This time around we are going to look at the GM (later GMC) New Look “Fishbowl” bus. I don’t know the exact year and model numbers of all of these, so think of these more as a look at liveries. There will be several more of these posts since there are a lot I have drawn up and want to draw up. The hard part is finding good references.
We will start in New York City going from the 1960s to 1990s. The New York City Transit Authority ran several models of Fishbowls. The ones that left service in the 1990s were rebuilt in the 1980s from buses from the 1970s.
Next up is Toronto. The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) hand an even longer run with the Fishbowls. They even had the smaller 35 foot model. The TTC rebuilt some of their buses in the late 1990s. The last of were retired in 2011. Not bad for a 1950s design.
Here is an Atlanta Ga. Transit Authority bus during the early 1960’s – Early 1970’s when Atlanta Transit was beginning to be reorganized as MARTA – Metro Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, which was the start of the changes that were about to change the look of Public Transportation in the Metro Atlanta area.
The old GM/GMC City Slicker AKA ” Fishbowl ” began their being slowly replace by the modern buses which are now in the 2000’s covered in all kind of advertising and body wraps changing the entire look of the busses.
The way the side windows lean forward, the paint scheme rolls down and around the bottom front corners, and the windshield sides get pulled around the corners a bit, all gives a fluid and dramatic sensation of speed and motion. I don’t know of any other public conveyance that did such a good and thorough job of signaling motion even while standing still. From a purely exterior design aesthetic standpoint, these buses will never be equaled. Your front quarter view of this particular Atlanta bus shows off all of it very well.
That livery is quite similar to Portland’s. I wonder if there was a special on orange paint back then.
I’m not sure if the ” Orange ” paint was a specialized color or not, but Atlanta Transit Authority use the Orange color in conjunction with a cream color during the late 1940’s to the 1950’s in various styles on the Electric and then Diesel Busses until the MARTA takeover with the Orange on the lower sections with the Cream over the upper section until the newer liveries of the 1960’s when the color scheme was changed to Orange with a White roof top color change. The first MARTA busses were white without advertisements until a policy change in the late to early 1980’s when advertising bean taking over the sides then front an rear of the busses.
I totally agree with you about the paint scheme showing off the busses lines and be attractive. I rode on many of these during my youth with my mother and can still remember many things about these bus rides such as the drone of the engine and the ride itself as being a pleasant ride… abet squeaky over the intersections in Atlanta.
These can do amazing jumps over incompleted highway ramps.
I know because I saw it in the documentary “Speed” hosted by Keanu “Woah” Reeves.
That front window, the way it curved out, really offered incoming passengers a friendly, opening view. Kind of welcoming. I loved those buses.
City Pulse – was a news program on CITY TV, Local announcer Mark Daley did the intro to that show, in his deep voice – “City News – Everywhere!”
Star Trek TNG being on Saturday nights at 8 PM was directly opposite of Hockey Night in Canada all through October to June, so suffered in viewership here.
I’m greatly enjoying these .
-Nate
Growing up in the east Bay in the 60’s/70’s, we had AC Transit fishbowls and I was mesmerized the first time I watched the driver maneuver that beast around a traffic-filled corner and whip it into the next stop without hesitation. My first ride may have been going to see Diamonds Are Forever with my cousin Jeff in 1971, cruising down San Pablo and Solano Avenues as I was fixated on the driver’s ability to not run over every object around him. Dutch’s description above is dead-on for me. Thanks, CC.
The ads on the MTA buses really take me back since both Eastern Airlines and Chemical Bank are long gone. I also used to listen to WPLJ pre Howard Stern before switching to the more avant garde WLIR. I occasionally rode these fish bowls although the city and suburban routes I rode in the 80s were mostly GM RTS.
I totally agree with you about the paint scheme showing off the busses lines and be attractive. I rode on many of these during my youth with my mother and can still remember many things about these bus rides such as the drone of the engine and the ride itself as being a pleasant ride… abet squeaky over the intersections in Atlanta.
I still remember the first time I saw one of these fishbowl buses; it was in the early 60s on the street on which I grew up in suburban Pittsburgh. This was before the county took over the transit system under the PATCO name (Port Authority Transit Corp). The early buses that served our area were run by the Shafer Coach Lines and had an ivory and medium green livery.
To me, great fun to drive with the commanding visibility of the fishbowl windshield and the tall driver’s side window.
It should not be overlooked that the two section entry door was a vast improvement in visibility over the “old look” door that folded into four parts and had the much smaller glass inserts.
The Eastern Airlines ads are so retro. They so dominated the East coast, Florida, and the Caribbean in their day. The only issue was that you had to go through ATL to get anywhere which was a real pain in the arse.
National also had a strong hold in Miami, but they were more focused on east – west service IIRC.
Great artwork on both the buses and the billboard ads.
As an airline buff I remember (and flew) Eastern out of Orlando in the ’70s and ’80s when it was “the official airline of Walt Disney World” and MCO was not a modern international airport but a few buildings adjacent to the former McCoy Air Force Base (hence the code “MCO” for Orlando).
Also the WINS radio ad shows the distinctive Westinghouse Broadcasting (“Group W”) typeface introduced in 1963 and still used by some stations.
Another commonly advertised product on the sides of buses around this time was “Porcelana”, a cosmetic that came in a jar and was designed to remove “age spots”.
Los Angles MTA green livery when these were first put in service.
I’ve ridden on many a TTC Fishbowl over the years with the red and white colour scheme – the cream and maroon ones likely predated my moving to Toronto in the late ‘80’s. The one I rode many times was the #25 Don Mills bus from Pape subway station – I worked in Don Mills for quite a few years. I’ve seen one maroon and cream Fishbowl. It was parked at a movie lot down on Lakeshore where they keep a few older vehicles for when they need an authentic period vehicle. They’re great old buses. The fact that they were around for so long is a tribute to the original goodness of the design.
Green gmc fishbowl