Go Greyhound ...And Leave the Driving to Us!

I had the opportunity to take schedule 6905 from Pasco to Seattle. Coach 7254, a MCI G4500 that has been on the road a while was operating it. 

At the station in Yakima, WA

Greyhound in Ellensburg, WA. Some package express was loaded here.

The intermediate stops in Sunnyside, Yakima, and Ellensburg were at gas stations on the outskirts of town near the freeway. At Ellensburg it was at a loves truck stop no where near town or the college. Ellensburg did have some package expeess was loaded here destined for Seattle.

The Yakima station also pictured above is relatively new, and features a transit style shelter behind the gas station's convience store. None of these stations appeared to offer any indoor seating out of the elements, aside from where you can squeeze into the gas station. Judging by the state of these facilities one quickly gets an idea of why greyhound is no longer a viable transportation entity in this country. 

 

The coach had seen better days, the seats were worn out, some were cut, others had graffiti on them. Overall I think I saw more graffiti on that coach than I have on most modern transit buses in recent times. It was a good runner though despite its minor cosmetic problems. Otherwise the trip was uneventful.

NICE Bus Mitchell Field Depot

Added Pictures of my visit to the NICE bus yard at Mitchell Field during the MBS convention to my Flickr.

A NICE Orion 7 in the new NICE livery at Mitchell Field

A NICE Orion V in the old MTA Long Island Bus Livery at Mitchell Field

Update 5/5/13 - Steam in Switzerland and MBS in NYC

A Quick Update tonight; Added Pictures to Flickr from the Brienz Rothorn Bahn, a Narrow Gauge, Steam Powered Rack Railway in Switzerland.

Plus I Started Adding Pictures from the Motor Bus Society's Spring 2013 Convention in New York and New Jersey.

Brienz Rothorn Bahn at Rothorn

 

NYCT and NJT Near the Port Authority Bus Terminal

New York Transit Museum and home

Todays adventure took us to the New York Transit Museum. We started out on the 320 to PABT and than got on an R36 "C" train. The museum is located about two blocks west of the Hoyt-Schmmerhorn station in the unused Court street station (was built for An extension that never happened). In the station mezzanine they have exhibits and displays setup, including a mock up RTS and fishbowl.

Downstairs they have several cars on display, everything from old gate cars used on the elevated, to IRT low v's, BMT standards, and IND R1/R9, an R11, R16, R30, and R36. They also have a recently retired R46 as well as some other equipment on display.

Once we were done there we got on an R46 equipped "A" train to penn station. We had lunch at Penn station (which has a food court unlike King Street Stn. in Seattle) we walked back to PABT and checked out the neighborhood a bit more. After seeing bad traffic entering the lincoln tunnel we decided to take an earlier 320. Once back at the hotel and with our bags the hotel van took us to Seacacus Jct. and we got on an NJT northeast corridor line train to newark airport.

A couple of comments about fare collection, the NYC metro card needs to be replaced with a contact-less system, half the turnstiles did not like one or both of our cards, also the NJT ticketing system seems wasteful with ticket vending machines all over the place that need to be maintained, and the Parkeon wayfarer devices on the buses seem to spit out a lot of paper receipts for no reason at all. Im sure its been done this way for 100 years and probably not going to change soon. This concludes the trip to NY.

The Ad's inside the New York Subway are interesting, This one for Dr. Zizmore offers treatment for a number of skin ailments with easy financing with approval for just about everyone. The Lady in the artwork looks a little possessed if you ask me, I have to wonder what his treatments really do.

An R-30 Car in the NYTM

The Court Street Station with an IND R9 car on display

NJT MCI D4500 #7128

NJT Ticket and a NYC Metro Card

Free Day in New York

Today was a free day in NYC. To start out we went to the tourist trap known as the Empire State building. There were different people hawking different tour "packages" and we bought one for the princely sum of $57 dollars that included a "sky ride" on a hydraulically operated platform with an IMAX like movie playing, and than a ride up to the 86th floor observatory. Although I later figured out I could have probably done it cheaper the more traditional way through the tower directly. After seeing the sights at the Empire State, we went to Penn station, and while it is kind of a dive, it does have the advantage of having all sorts of food and convenience items available, which even our newly remodeled King Street Station in Seattle does not offer.

After having lunch at Penn Station, we went to the 9/11 memorial. While the tickets were free there, you have to walk halfway around the site, and go through security to get there. You could get your free tickets online, and pay a $2 processing fee, however today the line for the free tickets was shorter than the pre-ticketed line. The rain must have had something to do with that.

The memorial itself is nice, it has two large square reflecting pools and on the railings are the names of those who perished. Actually kind of moving thinking that all these poor guys did was go to work like everyone else does and they had this happen to them. While reading through the names I found a couple of transit workers who also perished, I don't know what they did, I'm guessing they were field supervisors or something. I guess something like this could happen to anyone.

After seeing the 9/11 memorial, it was time to ride the subways, Since the R32 cars seem to live on the "C" line, and they have the rail fan window we rode the "C" to Euclid Avenue, than back to Franklin Ave where we got on the Franklin Ave Shuttle "S" line. We rode that to Prospect Park and got on a Q train to Coney Island. Since it wasn't the summertime Coney island was dead - and I mean Dead. None of the amusements were open, Nathans Hot Dogs was closed, and even the bar and strip club were closed (I thought those places NEVER closed).

After that we got on an F train headed for Delancy Street. When we arrived we went to Katz's Delicatessen. It was a true New York Deli, they had everything from sandwiches, Hamburgers, Fries and would even ship the Salami of your dreams to you. After having dinner there, we went on the J/Z Line to Canal Street and Transferred to the "R" Train. I now know why I don't see too many fat New Yorkers, if you use the subways enough you get plenty of workout navigating the passage ways and all the stairs, to transfer from the J to the R there must have been no less than 4 sets of stairs, a walk down a full of a 10 car platform, and than another half block walk in a tunnel to get to the other platform. A lot of these transfers seem to be the same way.

After getting on the R train we rode to Whitehall street and got off, after a quick stroll through battery park we got photos from shore of the statue of liberty and Ellis island. After that we decided we had not ridden any NYC buses on this trip, so we rode the M15 SBS all the way to 125th Street with a Nova LFS Artic and transferred to a Bx15 to get to the 125th A/B/C/D stop. We had a New Flyer D60 for that. At 125th St we got on a R32 C train for the ride back to 42nd St / Port Authority and than on the #320 bus back to the hotel.

Manhattan and the Under Construction 1 WTC

The Reflecting Pool at the 9/11 Memorial

Nova LFS #1263 on the M15 SBS at 1st and 125th St

MCI D4500 #7132 on the #320 in Seacacus