Customer Reviews

New York City Transit Buses 1945-1975 Photo Archive

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I grew up in the Borough of Queens, and lived there for 26 years. I rode the buses operated by what was then called Queens Transit Corp. (now operated by the MTA as New York City Bus), and I grew to know and love the buses and bus routes of Queens and New York City. For years, as a transit fan, I lamented that there were simply no books that documented the history of so important a transportation network, until now. The private bus lines of Queens and Brooklyn are being absorbed totally into the MTA,and their colorful histories are in danger of slipping into total obscurity. Happily for me (and other NYC bus fans)Mr. Martin's words and photos really capture a part of NYC transit history that rapidly is changing. If you love or just want to get to know Triboro Coach, Jamaica Buses, Avenue B & East Broadway, Green Bus Lines, or my beloved Queens Transit, you must get this book. If you are interested in the history of the predecessors of today's MTA New York City Transit Authority's Dept. of Buses, you must get this book. If you are a bus fan, the history of such transit bus "founding fathers" as Fifth Avenue Coach and New York City Omnibus are covered in detail.

My one wish is that Mr. Martin follows this fine effort with a Volume 2 about the current NYC transit era.

This book is an excellent addition to the Iconografix series of Photo Archives on buses. The layout of the book is basically like all of the other bus photo archive books with the primary emphasis being on photographs. As with the other photo archive books, the pictures are captioned with a 2-3 sentence description of the item in the photograph. Mr. Martin seemed to take great detail while writing the captions so as to include not only serial # and builders information but also antidotal information about the buses operation and service life while running in the New York system. I found the captions to be very thoughtful and informative not just statements of the obvious as is sometimes experienced in these types of books. At the beginning of each chapter Mr. Martin included a short essay about the history of the company and buses presented in the chapter. As a Midwesterner, and one too young to have been around when most of these buses were on the street, I enjoyed the information presented in these essays and felt that they helped paint a colorful picture of what the system must have looked and felt like. There is one point of note however that deserves mentioning. The operations and buses of the "New York Bus Service" company were not mentioned or chronicled in any way. I feel that this is a significant oversight as these buses are the ones that stand out the most in my memories of visits to the Big Apple. Admittedly this operation was a somewhat smaller than the other private operators, however, I feel that they played a big enough role to at least be represented. There is also no coverage of any school bus or specialty operators, including the gigantic "Children's Bus Service" operation that closed up shop in 1964. This fact will delight most of the purist bus fans, however, I feel that school buses play a important role in the overall system and at least deserve a mention and a couple of photographs. Anyhow, in closing this book is a must have for any bus fan's collection and is a very valuable photographic resource on the rubber tired transit history in NYC. Mr. Martin is a vastly talented author and I hope that he continues to produce books on this subject matter. Can I recommend a book on buses in the Windy City?

This is a very good book that any serious bus fan should own. Mr. Martin's book provides a brief history of New York City's transit bus operations from the postwar era to the 1970's. Each chapter opens with a brief history of one of the bus operations, and the captions are very informative. There is a good cross-section of photos from the early wartime and postwar buses to the GMC and Mack `Old Look' buses of the late 1940's and 1950's to the GMC and Flxible `New Look' buses of the 1960's and 1970's. The selection of photographs is generally good, although several of the older `action' photos of buses in service are not as sharp after being blown up to full-page size. This is understandable given that early bus photography was relatively rare. The `1945-1975' title is also slightly misleading, as New Look photographs from the 1980's are also included - in my opinion, the appearance of these photos is a plus and helps provide a more complete depiction of the New Look era in New York.

A couple of minor criticisms - the New York City Omnibus chapter has few photographs, which is surprising since NYCO operated the busy north-south lines along Sixth Ave., Seventh Ave. and Broadway as well as numerous crosstown routes. The Queens Transit/Steinway Transit chapter quickly skips past the early years to get to the New Look era. And as others have noted, I wish that chapters were included for three other significant operations - Bronx express bus operators New York Bus Service and Liberty Transit/Riverdale Transit and Brooklyn's Pioneer Bus (later replaced by Command Bus).

Those are minor quibbles, however. This is a nice addition to my library of transit books. This clearly was a labor of love for Mr. Martin, and I commend him for a job well done.

One reviewer gave this book a two-star review because he wished for a book that would primarily cover the City-owned fleet, and this book devotes a large portion of its space to the private operators. I, by contrast, welcome the coverage of those private operators, because I grew up in the area where the Surface Transportation Corporation operated all the service (and some of my even younger days were in Av. B & East Broadway Transit Co. territory). And in fact, the City-operated routes really extended to Brooklyn and Staten Island only, as well as a small portion of Queens and a few odd routes in Manhattan. Most of Manhattan and Queens, and all of the Bronx, were served by the private operators that that reviewer denigrates. (And he can't even tell them apart: the bus on the cover was no Avenue B & East Broadway bus; it is clearly labeled "Jamaica Buses, Inc."!)

The book is a very good collection of photos from all the major and most of the minor bus operators in New York City during the 1945-1975 era (it omits Pioneer, a one-route operator in Brooklyn), though only in black and white. (Obviously at least SOME of the photos were taken in color: one of the photos in the book is a B&W version of the same picture that graces the cover!)

And I'd want a lot more text, with history and route details. But those are my only quibbles.

The Avenue B & E. Broadway Co. bus on the cover should have been a dead giveaway, but I nevertheless expected thorough coverage of the buses that ran for the Board of Transportation and NYCTA & MTA in this book. Therein lies my disappointment. This book spends at least half its pages on the smaller, private bus companies of NYC while failing to display many of the mainstays of the City-run fleet. The one photo of the 6000-series Macks from 1956 is a contemporary shot of the example in the historic fleet. Where are the 5000-5100-series Flxibles which ran for 19 years in Brooklyn and Staten Island? Or the 5600-5700-series Flxibles which ran in Queens and Brooklyn? Where are the 4000-4200-series or 4600-4700 series Flxibles from 1970? Several of the GM New Look series are not pictured nor discussed in detail. And why the dearth of interior views?

It is a good book for those interested in the private operators, but I was so disappointed that I could not keep the book. I feel strongly that it was a missed opportunity and I hope that it doesn't disuade others from publishing their own take on the period (Are you reading this, James Greller or Andrew Grahl?).

-Steve DeLuca

NYC is the mecca for buses and this transit bus book gives a nice synopsis of some of its bus operators. I hope that in the future, there will be other bus books produced about this city's buses, especially from the more modern era, 1980s onward.

bought it for my partner. his uncle is in one of the pictures. we didn't know that. fast delivery too.cheers.