'The Connecticut Company # 811'

[Mr. Linsky]

Pictured signed for Spring Glen via Whitney Avenue in the Hamden area of Connecticut is fleet # 811 - a 1942 Yellow Coach Model TG 3606 (hydraulic transmission) and one of seventeen likenesses delivered in increments to The Connecticut Company of New Haven, Connecticut during that year.

The war was already going full tilt and any bus production was supervised by the U.S. Government Office of Defense Transportation (ODT) and favored only operators who were actively involved in transporting military personnel and defense workers to their appointed duties.

The Connecticut Company, a subsidiary of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, served a state very heavily involved in both small arms and submarine manufacture to say the least and rose to the top of the list when it came to special needs.

Buses built at the time were austere with all being painted the same white over gray with plain lettering, no exterior bright work, and either painted steel or wooden passenger rails and seat backs in place of stainless steel.

Thinner gauge steel replaced aluminum sheet metal with extra support as can be seen with the use of a double set of ribs just under # 811's fuel tank filler.

Of further note on # 811 is the ODT contract number under the second passenger window and a rather strange set of markers over the destination sign.

Photo thanks to eBay.

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, New York

Brentwood, Ca. office