BusTalk

[Q65A]

Founded at Brooklyn NY in 1900, Mack has built medium and heavy duty trucks continuously for the past 108 years. Somewhat ironically, the first commercial vehicle manufactured by Mack actually was a 24 HP bus built in 1900 for Isaac Harris, a sightseeing operator in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. Mack relocated to Allentown PA in 1905, and went on to build many historically significant truck models during the ensuing years. Although it is not obvious today, Mack was a historically important U.S. bus builder, building approximately 22,000 transit and intercity buses from 1900 to 1960. Mack buses were quite popular with NYC bus operators, who probably bought nearly 2,000 Mack transit buses during this 60-year period. As truck historian John B. Montville wrote in his corporate history titled Mack: A Living Legend of The Highway, “…by 1939 there were over 800 Mack buses in operation in the New York Territory alone.” New bus purchases in the U.S. all but stopped during the World War II years, but they resumed in earnest after 1945. From 1947 to 1956, NYC bus operators purchased more than 1,300 new Mack transit buses, and NYC ultimately boasted the largest concentration of Mack buses anywhere. During this same timeframe, NYC bus operators also purchased large fleets of new diesel-hydraulic buses from GM. As would be the situation in the 1960’s and 1970’s with Flxible, Mack solidly became the #2 bus builder in NYC in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s, while smaller competitors such as Twin Coach, White, and ACF-Brill received few if any orders from NYC operators. The NYC Board of Transportation (BOT) and its successors (i.e. NYCTA and MaBSTOA) operated the largest fleet of Mack transit buses in the NYC area: from 1947 to 1956, BOT and NYCTA bought 950 new Mack transit buses, and picked up several hundred used Macks in 1962 from MaBSTOA predecessor Surface Transportation. Upon its creation in 1940, the BOT immediately acquired a varied fleet of 136 Mack transit buses which had been built from 1931 to 1939 for BOT predecessors East Side Omnibus, Comprehensive Omnibus, and Brooklyn Bus Corp. By the end of World War II, these well used units were in urgent need of replacement. In 1947, the BOT ordered 29 Mack transit buses: a single C-41GT (BOT #1600) and 28 C-45GT’s (BOT #’s 1601-1628). The following year, 87 additional C-45GT’s were purchased (BOT #’s 1629-1653, 1900-1961). The lone C-41GT was only 33 feet long, while the C-45GT’s were 35 feet long. Both models were 96 inches wide and had 189 BHP 6-cylinder Mack EN-672 gasoline engines driving Spicer torque converters. It is curious that the BOT still was buying gas-powered transit buses in the late 1940’s, especially since Mack already was an established builder of diesel engines. By contrast, the BOT did not purchase any gas-powered GM Old Looks, although they did buy gas-powered Twin Coaches during this same timeframe. While GM Old Looks employed a sophisticated monocoque construction that used considerable amounts of aluminum, postwar Macks used integral construction. Called “Fortress Frame”, it was a strong, durable, but heavy design: a diesel-powered GM TDH-4507 weighed 17, 850 lbs., while a gas-powered C-45GT tipped the scales at a hefty 20,260 lbs. As with GM Old Looks of that time, steel leaf spring suspensions were used, as were 4-leaf “jackknife” doors (front and rear), and 6-hole 10-stud cast steel disc wheels. Mack buses used small oblong standee windows and single squared side passenger windows. Painted in the standard silver- over- green BOT color scheme, these buses initially were assigned to Brooklyn’s East New York Depot. Eventually nearly all Macks migrated to the Staten Island Division, where they spent most of their careers. The first diesel-powered Mack transit bus was delivered in 1948 (a single C-45DT, BOT #1962). Equipped with a 165 BHP 6-cylinder Mack END-672 4-stroke diesel engine and a Spicer torque converter, the unit must have shown impressive performance in its first year of service, and the BOT never again bought a gas-powered bus. Shortly after 1962 arrived in 1948, the BOT acquired 115 C-45DT’s (BOT #’s 5000-5114) by a twist of fate. The units originally had been ordered by Surface Transportation Corp. to augment their growing fleet of C-45DT’s, but ST’s growing financial difficulties prevented them from taking delivery on the new buses. They worked out of Manhattan’s E. 100 St. Depot and Staten Island’s Castleton Depot. The C-41GT and C-45GT’s soon became gas-powered strangers in an increasingly diesel-powered bus fleet. They and the C-45DT’s were replaced in 1956 by Mack C-49DT’s. None were preserved.

[Mr. Linsky]

Pictured is fleet # 5025 - a Mack Model C45-DT operating for New York City Board of Transportation.

Enjoy.

Photo borrowed from Bus Talk Gallery for educational purposes only.

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, NY

[Mr. Linsky]

First Mack Bus ever built (in Brooklyn on Atlantic Avenue!).

Was rebuilt in 1946 as a C45-DT (only kidding)

Enjoy!

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, NY