Ghost Bus spotted in Manhattan

The merry pranksters at New York's MTA are turning the holiday season into a kooky, trip-your-brains-out, you've-fallen-down-a-wormhole, what-in-the-name-of-all-that's-holy-is-happening-to-you time-travel freakout by putting a vintage 1958 GM bus into service on a selection of routes. Reader Dimitrios Gazis filed a full dispatch with the Jeremiah's Vanishing New York blog, and reports that "the noise and the stench of diesel was comforting." A reader of the EV Grieve blog, meanwhile, caught the bus, #9098, in transit on 34th Street between First and Second Avenues. That's his photo above. The whole thing is nutty and beautiful. I miss New York.

Bill Barol is the author of Thanks For Killing Me, a novel. He blogs at Extra Bonus Super Happy Funtime.

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adamnvillani

Neat idea. I wonder if it had any accommodations for wheelchair users. It’s pretty amazing to think of how much they’ve improved buses over the years… low floors, CNG power, electronic signage, etc.
- Anonymous
  
  omaha has buses?
neward

Hey! I saw this yesterday. I almost considered running after it and jumping on.
hershmire

I passed one of these on my bike two days ago and did a double-take – almost getting me doored. I would have hopped on if I had my fare card.
Anonymous

If they really wanted take this to it’s logical end they’d hire a Ralph Kramden impersonator to drive it. To the moon, Alice!
AGC

Built in 1958 eh? Here in Toronto some of the buses we have running on the road were built in the 1968. I say if it has wheels let it roll.
- Anonymous
  
  Do they? I know they still have a pair of streetcars built in the early ’50s that are running, but I’ve never come across any buses from later than the ’90s.
Anonymous

They do this every year. They also run vintage subway cars.
AnnieGetYourFun

Huh. If that counts as “trippy”, perhaps I have become too jaded. I wouldn’t even look twice if I saw that bus on the street.
KeithIrwin

I hope that they retrofitted it with a catalytic converter, otherwise that bus with be emitting more pollutants than a couple of hundred cars combined.
EH

Jeez, I guess some people haven’t seen “Ghost World!”
nixiebunny

Whoa! I drive a 1958 Chevy station wagon with the same two-tone paint scheme of seafoam green over forest green.

It’s the Uncanny Valley of motor vehicles.
Sorcerer Mickey

They need to fill it with actors (Improv Everywhere?) dressed in 1958 clothes, reading 1958 LIFE Magazines and such.
- Mark Dow
  
  And to complete the illusion, have Ralph Kramden as driver.
  
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Honeymooners#Ralph_Kramden
- Micah
  
  I sent your idea on to Charlie Todd at ImprovEverywhere (with credit to you) and he pointed out that somebody else already did it:
  
  http://urbanprankster.com/2010/01/nostalgia-train-tea-party/
Anonymous

Plenty of Routemasters going strong (the classic London Bus) which are from the same area – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Routemaster
Guesstimate Jones

Those buses were still being used, up until the early 1980′s in Santa Clara County…I used to ride one home from school.
emilydickinsonridesabmx

Being a lifelong NY’er, I of course have my complaints about the MTA. One thing they do really well though is preserve and grant access to the history of public transport in NYC. In addition to running the busses, they also run old subway cars from time to time. The “Nostalgia” trains are fantastic. They even have the vintage ads from the correct time periods on the cars, which makes riding them that much more fun.

If anyone is interested, I shot a bunch of photos of the old subway cars, exteriors, interiors and ads: http://bit.ly/3oO2zM
Anonymous

The Nostalgia trains are a big hit among the vintage “cosplayers”. They dress up every year and have a jazz band playing on the trains and platforms where people dance.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/12/swing-into-the-holidays-ride-vintage-subway.php (pics)

http://www.jaunted.com/story/2010/12/20/144239/31/travel (video)
Anonymous

’tis a beautiful bus! I saw this very one (I assume), when visiting the beautiful NYC not a couple of months ago. http://www.flickr.com/photos/dougmcneall/5027988502/
jphilby

The instant I saw the picture I thought of the bus in “Hearts and Souls”.

http://imcdb.org/vehicle_78703-GM-TDH-4801.html
technogeek

“I miss New York” — yeah, at times.

For those of us old enough to remember those busses, it would indeed produce a double-take and a smile, as a classic car does. I’m not sure I’d recognize it specifically or as an original, but I can’t tell an original model T from a repro either but I approve of anyone who’ll put either on the street.

I think I remember seeing old subway cars on occasion; I don’t remember seeing old busses. Nice. Though I sorta think that the ideal would be to bring either one out as part of a theme fundraiser, and (as suggested above) encourage costuming appropriate to the bus’s service period. Which, if it went into service in ’58, actually covers a pretty wide range of options — plus just about any country’s more traditional upscale garb; these busses ran past the UN, and NY has always gotten tourists from all over the world.

Pollution: Granted. Though it’s worth running an old engine now and then despite pollution; it actually lasts better if it has the chance to warm up and circulate its oil occasionally.
So It’s Come To This

This bus is one of the Nostalgia Rides The MTA runs durring the holiday season. In the past years, the old buses ran in Queens. But this year, they ran in Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan. Also every year, are the Nostalgia subway cars which run on the M line (used to be the V line) from 2nd Ave to a stop in Queens (I forgot which one).

The train cars are from the 30′s an 40′s.

You can see all the MTA’s subway cars at the Transit Meusum in Brooklyn. I loved going there.

Granted, I’m a history buff and married to a native New Yorker.
Pip_R_Lagenta

I love the F-Line!
http://www.sfmta.com/cms/mfleet/histcars.php
Anonymous

Why is the bus in the normal lane, and the mercedes s class next to it in the bus lane?
Anonymous

Nostalgia rides? 1958? What? Here in San Francisco we run streetcars from nineteen TWENTY-eight. The oldest are thirty-odd years older than that. They’re run on a daily basis (and can be chartered). I don’t miss living along a route that was service by the noisy smokey two-stroke diesel buses tho.
Anonymous

This is fantastic. I love seeing people taking action to keep whimsy alive.

I have one problem though. I am new to New York. Where do I find all the maker, happy mutant, steampunk, futurist things to involve myself in?
Anonymous

Huh, that bus looks familiar:

http://www.rosapark.com/rosaparks.htm
Anonymous

Wow… I guess this shows what an old fart I am. I looked at that bus and didn’t see anything out of the ordinary about it. Just looked like a normal bus to me, like the ones I used to ride every day.

Okay, I better go take a nap now.
zapan

I want to go there and sit in the back with a cute brunette named Enid.
acmeaviator

The T.A.N.K. bus line that provides service to Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky has a bus of about the same vintage that they pull out for special occasions. I think its a nice way of seeing some history in action.
Anonymous

Omaha has 3 of those in regular service.
(or, at least, buses that look a heck of a lot like that.)