I am curious, I have seen other members post about finding the origins of their buses...
I'm a newbie to the conversion world, and the rv world in general.
I recently purchased a 1965 GMC TDM 5303 017.... is there any way to know where it spend it service life? or at least where it was originally sold?
Its original colors were blue and chrome according to the title, now its white....and the paint left on interior is a medium blue color.
And again.. any help is appreciated... thanks to everyone!
Big Noah and the 5303
Hello Wonder,
According to production lists shared by the kind folks at The Ohio Museum of Tranportation, 5303-17 was originaly delivered to Philadelphia Transportation Company.
http://www.omot.org/roster/GMList/tdh5303.html (http://www.omot.org/roster/GMList/tdh5303.html)
Ted
Ted,
thank u for the info!
do you know anything more about the philly transportation dept?
I also noticed the link ya shared was for a hydraulic trans... being mine is a TOM not a TDH is that the same?
Which using the same website makes it a greyhound bus western division..California??
I don't know if this is good or bad but kinda makes sense with the color scheme
I goofed on the model prefix and link, CA Greyhound sounds right.
Don't know any more about Philly or the Ohio group, I just remembered stumbling across the site.
Ted
Noah -
With Ted's link, your sleuthing is correct - you've got a "jen-u-wine retired Greyhound bus!"
And if you do a little doodling, you'll find that it's original fleet number was 9613 when it was delivered in June/July of 1975.
For the most part, Hound used these on the commuter runs in the San Francisco Bay Area. The majority were on the Peninsula, pounding the pavement on the El Camino Real round tripping from San Jose, but also coming into the City from Marin County, across the Golden Gate Bridge. A small percentage were used in the LA and San Diego areas, but the majority were up north.
At that time, Greyhound had a fantastic maintenance facility off 7th St in SF, so your coach was well taken care of while owned by Hound.
More trivia: Since these were used in suburban service, the manual gearbox actually has slightly different gear ratios than the Spicer used for the highway models. A lower 1st gear to get you rolling, but a bigger 3/4 gap on the other end. Ted Campbell of Coach Maintenance in Williams CA, is very familiar with this, and, much to the chagrin of several, hasn't found a way yet to mix/match the suburban/highway gearsets to squelch the "too high a first gear" challenge of the highway cars.
Enjoy your new toy!
FWIW & HTH. . .
;)
Rj was that 1965 or1975as you stated? As the poster said it was a1965.
Wow thanks to everyone for the info... its really interesting to get a lil background on my old coach...... ill have to do a little more cybet sleuthing to see if I can find out any more info! Since the plan is to go back to the west coast its neat to know that's where the bus started its life.....(although we'll be in Washington state not cali.) I did grow up in the bay area of California....small world
Thanks again, you all consistently amaze me
Big noah
With the great information I was able to find a norcal bus fan website....and viola! our bus pounding pavement in northern california!
that is really cool that you found that photo!
Thomas -
Yup, it's a 1965. Fat fingers on the keyboard last nite!
Noah -
Very cool that you found that photo. Jim Husing has taken hundreds of photos of coaches in the Bay Area for a long time, not surprised he snapped yours.
That pic looks like it was taken in San Francisco - see the ETB overhead lines in the background.
What part of the Bay Area did you grow up in? My childhood stomping grounds were in Campbell/Los Gatos/Saratoga.
FWIW & HTH. . .
;)
That picture is just cool. I wish I could get some pics of my bus like that.
Eric
Another fishbowl owner!
Our numbers are gorwing.
Seaton
Yea its a really neat pic.......there is another one on that site of it in front of a very Spanish looking depot.....
I really like my fishbowl.....and im super stoked about the pics
RJ,
I actually grew up north of the bay area in Vacaville.... but did live in vallejo for a short time.
Noah
Just as an FYI. There are two types of GM 5303s. The TDM and TDH models are 102-inch wide transits and the SDM and SDHs are 96-inch wide suburbans. The 5303 transits are widely believed to be the best fishbowls built. You have a great bus. Enjoy and post pictures!
Seaton
Season
thank you for the information... I thought the suburbans had only the one door and the transits had the two doors....that's a valuable piece of information! Ill have some pics to come as I just purchased a washer/dryer all in one combo for it and got a screaming deal!!!
now I just have to plumb it in lol.......
thanks
noah
Noah -
Seaton's right.
But. . .
Greyhound ordered your coach, along with 62 others, with manual gearboxes, single front doors and rear door delete on the T shell. Obviously, GM built them for Hound as they were ordered.
You'll find a lot of this mix/match stuff in the transit/suburban market, far less so in the highway models. Virtually every bus manufactured for this market is customized for the customer, even today.
FWIW & HTH. . .
;)
Rj and seaton
Ty for the knowledge......seems I learn more about my bus everyday from you super knowledgeable folks.....
My regular gas and diesel mechanical skills are probably above average but I don't even claim to know too much about the bigger diesel stuff like what I have now.
so all help is definitely appreciated!
thanks again
Noah