by Guy Martin
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Product Description
New York City has one of the finest and largest transit systems in the country. Beginning with early horse-drawn omnibuses, followed by battery-operated streetcars and electric street railway systems, finally by 1947 most of New York converted to buses. After WWII bus manufacturers including General Motors and Mack developed modern, larger buses to the City of New York's exclusive specifications. This book portrays each of the eleven bus companies (private and city owned) that provided service to patrons from post-WWII era through the late 1970s. A concise history for each company is provided along with route schematics and large format pictures of buses operating in New York City.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 This book should stimulate more interest for future NYC bus books!, 2008-04-25
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.
0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
great book, 2006-02-23
bought it for my partner. his uncle is in one of the pictures. we didn't know that. fast delivery too.cheers.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
A great book for any bus fan, 2006-01-13
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.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Catch The "Fallen Flag" Buses, 2005-11-03
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.
4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
 A Disappointment, 2005-10-30
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
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