1960 GM

[awalker1829]

Update here. I was at the shop all day working on the coach. We had to move stuff around so that we could get it out and put it in the back lot to wash it in preparation for applying the primer paint. Of course, old man Murphy made certain that the guys who stacked the concrete crossties out front put them just close enough to the door that we'd have to move them to get the coaches out of the shop. Those weigh around 500 pounds each, so the forklift was required. The volunteer who was driving it got it hung up on a rail, which took a little time to deal with.

Once we got the ties moved, we got this coach out as it was blocking the GM in.



That is Tucson Rapid Transit Company No. 50-our 1947 Ford Transit bus. It runs but needs the interior completed and glass. It also needs the fuel tank to be connected.



Another view of the 50. It has split engine compartment doors. We parked it there just to get it out of the way.



After getting the 50 out, we hooked the battery up to the 135. 50 required some priming to start but 135 started right up. We discovered a failed fuel filter was leaking, so we replaced that part (only took two trips to the parts shop to get the right part). We thought it would be more difficult as the gas in 135's tank has been there at least a year.



The last photo shows Mr. Hart (left) and Mr. Caywood attending to washing the front of the coach. Mr. Hart formerly worked for Tucson Rapid Transit as a driver and shop man and previously owned Old Pueblo Transit No. 135 before donating it to us. Mr. Caywood is one of our founders. At the time I took the photo, I had just gotten down off the ladder after scrubbing and hosing the roof down. It took about three hours to totally wash the coach as the ladder only permitted us to clean about eight linear feet before repositioning was necessary and we could only reach the center of the bus with the brush.

There are a few minor items to attend to before painting and we will attend them next week when we will start to mask the body for priming.



Once the painting is done, we'll change the tag with Department of Transportation and use this proper commercial license plate as the number is clear. Then all I need to do is search for a 1960 Arizona Corporate Commission plate.

[Junk Yard Dog]

[millman]

That is great that you all save these old busses. Where does your org get funding?

[awalker1829]

Lettering on the 50 is painted on. We'll do the same on 135. For those not from Tucson, until the City of Tucson created Sun Tran in the early 1970s, the buses were operated by two private companies-Tucson Rapid Transit and Old Pueblo Transit. TRT served the North and East sides and OPT served the South and West sides. Our shop is in South Tucson, so 135 is well appreciated by the community. Getting the 135 on the auto show and cruise in circuit will help get the museum more publicity.

Funding comes from different sources. Funding for the organization's museum operations and street railway operations largely comes from the public in the form of tax deductible donations. The street railway generated most of its funding for operations from passenger fare revenues, but has occasionally obtained both state and private grants for specific projects. Bus restoration funding is largely generated by donations but can also come from state historic preservation grants. All of the buses have documented service histories in Arizona. All of the funding for our 1928 Twin Coach spent to date was provided by state historic preservation grants. Due to changes in the program, the remaining funding will most likely have to be raised from private donors (about $40k needed to finish).

Funding for our vocational training program comes from grants from the RPM Foundation and Pima County. This enables us to provide additional vocational training to auto shop students that builds on the skills they learn in the classroom and provides them an opportunity to earn money working over the summer break.

We also get funding through participating in regular charity events locally. We do have an automobile donation program and are routinely receiving donated vehicles to send to auction or scrap. The students fix the cars that will go to auction and the dealer that handles the transactions is a member, so our costs are minimal.

As for the buses, most of them are donated to the museum. Mr. Hart donated 135 and the City of Tucson has given us several coaches over the years. Their practice had been to donate a coach when a particular class is being withdrawn from service. Once the entire class is retired, one coach is set aside for preservation. Any spare parts that are specific to that class may also be donated. When we got our 1994 Neoplan, it had three complete sets of spare windshields, thirteen spare electronic destination signs and some other spares (including all of the service and parts manuals) stacked inside.

[ffuries]

Wow thanks for posting the pictures and the updated statuses. Looking good, look forward to the post paint pictures.

Wow never knew the different ways some organizations are funded. Seems like it can be quite complicated at times.

[awalker1829]

Our museum is actually rather complex. The parent organization is Old Pueblo Trolley and we have three subsidiary units-the Street Railway Division; the Motor Bus Division and the Southern Arizona Transportation Museum. There are twelve Directors on the Board-some from each division and a couple from the community associations that represent the neighborhoods that we operate in. Our directors have a wide variety of skills and resources that we bring to the organization-some have connections to various agencies or government bodies that we need to work right with, others have specific skills. The member that is a licensed auto dealer is also on the Board of Directors for the Pima County Joint Technical Education District which oversees all high school vocational education training programs in the county. He works with the auto shop programs. I worked for another railroad museum that operated a short line railroad and have operations management experience as well as personal relationships with contractors and managers at other museums. One of the board members is a real estate developer. One of our supporters is the local Ace Hardware franchisee. He makes a financial donation every year and sells us materials we need at cost.

Each of us has visions of what we want the museum to be that compliments the vision of others. I started out in the street railway unit but saw things that we could do with the buses that we couldn't do with the streetcars or the depot museum. The streetcar and depot museum have to get people to go to where they are. With the buses, we can take the museum to events in the other parts of town and expose the museum to folks who would be less likely to visit our physical locations. We take the operational coaches to car shows and other community events. We take scale models of other coaches to display-specifically those restoration projects that we are soliciting donations for. The models are fine detailed pieces built in house by our resident model builder. He has been recognized nationally for the accuracy of his models. Buying a model from him would set you back several hundred dollars. The auto dealer wants to transform the vocational training program in the high schools from simply being vocational instruction to include job placement. He's actively working to get other shops to participate in the program and see the value in filling vacancies with the top students from the program. Our program will expose the students to working on alternative fuel vehicles and heavy diesel vehicles, something many auto shop students don't get a lot of experience with.

[ffuries]

Our museum is actually rather complex. The parent organization is Old Pueblo Trolley and we have three subsidiary units-the Street Railway Division; the Motor Bus Division and the Southern Arizona Transportation Museum. There are twelve Directors on the Board-some from each division and a couple from the community associations that represent the neighborhoods that we operate in. Our directors have a wide variety of skills and resources that we bring to the organization-some have connections to various agencies or government bodies that we need to work right with, others have specific skills. The member that is a licensed auto dealer is also on the Board of Directors for the Pima County Joint Technical Education District which oversees all high school vocational education training programs in the county. He works with the auto shop programs. I worked for another railroad museum that operated a short line railroad and have operations management experience as well as personal relationships with contractors and managers at other museums. One of the board members is a real estate developer. One of our supporters is the local Ace Hardware franchisee. He makes a financial donation every year and sells us materials we need at cost.

Each of us has visions of what we want the museum to be that compliments the vision of others. I started out in the street railway unit but saw things that we could do with the buses that we couldn't do with the streetcars or the depot museum. The streetcar and depot museum have to get people to go to where they are. With the buses, we can take the museum to events in the other parts of town and expose the museum to folks who would be less likely to visit our physical locations. We take the operational coaches to car shows and other community events. We take scale models of other coaches to display-specifically those restoration projects that we are soliciting donations for. The models are fine detailed pieces built in house by our resident model builder. He has been recognized nationally for the accuracy of his models. Buying a model from him would set you back several hundred dollars. The auto dealer wants to transform the vocational training program in the high schools from simply being vocational instruction to include job placement. He's actively working to get other shops to participate in the program and see the value in filling vacancies with the top students from the program. Our program will expose the students to working on alternative fuel vehicles and heavy diesel vehicles, something many auto shop students don't get a lot of experience with.

Damn not our old HS auto shop......cool to read the visions, and see how they want to expand the auto shop program. Would have never thought of that, wish I was closer would love to see the buses in person. Yall are doing an awesome job in more than one way.

[awalker1829]

It is really rewarding to be involved with the educational aspects of the program. The guys working on the vocational side see where we are, where we want to get to and are working on ideas to generate the additional funding that will be needed to get there.

One thing that I'm going to do once we get the GM repainted is get the exterior ad hardware back on it. Only difference is that we'll use the signs to promote the museum and our automobile donation program. There's a huge antique/classic car community here and it would be great advertising for us at car shows and other community events. That and just drive the coach around during rush hour or park it at the train station on Saturday. The train station is in the heart of downtown, right across from restaurants and shops and where the Southern Arizona Transportation Museum is located. Those buses get noticed whenever they're on the road.

Getting back to paint, the interior paint is in good condition and is original, as is most of the interior. The seats are all original-we only had to replace a couple of standee handrails. There are a couple of spots in the rear where high school kids scratched their names in the paint-we're not going to paint over that stuff.

[ffuries]

..........There are a couple of spots in the rear where high school kids scratched their names in the paint-we're not going to paint over that stuff.

Cool preserving history where you can, regardless how trivial.....I like that, it helps in telling the story of the bus!

[awalker1829]

Update to the thread as of today. We started masking the coach for painting.



We should have it completely masked and ready for the primer coat shortly. It'll go to a shop nearby for painting as our shop's paint booth isn't large enough for a coach.

[awalker1829]

Update as of yesterday-bus is completely masked with the exception of the windscreen, Driver's windows, tires and steps. The windows will be masked after we get it to the paint shop. Steps have to be masked to protect from paint spray getting through gaps in the door.



Windshield wipers, mirrors and the bumper mount and tow hook eyes have been removed to get a better finish. The drivers side mirror was simply removed from the frame. We will recaulk and mount it later. The glass is easy to remove for replacement as caulk holds it on the metal backplate. The backplate attaches to the frame with six screws.



Only a few items to attend to now. Spotted one crack that needs bodywork. We had noted it earlier but that somehow got overlooked. It's just in front of the rear wheel at the lower belt. We'll fix that this week.



Masking the windows took a bit of time as the standee windows have curved corners. The edges of the rear windows are all curves. A great deal of time was saved by having the paper and cardboard premeasured and precut by one of our volunteers (the previous owner as it turns out).

[steelbuttplate]

I'll bet that ones got, or had, Jim Crow seats in it.

[Junk Yard Dog]

I don't think Arizona had that shit going on , did it? Something I more associate with the deep southern states once the era of motorized public transit came around.

[awalker1829]

I don't think Arizona had that shit going on , did it? Something I more associate with the deep southern states once the era of motorized public transit came around.

Arizona never had legalized segregation. Ten years ago, blacks accounted for 3.4% of the population of the state. They'd have been less than 3% of the state population in 1960 (probably less than 2.5%). In other words, there weren't enough blacks around for segregation to be an issue, considering that there were more Hispanics and Native Americans.

As for the 135, the seats it was delivered with new are still in it. It was ordered new with unpadded seats to eliminate vandalism. The only comfortable seat in the coach is the Driver's seat.

Segregated buses operated a bit different than those today. Today, everyone enters at the front and is supposed to exit at the rear. Segregated transit coaches had to have two doors. All passengers exited via the rear doors. Whites entered at the front while blacks entered at the rear, walked forward to pay their fare and then returned to the section reserved for them. 135 is what coach operators call a "muzzleloader"-everything goes in and out through the front door-the rear door was optional and deleting it added two seats of capacity.

Now, the coach that MARTA (Atlanta) has would have bee segregated. Incidentally, the Montgomery City Lines coach on which Rosa Parks was arrested (2857) has been positively identified and restored by the Henry Ford Museum. Researchers combed company records and, for whatever reason, the bus involved in the Rosa Parks arrest had its number recorded on a company report. Most arrests regarding issues with black passengers were not recorded.

Of course, segregation on buses wasn't the worst. Some of the southern railroads treated the black passenger worse than cattle. The cars assigned for their use were always the oldest cars and they were often death traps. Often sporting a wood body and steel under frame, they were carried at the head end of the train-directly behind the steam locomotive or railway post office car. The postal clerks and other passengers rode in all steel cars. Intermixing a wood bodied car with steel under frame with all steel cars meant that in an accident, the wooden car would be crushed by the others.

Some segregation was attempted in the northern states, but didn't last. The Central Railroad of New Jersey attempted to segregate the lunch counter an the Jersey City station and was met with a boycott and committee of black professionals. They explained why they going segregation to be offensive and that if the railroad would go back to its previous policy, the customers would return. The Central went back to the old practice and regained business-its former patrons who had dined in the Pennsylvania Railroad's station restaurant in the intrrim

[awalker1829]

We’ve made a good deal of progress on the 1960 GM Pacheco I’m working on. The coach has had primer applied and we are now finishing up the body details and should be applying the first coat of paint after the New Year.



Here we see Gene working on a panel. I was working on spots up by the standee windows. I’m pretty tall, so I can reach them without standing on anything.

Here are a couple of shots of the shop that I took while I was up on the safety ladder.





The first shot shows our 1928 Model 40 Twin Coach, a 2947 Ford Transit Bus and a couple of former Los Angeles Railways streetcars. The second shot shows our Osaka, Japan streetcar, our modern Sun Tran coaches, a 1938 Model 1204 Yellow Coach (Tucson Rapid Transit No. 22) and a Dodge Brothers sedan.


Here’s a close up of the Dodge. I’m not a Dodge fan, so I don’t know what year or model it is. Behind it is a 1909 REO touring car.


Here’s the REO. The automobiles are not part of our collection but are on temporary loan for exhibition. They are supposed to be changed out every few months, presuming that the owners either remember that they losnithe car out or decide that they want it back.

[Junk Yard Dog]

1931-32, very nice condition also, Dodge made one hell of a good car at that time. My kind of car, you don't want it then please send it up to me that would look great parked next to my Model A Ford and the T. That place reminds me of Steamtown USA in Scranton PA, except the vehicles being repaired are all locomotives and other rolling stock. Cool stuff, I could tinker all day there, sleep in the bus and tinker some more later.

[Junk Yard Dog]

The Dodge runs? Take it for a spin, you need to run them to keep them healthy.

[ffuries]

I think I would look pretty sharp cruising around in the Dodge.

[awalker1829]

Both the Dodge and REO should run-IIRC, they both arrived under their own power. The REO is a chain drive unit but you can’t see the chain in the picture. Two of the coaches are RVs and used for our on site attendants. One is a 1949 Spartan Coach and the other is a early 1950s GM suburban coach. The back lot is full of other coaches, stored rail, a few donor vehicles that are awaiting work and a trip to the auto auction and a couple of old refrigerated cars used for storage. Then there’s the 18th Street yard where we have a couple more streetcar bodies, a wooden boxcar and more buses stored.

We also have a model shop on site. The gentleman who runs the shop is one of our caretakers. All of the models of historic Arizona buses on display were made by him.

[awalker1829]

Update. Cream colored paint has been ordered-green paint is already on hand. We are just fixing little spots on the body-detail work-and will start painting in about three weeks.

Once summer arrives, we will remove the seats so that necessary interior work can be done. Seats may be resealed using Imron clear coat-they are fiberglass. Driver’s seat needs to be reupholstered and interior panels need paint. We also need to fabricate two missing standee hand rails.