ty available to us.

FLYER TRIP

On Sunday'November20th. a charter~s held using one of CTA's new Flyertransit coaches$ Twenty-six passengerswere aboard for our first ever trip ona Flyer. . Vince Dawsonwas our driverfor tb1s memorable trip to the southsiele of Chicago. Bus 9902 did the,honors. Dilring the triP. a stop wasmade at ~sonls Discovery Coacheswhere Bruce Moffat and John leBeauprorld1fd demonstration rides on their1nR- )10,21s.•

Although not sposored. by OSA.this tripis worthy of mention because all of thosein attendance were OS! memberst On Nov.12th, a. trip using the buses of QuincyTransit Lines provided an opportunityto ride the only TQH-3102 Is still beingoperated by a local transit operator inIllinois. Quincy Transit is operated bythe City of Quinc.1and uses a fleet ofTHC's to cover normal schedule need$.

. A 1"eserve fleet consisting of three3102' s is kept on stanoy to fill in forthe THCe s when needod.. Photos ot thistrip and our Clinton and CTAtrips willappear in our next issue which will bea special photo issue.

CONTnlENTAL AIR TRANSOPRT

CATCOhas sold Flxible tBu.llet I #139 toa private-pa~y~no-plans to-run chart~rtrips to Menard state Prison for rel.a.tiftsof the inmates. This leaves only #153.CATCOis ordering 3 newMC9's fordelivery in early '84. They also haveall the Flxible Hi-levels for sale.The days of the Flxible at CATCOarenumbered.

RIDIONAL TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY

The RTAplans to hold public hearingsin early 1984 to switch route #3.56-Alt.geld,from Transit Managementof Harvey (SafeWay)to eTA. This is the only •subl1rbanI routetotally within the city.

CiREATLAKES TRAILWA1SGreatlakes Trailways service to Milwaukeehas been increa.sed to apprOximatelyevery 2 hours by operator ContinentalAir Transport due to the Greyhouru:lstrike.

m P!CMCK SWPER

Fro. aemher ZenonHansen comes the following article from tne pages ot-f222tarMechanics. along with the following introduction: - -

Undoubtedly, the lIlost obsCl1reof all that relatively rare breed, the sleeper bUB,was the so-called "'Pickwick Sleeper" bu.ilt by ColumbiaCoachWorks, apparentl11nSouthern California. in the fall of 19;6. Despite its name, it is not knowntohave had any connection with its famous naJllesake. Oneof its most noteworthy feat.ures was one of the first application, or mechanical air conditioning to a bus.Nothing materalized of a plan to organize an operating company, Pickwick SleeperCoach Lines, to operate a fleet of these buses, and the sole prototype was sold toAll American Bus Lines. (llov., 1'13')

),

POPULAR MECHANICS 657

Twin Motors with Single Clutch Drive Big Bus,Two eight-cylinder motors set at forty-

five-degree angles to the transmissionshaft, with a single clutch, give remark-able smoothnessand flexibility to a sleeperbus just built in California. Acceleratingswiftly like a steam-powered vehicle, itcruises at fifty-fivemiles an hour yet trav-els smoothly in high gear as slowly as tenmiles an hour. The twin engines are atright angles to each other, connected intoa single bevel-gear drive unit that pro-vides sixteen-cylinder synchronized per-formance."If one motor fails, the.bus cantravel on the remaining engine. Beinginterchangeable, a new motor can be in-stalled with little loss of time at the re-

Latest sleeper bus and interior view 01 compartmefltsduring day travel. Diagram illustrates how its twin

engines are conn~ctecl to single drive shalt

pair depot. Designed for the utmost pas-senger comfort, the bus is air-conditionedand is of the "sleeping car" type with eightcompartments, accommodatingthirty pas••.sengers as a day coach and twenty inberths at night. There are foul' recliningchairs in a glass-enclosed front observa .•tion compartment. Each compartmentcontains three single berths and a lava-tory. The motors are mounted at the tE,!M'of the bus, which is built of aluminum.