newsnot
110 posts
Sep 12, 2009
12:33 PM
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does anyone know about the status of the dayton historic bus fleet? rta has some old trolley buses that are supposed to be restored.
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dquartz
141 posts
Sep 12, 2009
3:40 PM
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newsnot: i never heard of this project. riverdale seems to be the bus guru on here maybe he knows. he had a post started about all of the old bus lines that used to run in dayton but i cant find it right now it looks like it is gone ?..from what he said in that post there was a bunch of bus companies that used to serve the dayton and outlying areas ?
does anybody remember any other bus companys on the streets back in the 60s or 70s ?
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RIVERDALE RAT
250 posts
Sep 12, 2009
4:48 PM
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newsnot: Not quite at guru status but thanks for attempting to elevate me there..lol I was always somewhat of a bus nut as a kid because I always imagined that a bus could whisk you away to some far off mysterious corner of town that you have never explored. I did have a post on here about some regional bus lines that served Dayton, I deleted it for lack of interest after several weeks with no response. it's just a good neighbor thing I try to do in order to keep the board from getting cluttered up with topics that interest no one except me.
newsnot: I also have no information on that project. I saw some pictures of old trolley's sitting at the carrilion park, is this what you are thinking of ?
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newsnot
115 posts
Sep 13, 2009
6:43 AM
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riverdale,
a few years back rta was atempting to put together a historic fleet of trolley buses. i know thay had a very old one from milwauke and an old marmon herrington from their own fleet. not sure on the status of this project.
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newsnot
120 posts
Sep 13, 2009
11:23 AM
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pie8me,
now i should have known that. they have a huge fleet of trolley buses. we are lucky to have them in dayton. they are neat!!
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dquartz
153 posts
Sep 13, 2009
1:50 PM
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what used to amaze me was they were iron horses. you couldnt kill them and i almost never remember one of them breaking down. some of the old trolleys that dayton used came from other cities after yeas of service and still ran like warriors for years on end.
the bad part like someone else mentioned in the lorain bus thread was they were difficult to detour around road construction or accidents because without troley wires you had no bus.
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bevy
14 posts
Sep 16, 2009
3:19 AM
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The first time I was allowed to ride the bus downtown by myself I forgot to pull the cord and rode it all the way back around,I was scared at first , but then I got sleepy and was ok. I did get off the next time it went thru town!! I never told my dad , he wouldn't have let me go by myself any more. I think I was about
11 or 12.
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RIVERDALE RAT
331 posts
Sep 19, 2009
8:58 PM
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bevy: the same exact thing happened to me when I was on the way back downtown from north Dayton. I fell asleep on the Trolley and ended up out by Lakeside Amusement Park. I think I may have posted this on another thread already. this was only a few weeks after the riots in Dayton and there was still a lot of tension in the air. I can remember being the only white kid on the bus and scared to death. everybody was nice to me though and I soon stopped worrying. I told two of the black kids that I used to hang out with at the YMCA about it and they couldnt stop laughing at me. it worked out pretty well cause they got distracted and I was able to beat them in Ping Pong. I almost never won against those two especially Eddie Grant. those were good times.
Last Edited by on Sep 19, 2009 9:02 PM
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RIVERDALE RAT
393 posts
Oct 03, 2009
8:05 PM
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Bevy: I remember hearing my parents talking about a Brown Oakwood Bus. I would have never thought of that again. this would have been a long time ago, maybe in the 40s or early 50s.
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dquartz
261 posts
Oct 04, 2009
2:02 AM
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i remember the sparks very well and it seemed like they were worse during colder weather. i also remember the drivers having to get off the bus and put the trolleys back on the wire by using the two ropes that ran down the back of the bus. we used to laugh and say that the driver popped his trolley. i think this happened most often when a corner was turned too fast or the driver didnt slow down enough when passing a major 4-6 way connector.
newsnot...what ever happened to you ? are you still among us ? you have been mia for a long time.
Last Edited by on Oct 04, 2009 2:10 AM
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Marck1957
87 posts
Oct 04, 2009
5:00 AM
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I was a Journal Herald paperboy in the late 60s and early 70s and I recall the sparks too. I remember it occuring whenever there was ice on the trolley wires in the winter. There would be large blue sparks when the buses poles hit the ice on the overhead wires during the buses first run of the day. It would light up the night sky like some giant flash bulb. I could tell that the bus was coming out of downtown by the flashes, even when the bus was miles away.
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Marck1957
92 posts
Oct 04, 2009
10:32 AM
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Did Dayton buses have those signs for "coloreds to the rear"? I don't remember them, but I was young in those days. Please tell me that our buses did not do that!
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RIVERDALE RAT
409 posts
Oct 04, 2009
7:33 PM
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Thomas6: this had to be at least back in the 50s. I rode all of those lines as a child in the 60s and I dont recall that. I even remember a few black operators. one name that comes to mind was Mr. Newbury who used to operate the #8 Trolley.
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thomas6
14 posts
Oct 07, 2009
7:35 AM
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yes this was back in the 50s and yes dayton did that sort of thing,but it was normal and everyone knew there place,if you know what i mean,i just remember cause i had some black friend and we never could figure it out,untill later on in life of coarse
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pie8me
72 posts
Oct 14, 2009
8:57 AM
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At one time, NCR had busses that it used to shuttle it's employees to and from work. I wonder if the bus barns on Brown street tied into this in any way?
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Mikey
65 posts
Oct 15, 2009
5:09 PM
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I don't think so. It was quite busy as The Oakwood Street Railway barn and maintenance shop. My family had a large NCR (THE CASH!) contingent from as far back as the 20s and I never heard anyone speak of it.
BTW: My scrambled brain now registers a few brown diesel busses. Am I losing it?
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Mikey, Gatlinburg, TN
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etbetb
12 posts
Oct 16, 2009
7:49 PM
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There's a lot to post about here. Sorry I'm late to the party.
Do pictures exist of the RTA's historic fleet? I'm glad you asked. Originally, they were under US-35 on Washington St:
http://www.daytontrolleys.net/pictures/pictures_misct.htm
They've moved out to Northwest Hub now:
http://www.daytontrolleys.net/pictures/htm/usa_h_day_mbsfantrip2007_histfleet_bbc_109_01_20071006_rtm.htm
The buses newsnot wondered about, Marmon Herrington 501 and ex-MST Pullman 350 are as follows. 501 is up at Northwest Hub and is currently inoperable. 350 went to the Illinois Railway Museum, and will likely someday operate ... once they fix all the rust from it sitting out for so many years. Unfortunately, I don't have a shot of 350 at the IRM, but they have lots of trolleybuses:
http://www.trolleybuses.net/irm/irm.htm
dquartz:
Here's the listing of where the second and thirdhand buses came from:
http://www.daytontrolleys.net/used/usedcoaches.html
Sparks from the line:
http://www.youtube.com/daytontrolleys#p/u/8/05xtiv3sbR4
http://www.youtube.com/daytontrolleys#p/u/6/dKhMwrGUMcI
Brown Oakwood bus?
http://www.youtube.com/daytontrolleys#p/u/1/m1-zrI0wHcA
The Oakwood Street Railway (later the Oakwood Dayton Transit Company) ran from Fifth down Brown, where the street changed to Oakwood Ave, out Far Hills, to a loop at Monteray in 1915. When the trolleybus came in 1936, the line was extended to "Dell Park Loop", which is between Wonderly and Claranna in Oakwood. In approximately 1950, the line was extended to loop Dorothy Lane, Shafor, Brydon back to Far Hills. In 1957 (or so) the loop was reversed to Brydon, Shafor, Dorothy Lane to Far Hills.
The original color of the buses has been related to me as about the color of a Hershey's wrapper. A very dark brown, but not black.
Start with this photo:
http://www.trolleybuses.net/day/htm/usa_h_day_ps_odtc24_02_rt5shaforbrydonlayoverccwloop_1953_glaze.htm
and "Forward" your way thru to see them in living color.
Mikey:
Oakwood Street also owned the Dayton Suburban bus lines, which ran the Shroyer Road diesel bus, a bus on several routes in Kettering, and the diesel into Belmont. The Dayton-Xenia Railway ran trolleybuses on the Watervliet line, but they weren't related to Oakwood Street in any way. You don't misremember Oakwood Street brown diesels -- look at the far right of this picture:
http://www.trolleybuses.net/day/htm/usa_h_day_ps_dx58_rt10mainloews_1953_glaze.htm
Here's a pusher truck:
http://www.trolleybuses.net/day/htm/usa_h_day_misc_linetruck76_thirdbroadway_197111_ss.htm
Frank Z Chevrolet definitely was the Oakwood Street carbarn. it was built in 1913 or so for streetcars, after a disasterous fire at the Oakwood Street carbarn then at Fairground and Brown, the site today of Second Time Around Records. Interestingly, the building at 1141 Brown (just south of Second Time Around) is believed to be the former Oakwood Street powerhouse, which apparently didn't burn down with the rest of the carbarn.
When Oakwood Street and City Transit merged in 1956, the property became a Chevy dealer, which it still is today. More info on the different streetcar and trolleybus operators here:
http://www.daytontrolleys.net/routes/routes.html
The barn at Smithville and Watervliet was for the Dayton-Xenia trolleybus operation
http://www.trolleybuses.net/day/htm/usa_h_day_ps_dx61_rt10nbwatervlietsmithville_1953_glaze.htm
Mikey:
"Sleet scrapers" or "ice shoes".
Newsnot:
Not sure if the RTA has any diesel sleet scrapers left. Originally they were 825 and 841, then 633-636, and lately 9735 and 9740. here's video of 633 cutting ice:
http://www.youtube.com/daytontrolleys#p/u/7/TF5OQE6uqYQ
pie8me: NCR's transit operation wasn't tied into Oakwood Street Railway at all.
Hopefully that addresses a few questions.
C'ya
Tom
Tom's Trolleybus Pix
www.trolleybuses.net
Dayton Trolleys
www.daytontrolleys.net
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rdebross
39 posts
Jan 31, 2013
1:51 PM
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The Dayton-Xenia Railway Co. operated electric trackless trolleys on the Ewalt line in the early 1950's. The livery color was dark green. I can remember walking up to Wyoming St. on St. Joseph Ave. with my father to take one of these buses to the Montgomery County Fair. Probably around 1953 or so. Like olds88's report on Oakwood street railway above, the company lined 3 or 4 extra electric trolley's along Wyoming street east of MVH for use later in the day when people were leaving the fairgrounds in large numbers. City Railway (City Transit Co.) bought both the Oakwood and the D-X lines sometime in the second half of the 1950's. The trolleys all became yellow.
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