Dr. D.B. “Doc” Rushing
© Copyright, 2009, 2022, Duncan Bryant Rushing
Preface
Central Greyhound Lines is a name used in six different applications within the Greyhound Lines.
Contents
Introduction
GLI of Indiana
GLI of Ohio
GLI of Delaware
The First Central GL
The First Ohio GL
Some Background of the Second Central GL
EGL of Michigan
EGL of Ohio
More Background of the Second Central GL
The First Eastern GL
The Second and Third Central GL
The Fourth Central GL
More Growth of the Second Central GL
Further Events of the Second Central GL
Merger of the Second CGL into the Pennsylvania GL
Through-coaches on Through-routes
Meeting Other Greyhound Companies
The Fifth Central GL
The Sixth Central GL
Beyond the Fifth Central GL
Conclusion
Very Special Articles
Related Articles
Bibliography
Introduction
Central Greyhound Lines is a name used in six different contexts or applications in the intercity highway-coach industry in the USA. In each of the first five instances, Greyhound used that name for a regional operating company (that is, a division or subsidiary) of The Greyhound Corporation, which was the parent umbrella Greyhound firm. However, in the sixth and last instance, Greyhound used that name for an internal administrative department (in accounting and other such management functions) of the second Greyhound Lines, Inc. (the second GLI).
The names and organizations described in this article and the changes in them, especially with regard to the large number of similar (and sometimes identical) names, along with the many changes in them, are the most confused and complicated ones anywhere in the history of the Greyhound Lines (GL).
GLI of Indiana
Late in the 1920s there were three Greyhound subsidiaries (not divisions) which used the name of the Greyhound Lines, Inc. (the GLI) – that is, the GLI of Indiana, the GLI of Ohio, and the GLI of Delaware. Those three firms are sometimes known collectively as the first GLI (or the first GLIs in the plural). [The GLI of Ohio, which ran in 1927-30, was separate and different from both the first Ohio GL, which ran in 1935-41, and the second Ohio GL, which ran in 1946-48.]
As you see, the potential for confusion and complexity in the names has already begun; it will soon become even greater, so please fasten your seat belt.
Please bear in mind that I’m a longtime tutor, mentor, coach, guide, teacher, instructor, and professor, as well as a longtime writer and editor, so I have some deeply ingrained tendencies to offer many tips, cautions, explanations, and reminders – to help others to deal with difficult and challenging points – so I’ll repeatedly insert many pointers about the potentially confusing and complicating names and changes in this article. If you continue to read here, you’ll soon see what I mean. The repetitions help me to learn and understand material of this sort and to remember it, so maybe they’ll help you too. I hope so.
[If you wish, please read my article about the differences between divisions and subsidiaries of corporations.]
The Motor Transit Corporation (MTC), the original Greyhound firm, before it became renamed as The Greyhound Corporation (with an uppercase T because the word the was an integral part of the official name), started a new route between Chicago, Illinois, and Indianapolis, Indiana, in February 1927, five months after its formation (as the MTC).
To obey an Indiana statute (one which required that corporations doing business in the Hoosier State be “domiciled” there), the MTC in November 1926 created a wholly owned subsidiary (not a division), based in Indiana and named as the Greyhound Lines, Inc., of Indiana (the GLI of Indiana), to conduct the route between Chicago and Indianapolis, which was and still is almost entirely in Indiana. The operation of that new route started in February 1927, using Fageol (pronounced as “fad-jull,” rhyming with “fragile” or “satchel”) Safety Coaches, apparently transferred from Edwin Ekstrom’s Safety Motor Coach Lines, which he operated in western Michigan and onward to Chicago. [More about the Safety Motor Coach Lines is available below, in the section about the second Central GL, and much more is available in my article about the Great Lakes GL.]
Thus the GLI of Indiana became the first business unit of the growing Greyhound empire to make a public use of the name of the Greyhound Lines.
The GLI of Indiana in September 1928 took over also the third Blue Goose Lines, which had started in December 1925, and which had made the third use of that same name by the same founders, running in the Hoosier State from Indianapolis southwardly to Evansville and northwardly to Kokomo and onward to Fort Wayne, all four in Indiana. The MTC bought the third Blue Goose Lines from Ralph A.L. Bogan and Swan Sundstrom, two original busmen (and collaborators of Carl Eric Wickman, the main founder of the Greyhound empire) from northern Minnesota. The GLI of Indiana later extended from Fort Wayne to Detroit.
[Bogan and Sundstrom in 1922 had used the same brand name (Blue Goose Lines) for a previous bus company (the Gray Motor Stage Line, running in Wisconsin, between Janesville and Watertown); in -23 they used it again for their Detroit-Toledo Transportation Company; then in -25 they used it yet again for their third Blue Goose Lines (as described above in the previous paragraph). Eventually all three of those routes became segments of the growing Greyhound route network.]
[Originally the route between Indianapolis and Kokomo had been a property of Sundstrom and George Watson, the latter of whom later became the president of the Greyvan Lines, which even later became renamed as the Greyhound Van Lines.]
[The two sellers of the three Blue Goose firms (Bogan and Sundstrom) continued as key players at Greyhound. Bogan later served as the vice president of The Greyhound Corporation during the presidencies of both Wickman and Orville Swan “Sven” Caesar (who also had been one of the original busmen and collaborators of Wickman in northern Minnesota). Sundstrom later served as the longtime president of the Pennsylvania GL and concurrently as the vice president of the Richmond GL.]
[Incidentally, the life and the career of Ralph Bogan were varied and colorful: His first wife was Margaret “Peggy” Wickman, who was the daughter of Carl Eric Wickman (the main founder of the Greyhound empire). Bogan managed the Greyhound transit services at the World’s Fairs in Chicago in 1933-34, in Cleveland in 1936-37, and in New York City in 1939-40. During World War II (WW2) he served as a commissioned officer (a commander) in the US Naval Reserve, and he organized and operated transport services for the federal Office of Defense Transportation (ODT).]
On 05 February 1930 the MTC became renamed as The Greyhound Corporation.
GLI of Ohio
In November 1926 the MTC created also a sister subsidiary (not a division), named as the Greyhound Lines, Inc., of Ohio (the GLI of Ohio), which in June 1927 took over the Indianapolis-Cincinnati Bus Company, running between those two named cities, using Fageol Safety Coaches and at least one ACF. Despite the name of the GLI of Ohio, that corporation too was based in Indiana (to obey the Indiana statute described above in the previous section).
Then a year later, in November 1927, the GLI of Ohio (which, again, as described above, in the previous section, was separate and different from each of the two later iterations of the Ohio GL) took over the Detroit and Cincinnati Coach Lines, which had used the brand name, trade name, or service name of the Sunny South Lines, running between the two named cities. Thus Greyhound gained the intrastate rights in Ohio, in addition to the interstate rights, along a large part of the route between Detroit and Cincinnati. [Greyhound had bought that firm, in a typical move, through its related acquisition company, the Automotive Investments, Inc., based in Duluth, Minnesota.]
[The seller of the Sunny South Lines was Walter Nisun, who had founded it, and who later, about 1934, sold to the Pennsylvania GL another of his motor-coach properties, running between Detroit and Saint Louis, Missouri, via Fort Wayne and Indianapolis, both in the Hoosier State. Nisun also operated the Detroit-Chicago Motor Bus Company, which failed in business in 1929. Later, to run between Chicago and New York City, he formed the Ni Sun Lines, which took over the defunct Nuway Lines (formerly known as the Safeway Lines, which was separate and different from a later Trailways member company with a similar name, the Safeway Trails (the Safeway Trailways), which long ran between Washington, DC, and New York City, and which in 1936 was one of the five founding members of the National Trailways Bus System). Nisun then obtained for his Ni Sun Lines an Ohio certificate (just before the deadline before the new federal ICC began to exercise its new jurisdiction), and then, without operating Ni Sun, he sold it to the All American Bus Lines, which later became the American Buslines [sic]. That last firm later became merged with the first Burlington Trailways (another of the founding members of the Trailways association), and the resulting firm soon became bought and renamed as the Continental American Lines as a subsidiary (not a division) of the Transcontinental Bus System (the Continental Trailways), which in 1959 first enabled the Continental Trailways to reach from coast to coast, between California and New York.]
In November 1928 the GLI of Ohio further took over the Southland Transportation Company, which ran between Cincinnati and Louisville, Kentucky. Harris Spearin, with the backing and financing of Carl Eric Wickman (and his bankers) in Minnesota, had founded the Southland firm in 1925, after in -23 Spearin sold his White Bus Lines, running three routes based in Duluth, Minnesota, to Wickman’s Mesaba [sic] Motors Company, in Hibbing, Minnesota. [More about the White Bus Lines will be available in my forthcoming article about the Northland GL.]
Thus the GLI of Ohio completed its route between Detroit and Louisville, where, as well as in Cincinnati, it met the Consolidated Coach Corporation, which in 1931 began to use the name of the Southeastern Greyhound Lines (SEGL).
GLI of Delaware
For a short time during 1927-28 there was also a third subsidiary (of the MTC) using the name of the Greyhound Lines, Inc. – the Greyhound Lines, Inc., of Delaware (the GLI of Delaware), which came into existence to buy the Purple Swan Safety Coach Lines, running between Chicago and Kansas City, Missouri, via Saint Louis, Missouri, and which became renamed as the Pickwick-Greyhound (PG) Lines after the Pickwick Corporation bought a one-half ownership interest in that firm (hence the hyphenated name). Then in 1932, during the winding up of the parent Pickwick firm in bankruptcy proceedings, The Greyhound Corporation, under the supervision of the receiver and with the approval of the court, completely took over the Pickwick-Greyhound Lines.
Greyhound sold most of the routes and most of the coaches of the PG Lines, but Greyhound kept for itself (lawfully, properly, and with compensation to the receiver) several of those routes and some of those coaches in the greatly condensed leftover PG.
Greyhound likewise took over the sole ownership of both the Illinois GL, which had previously been a subsidiary of Pickwick-Greyhound, and what was left of the PG Lines (likewise with proper compensation to the receiver).
On 05 April 1932 Greyhound renamed its leftover remainder of the Pickwick-Greyhound Lines as the first Western Greyhound Lines, which ran between Kansas City and Los Angeles, California, via Albuquerque, New Mexico – in time to complete a Greyhound corridor between Southern California and the Chicago World’s Fair of 1933-34 (the International Exposition of a “Century of Progress”).
Seeking efficiency in its operations, on 01 October 1933 the Greyhound parent firm transferred that route (and the other related assets) to two of its other regional companies. The segment between Los Angeles and Albuquerque went to the Pacific GL, and the segment between Albuquerque and Kansas City went to the Southwestern GL. Greyhound then dissolved the empty corporate shell of the first Western GL (the remnant of what had been the PG Lines). [More about the Pickwick-Greyhound Lines, the Pacific GL, and the Southwestern GL will be available in my forthcoming articles bearing their respective names.]
Thus ended both the Pickwick-Greyhound Lines and the first Western GL.
Later the parent Greyhound firm transferred (from the PG Lines) the route segment between Saint Louis and Kansas City to the Southwestern GL and transferred the segment between Saint Louis and Chicago to the Illinois GL (then in 1948 to the second Central GL, then in -54 to the Great Lakes GL, which in -57 became a major part of the fifth Central GL). Thus ended both the GLI of Delaware and the Pickwick-Greyhound Lines.
[While the parent Pickwick firm ran a manufacturing operation, building Pickwick and Columbia Nite Coaches, the manager and chief engineer of the plant was Dwight Austin, who created and developed the Austin angle drive. After the collapse and bankruptcy of Pickwick, Austin in 1934 went to work for the Yellow Truck and Coach (T&C) Manufacturing Company, which then was a subsidiary of the GM Corporation, and which in -44 became reorganized and renamed as the GMC Truck and Coach (T&C) Division of the GM Corporation, based in Pontiac, Michigan. Austin assigned to T&C (for a consideration, of course) the right to use his patent for his angle drive, which T&C then used in most of its coaches (parlor, suburban, and city-transit) for the rest of its production. On 31 March 1943 Austin left T&C (by his resignation), and he moved to Kent, Ohio, where he next served as a consultant (by his choice, not an employee but rather an independent contractor) to the Fageol brothers and their Twin Coach Company, where he took part in styling and designing the post-WW2 Twin Coaches.]
{The famous Austin angle drive is a mechanical device which allows a transverse (crosswise) engine across the tail of a coach (or other vehicle) to turn the drive wheels. A typical arrangement with the angle drive calls for a transmission attached to the flywheel end of the transverse engine in the usual way – and for the angle drive attached to the output end of the transmission. The angle drive, using a pair of gears, then redirects the output (via a driveline) at an angle of about 135 degrees (diagonally) toward the differential – not a conventional differential but rather one designed and built in such a way that it receives the driveline from the rear of the axle at an angle of about 45 degrees (diagonally). The Austin angle drive was one of many significant factors which allowed T&C to achieve technical superiority and market dominance – until the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice forced the GM Corporation to turn over much of its intellectual property to its less inventive and less successful rivals. [If you wish, please read the section entitled “Governmental Intervention” in my article about the “The Scenicruiser.”]}
The First Central GL
In 1930 The Greyhound Corporation, the parent umbrella Greyhound firm, formed two new regional operating companies (as subsidiaries, not yet divisions) – the Pennsylvania GL and the first Central GL. [Finally we reach the first Central GL.]
The purpose of the Pennsylvania Greyhound Lines was to provide an entity in which the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) soon bought a minority interest – a subsidiary in a territory which coincided with the territory of the railway firm – so that the rail company could supplement its train service, substitute bus service in the place of some of its unprofitable or marginally profitable passenger trains, and (for the most important factor) make available more of its track capacity (some of which had become scarce and in demand) for the more profitable freight trains.
Greyhound then redistributed the routes of the GLI of Indiana (described above in the section bearing its name) and the GLI of Ohio (described above likewise in the section bearing its name) to the two new companies (the Pennsylvania GL and the first Central GL). The east-west routes went to the Pennsylvania GL, as did the other routes paralleling or coinciding with those of the “Pennsy” Railroad. The remaining routes (that is, those between Evansville and Indianapolis and between Detroit and Louisville) went to the first Central GL.
Thus began the Pennsylvania GL and the first Central GL, and thus ended the GLI of Ohio (although the GLI of Indiana continued to exist and to grow). [More about the PennGL is available in my article about that firm.]
The First Ohio GL
The first Central GL ran for five years, 1930-35; then The Greyhound Corporation renamed the first Central GL as the first Ohio GL, which was separate and different from three other subsidiaries with similar names:
the GLI of Ohio, which previously in 1927-30 had run between Detroit and Louisville via Cincinnati;
the Eastern GL of Ohio (the EGL of Ohio, not previously mentioned in this article but described below in the sections about some of the background of the second CGL and about the first EGL and in articles about several other Greyhound operating companies) — which in 1930-33 ran between Cleveland and Chicago with a branch between Detroit and Toledo;
and the second Ohio GL, which even later ran in 1946-48 in eastern Ohio and in nearby areas of Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
The purpose of that renaming in 1935 (from the first Central GL to the first Ohio GL) was to allow Greyhound to reassign the name Central to an even newer subsidiary (the second Central GL), in the Midwest and the Northeast, a subsidiary in an area which coincided with the territory of another major railway company, the New York Central (NYC) System, a property in which Greyhound transferred a minority non-voting interest to the NYC System. The Greyhound executives wanted the new company to bear a name (Central) which suggested the kinship of the Greyhound concern with the related railway firm (New York Central), as in the case of the neighboring Pennsylvania GL and the Pennsylvania Railroad.
[For several years during the 1930s the coaches of the Central GL and the Pennsylvania GL bore, in addition to their usual Greyhound markings, the respective logos of the related railway companies – the oval or ellipse of the NYC System and the keystone of the “Pennsy” Railroad.]
Despite the name of the first Ohio GL, that firm was based in Indiana (as had been the GLI of Indiana, the GLI of Ohio, and the first Central GL) to obey the statutory requirement of the Hoosier State for domestic corporations for operations there.
The first Ohio GL continued to increase its route network, in Ohio and Indiana, mostly by the acquisition of pre-existing carriers.
In 1941 the first Ohio GL became one of the three major components involved in the creation of the Great Lakes GL. [More about the Great Lakes GL (and its creation) is available in my article about that firm.]
Thus ended the first Ohio GL.
{For a short time, 1946-48, there was a relatively small Greyhound subsidiary named as the second Ohio GL. It became created specifically to take over the Penn-Ohio (PO) Coach Lines Company, which, based in Youngstown, Ohio, had started in 1922, and which had then run in eastern Ohio and in nearby parts of Pennsylvania and West Virginia (as mentioned briefly in the first paragraph of this section). On 01 January 1949 the second Ohio GL became merged into the second Central GL. [More about the second Ohio GL is available in my article about that firm.]}
Some Background of the Second Central GL
The second Central GL came into existence in 1935, based in Cleveland, Ohio, as a subsidiary (not a division – not until -36) of The Greyhound Corporation, and it continued to run until late in -54, when it, along with the Capitol GL and the New England GL, became merged (as a division, no longer a subsidiary) into the Pennsylvania GL. [More about the Capitol GL and the New England GL is available in my articles about them.]
{[In the next year, 1955, the newly enlarged Pennsylvania GL, along with the New England GL, became reorganized and renamed as the Eastern Division (not a subsidiary) of The Greyhound Corporation, known also as the second Eastern GL, the first of four huge new divisions (along with Southern, Western, and another Central – the fifth Central GL).}
The second Central GL became created in 1935 [as described above, in the preceding section, to operate in a territory coinciding with the territory of the New York Central (railway) System] – created from three major components:
first, the Safety Motor Coach Lines, running from Chicago into Michigan, including the routes between Chicago and Detroit, and throughout the western part of the Lower Peninsula of the Wolverine State – which in 1930 had become renamed as the Eastern GL of Michigan (the EGL of Michigan);
second, the several routes between Chicago and New York City via Cleveland, Ohio, including the route via Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Utica, and Albany, all five in the Empire State, paralleling the touted “water-level (railway) route” of the NYC System (in contrast with the shorter but mountainous route of the Pennsylvania Railroad between Chicago and New York City via Fort Wayne in Indiana; Bucyrus, Mansfield, and Canton, all three in Ohio; Pittsburgh, Altoona, Harrisburg, Lancaster, and Philadelphia, all five in Pennsylvania; and Trenton and Newark, both in New Jersey) – which in 1929 had become renamed as the Eastern GL of Ohio (the EGL of Ohio);
third, a large route network throughout Upstate New York, with an extension to Montréal, Québec, Canada, and another extension from Albany to Boston via Pittsfield, Springfield, Worcester, and Marlborough, all the last five in Massachusetts – which in 1930 had become renamed as the Eastern GL of New York (the EGL of New York).
EGL of Michigan
The first major part of the second Central GL, the Safety Motor Coach Lines, had started in 1924, with the backing of Wickman and due to the work of Edwin Carl “Ed” Ekstrom, an accountant, born in Ludington, Michigan, and raised in Hibbing, Minnesota. [Ekstrom in -17 had become an investor and participant in the Mesaba [sic] Transportation Company, based in Hibbing. That concern was the first incorporated firm (which replaced the Hibbing Transportation Company, not a corporation but rather a partnership, consisting of Wickman, Bogan, and others) leading to the founding of the Greyhound empire.]
In 1926, after the Motor Transit Corporation (MTC), the original Greyhound firm, a holding company (not an operating company), came into existence, its first purchase was Ekstrom’s Safety Motor Coach Lines, and Ekstrom became the first president of the MTC. [More about the Mesaba Transportation Company and the Motor Transit Corporation will be available in my forthcoming article about the Northland GL.]
[When the MTC bought the Safety Motor Coach Lines, Ekstrom’s company contributed to the MTC not only the name Greyhound and the image of a running greyhound dog but also the blue-and-white livery (color scheme) used on Ekstrom’s coaches. Ekstrom is said to have proposed to Wickman the use of the name of the Greyhound Lines even before the former left Minnesota, with the support of his associates there, to go back eastward. Again, more about the Great Lakes GL (and its creation) is available in my article about that firm.]
In 1929 the Safety Motor Coach Lines, as a subsidiary (not a division) of the MTC, took over three other carriers:
the Interstate Stages (which had used the brand name, trade name, or service name of the Oriole Lines and had named its coaches as the Oriole Flyers);
the Southwestern Michigan Motor Coach Company;
and the YellowaY of Michigan (a part of the YellowaY-Pioneer System, bought from the American Motor Transportation Company (AMTC), based in Oakland, California). [More about the AMTC and the YellowaY-Pioneer (or sometimes called the Pioneer-YellowaY) System is available in my article about the Pacific GL.]
Greyhound had bought each of those three carriers through its related acquisition company, the Automotive Investments, Inc., based in Duluth, Minnesota.
The Safety Motor Coach Lines, using its original name, continued as a subsidiary of the MTC until 1930, when it became renamed as the Eastern Greyhound Lines of Michigan (the EGL of Michigan), which in -35 became renamed as the Central Greyhound Lines of Michigan (the CGL of Michigan, making the third use of the name of the Central GL), which in -36 (in a part of a tax strategy described below in the section about the fourth Central GL) became a part of the main undenominated second Central GL (a part of which in -48 became merged into the Great Lakes GL). [I warned you about the potential for confusion and complexity about the names and the changes in them.]
Thus ended the EGL of Michigan (1930-35) and the third Central GL (1935-36).
In 1948, as mentioned just above, Greyhound transferred all the Michigan routes of the second Central GL, originally those of the Safety Motor Coach Lines, to the Great Lakes GL, which had begun in 1941. [Again, more about the Great Lakes GL is available in my article about that firm.]
EGL of Ohio
The second major part of the second Central GL, the routes between Chicago and New York City via Cleveland, had begun in 1923, when Clark McConnell, a lawyer in Cleveland, founded the Cleveland-Ashtabula-Conneaut (CAC) Bus Company, running about 71 miles from Cleveland to Conneaut, both in Ohio, reaching to the northeast on the way toward Erie, Pennsylvania, and Buffalo, New York. CAC used a large number of White coaches of the model 54, built in Cleveland, including some of the first ones produced.
[McConnell and one of his associates started two significant threads of history in the motor-coach industry. McConnell had begun in the bus business in 1919 by taking part in starting two other firms in Ohio – the Cleveland-Akron Bus Company and the Cleveland-Elyria-Toledo Bus Company (which latter firm, despite its name, ran from Cleveland only as far as Norwalk, beyond Elyria but well short of Toledo). O.B. Baskette, a former driver and sometime manager (1919-24) for those two other firms, in -25, after a brief stint (1924-25) in North Carolina, began to run coaches of his own in East Tennessee between Knoxville and Johnson City, then in -28, along with Al Kraemer, co-founded the Tennessee Coach Company (TCC). The TCC long (1929-56) coöperated with the Atlantic GL, the Dixie GL, and especially the Southeastern GL, in part by running through-coaches on through-schedules in pooled interline operations with those three Greyhound firms. The TCC in 1956 ended its relationship with the Greyhound Lines and became a member of the Trailways association (named then as the National Trailways Bus System) and in -66 became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Continental Trailways.]
[While Baskette lived in North Carolina, 1924-25, he worked a short while for the Carolina Motor Coaches, which soon became a major part of the newly founded Carolina Coach Company. The latter firm in -40 became a member of the National Trailways trade association (and thus became known also as the Carolina Trailways) and in 1997 became a wholly owned subsidiary of the second Greyhound Lines, Inc. (the second GLI). Later, in 2008, the GLI merged the Carolina Trailways into itself and then dissolved the Carolina Coach Company.]
[One curious result of that last step was that, in 1997-2008, a new Greyhound subsidiary (the Carolina Coach Company, known also as the Carolina Trailways) was a member of the Trailways association, now named as the Trailways Transportation System. During those years the coaches of the Carolina Trailways bore red-and-gray Greyhound dogs, as had many of the coaches of the Trailways, Inc. (TWI), after the purchase of the TWI in 1987 by the GLI Holding Company, as described below in the section entitled “Beyond the Fifth Central GL,” and as did, surprisingly, some of the MCI MC-9 coaches of the GLI after the GLI repainted them in the red-and-white Trailways livery after that purchase of the TWI.]
The CAC Bus Company in 1927 extended its route from Conneaut to Buffalo.
CAC in the next year, 1928, became renamed as the Great Lakes Stages (GLS), and it extended all the way to New York City – via Buffalo and Olean, all three in New York; Port Allegany, Mansfield, Scranton, and Stroudsburg, all four in Pennsylvania; and Columbia, Dover, and Newark, all three in New Jersey. [Some of the trips of the GLS ran directly between Erie and Olean via Jamestown in the Empire State, thus bypassing Buffalo; others ran directly between Erie and Port Allegany via Warren, Pennsylvania, thus bypassing not only Buffalo but also both Jamestown and Olean.]
The GLS also developed a branch line between Erie and Pittsburgh, both in the Keystone State.
In 1929 the Motor Transit Corporation (MTC) bought the GLS, and on 05 February 1930 the MTC became renamed as The Greyhound Corporation.
The MTC renamed the GLS as the Eastern Greyhound Lines of Ohio (the EGL of Ohio), which was separate and different from three other subsidiaries with similar and confusing names:
the GLI of Ohio, which had previously run in 1927-30 between Detroit and Louisville via Cincinnati;
the first Ohio GL, which later ran in 1935-41 between Evansville and Indianapolis and between Detroit and Louisville;
and the second Ohio GL, which even later ran in 1946-48 in eastern Ohio and in nearby areas of Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
The other route between Cleveland and New York City (the “water-level route” via Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Utica, Schenectady, and Albany) came into existence during the development of the set of routes described next:
More Background of the Second Central GL
The prelude to the third major part of the second Central GL – the routes in Upstate New York (with the two extensions) – began in 1913 in the Thousand Islands region, a resort area along the border between Canada and the USA, on the Saint Lawrence River, which is the outlet to the Atlantic Ocean from Lake Ontario and therefore from all five of the Great Lakes.
In 1913 Fred Dailey began service with a Cadillac open touring car between Watertown, New York, the nearest town with a train station (on the US side), and Alexandria Bay, on the southern shore of the Saint Lawrence River, a distance of about 29 miles.
Dailey and others, with various degrees of success (or lack of it) developed several routes throughout the region. Dailey also extended downstream (to the northeast) from Alexandria Bay to Ogdensburg, both in the Empire State.
Then in 1923 Walter Aldrich and others started a bus firm to run from Syracuse to Watertown, about 73 miles to the north. [Aldrich already owned a bus firm, which ran from Syracuse to Norwich, about 66 miles to the southeast, using Fageol Safety Coaches.]
By the next year, 1924, Aldrich alone ran the line between Watertown and Syracuse, using Fageols, on the first highway link between that part of northern New York and the rest of the Empire State. He also took over two routes between Watertown and Alexandria Bay.
In 1925 a group of investors in Watertown set out to build a bus line between Binghamton, New York, and the Canadian border, a distance of about 180 miles. In an important and significant step they formed the Colonial Motor Coach Corporation, which then bought Aldrich’s routes from Syracuse to Watertown and from Watertown to Alexandria Bay.
Colonial then developed routes from Watertown to Utica and to Plattsburgh (via Canton, Potsdam, and Malone) plus several branch and feeder lines, mostly by buying pre-existing firms.
By 1928 Colonial had indeed extended from Syracuse – not just to Binghamton but also all the way to New York City – along two routes – one via Binghamton and Scranton, Pennsylvania, and one via Utica, Albany, Kingston, and Newburgh, all four in the Empire State, in part along the west shore of the Hudson River, and via Ridgewood, New Jersey.
[The route segment between Scranton and New York City, with interstate rights only (that is, without intrastate authority), duplicated a segment of the Great Lakes Stages on its route between Cleveland and New York City.]
Colonial continued to increase its route network within its area (that is, in the central part of upstate New York).
Late in 1928 Colonial extended westwardly from Syracuse to Rochester, then early in -29 eastwardly from Albany to Boston, Massachusetts, and then westwardly again from Rochester to Buffalo.
In 1928 Colonial began acquiring the intrastate rights between Syracuse and Buffalo by buying more pre-existing firms. That process continued until 1930, after it became a member of the Greyhound family.
The Motor Transit Corporation (MTC) in 1929 bought the Colonial Motor Coach Corporation, and on 05 February 1930 the MTC became renamed as The Greyhound Corporation.
Greyhound in 1930 renamed the Colonial Motor Coach Corporation as the Eastern Greyhound Lines of New York (the EGL of New York).
When the MTC took over the Colonial firm, in 1929, Greyhound made its first presence in New England (between Albany and Boston, along the entire width of the Bay State).
Despite the extensive background described above in this section, in 1930 the second Central GL still did not yet exist, not until -35.
The First Eastern GL
Meanwhile in April 1929 the Motor Transit Corporation (MTC) formed the Eastern GL (EGL), as a holding company rather than an operating company, to own several Greyhound subsidiaries, both pre-existing ones and future ones, to the east of Chicago – other than the Pennsylvania GL, in which the Pennsylvania Railroad soon acquired a large but minority interest.
In 1929 the MTC bought both the Great Lakes Stages and the Colonial Motor Coach Corporation (as described in the previous section), then in 1930 it renamed the GLS as the Eastern Greyhound Lines of Ohio (the EGL of Ohio) and renamed Colonial as the Eastern Greyhound Lines of New York (the EGL of New York). [Those two operating companies, the EGL of Ohio and the EGL of New York, became operating subsidiaries of the undenominated main EGL (a holding company), as did both the EGL of Michigan (formerly the Safety Motor Coach Lines) and the EGL of New England (which in 1930 began running, between Boston and New York City).]
Even before the MTC completed its purchase of Colonial, some of the Colonial coaches began to appear in the Greyhound livery, including lettering for the Colonial Greyhound Lines (which never existed at all as a distinct or separate entity) – in part, for a short time, to take advantage of the goodwill attached to the name of Colonial.
Likewise the MTC for a while retained the names of the GLS and Colonial and used them in public.
In 1928 the MTC had bought the Detroit-Toledo-Cleveland Bus Company, which connected the named cities, then in 1931 The Greyhound Corporation merged that property into the EGL of Michigan (formerly the Safety Motor Coach Lines), then transferred that route to the EGL of Ohio (formerly the Great Lakes Stages).
By 1933 Greyhound had consolidated its entire service between Cleveland and Chicago (including the branch from Toledo to Detroit) in the EGL of Ohio (formerly the Great Lakes Stages).
Later in that same year, 1933, however, Greyhound transferred the routes from Cleveland to Detroit and to Chicago (from the EGL of Ohio) back into the EGL of Michigan (originally the Safety Motor Coach Lines), then merged the remainder of the EGL of Ohio (formerly the Great Lakes Stages) into the EGL of New York.
Thus ended the EGL of Ohio.
And thus the former-GLS routes between Cleveland and New York City plus all the former-Colonial routes became consolidated in the EGL of New York.
{Paul Wadsworth, who had worked (for Clark McConnell) as the general manager of the Cleveland-Ashtabula-Conneaut (CAC) Bus Company, which in 1928 became renamed as the Great Lakes Stages, did not stay when, in -29, the MTC bought the GLS (and renamed it as the EGL of Ohio); instead he continued elsewhere in the industry. With the help and support of McConnell and with the financial backing of the Van Sweringen brothers in Cleveland, through their Alleghany [sic] Corporation, the holding company which owned several major railway firms [including the Erie Railroad, the Pere Marquette Railway, the Nickel Plate Road, and the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Railway], Wadsworth formed the Great Eastern Stages (GES), reassembled a number of his key former employees (at the CAC), and went into direct competition against Greyhound – first between Chicago and New York City (with a branch line between Detroit and Toledo) and later also between Saint Louis and Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City, with a long branch between Cleveland and Cincinnati via Columbus. Wadsworth used a large number of Whites, as he had at CAC, along with some Macks and Yellow Coaches. He affiliated his GES with The Short Line System, thus interchanging passengers with other Short Line members and subsidiaries, providing all of the Short Line connections west of the Atlantic Seaboard. After The Short Line System became unraveled, during the Great Depression and as a result of it, the GES also fell into irreversible financial trouble (largely because of its lack of overhead through-passengers). In 1935 Greyhound bought the GLS and merged the nonduplicating routes into the Greyhound network.}
The Second and Third Central GL
In 1935 The Greyhound Corporation renamed the first Eastern GL, a holding company, as the second Central GL (as described above, in several places, starting in the section bearing the name of the first Ohio GL). The purpose of that move, as described above, in the section about the first Ohio GL, was to attach the name Central to its presence and its activities in the territory coinciding with that of the New York Central (railway) System (in preparation for the forthcoming transfer of a minority interest in the new Greyhound subsidiary, the second Central GL, to the NYC System).
Greyhound then renamed the EGL of Michigan (formerly the Safety Motor Coach Lines) as the CGL of Michigan (the third Central GL), as a subsidiary (not a division) of the undenominated main second Central GL.
The CGL of Michigan (originally the Safety Motor Coach Lines) continued only until the next year, 1936, when, in a move as a part of a tax strategy (described below, in the next section), Greyhound merged it into the undenominated main second Central GL.
The Fourth Central GL
In 1935, in connection with the renaming of the first Eastern GL as the second Central GL, Greyhound renamed also the EGL of New York as the CGL of New York as a subsidiary (not a division) of the second Central GL. Thus the CGL of New York became the fourth entity to use the name of the Central GL.
In that same year, 1935, when the EGL, the EGL of Michigan, and the EGL of New York became renamed (as the CGL, the CGL of Michigan, and the CGL of New York), the EGL of New England (which, running between Boston and New York City, had begun in 1930) continued with its same name – because of its location, which was and still is clearly eastern rather than central, and which was outside the territory of the NYC (railway) System.
Then in the next year, 1936, The Greyhound Corporation began to eliminate its multiple (and often complex) intermediate holding companies (between the parent umbrella firm and the operating subsidiaries). The purpose of those steps was to avoid a hugely increased federal income tax on the undistributed earnings of corporate subsidiaries (in part as a result of a legislative socioeconomic motive to make more cash available to the public during the Great Depression). The tax increase took place under the infamous federal Revenue Act of 1936, which the Congress of the US had passed (and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had signed) as a means by which to cause or force a simplification of complicated corporate structures in the public-utility industries (including the transport industries). Changes in the federal laws soon allowed transport companies to return to the use of holding companies with their subsidiary corporations; however, Greyhound continued using mostly divisions, although it did use also a few subsidiaries. [More about divisions, subsidiaries, and the differences between them is available in my separate article on that subject.]
On 01 January 1936 The Greyhound Corporation, in anticipation of the forthcoming new statute, the parent Greyhound firm, previously a holding company rather than an operating company, taking its first step, merged the EGL of New England (formerly a subsidiary) into itself (as a division).
That action – as a part of the tax strategy – caused the parent firm, The Greyhound Corporation, to become not only a holding company but also an operating company – with its own ICC-MC number (1515). [Later Greyhound kept and continued using also the MC numbers 1501 and 1511, which other subsidiaries had obtained from the ICC.]
During 1936 Greyhound continued to merge most of the regional operating subsidiaries into itself as divisions.
In that same year, 1936, Greyhound (by necessity) applied also to the federal Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) for its mandatory approval to merge both the CGL of Michigan and the CGL of New York as divisions (rather than subsidiaries) into the main second Central GL, to further convert the main CGL from a holding company into an operating company.
The ICC approved.
However, the Public-service Commission (PSC) of the State of New York, which also held jurisdiction over the activities of the CGL of New York within the boundaries of its own state, withheld its approval, saying that the proposed merger would jeopardize its authority over operations within its state.
Therefore the CGL of New York remained until the end of 1955 as a separate corporation and as a subsidiary (of the main second CGL), but as a subsidiary of a subsidiary operating company, no longer as a subsidiary of a holding company.
In December 1955 the New York PSC finally agreed to drop its requirement for a domestic Greyhound subsidiary in New York – on the condition that Greyhound continue to register in New York all the coaches assigned to the routes operating in the Empire State.
Meanwhile in 1937 The Greyhound Corporation formed a new division, the New England GL (NEGL), separate and different from the EGL of New England (then also a division). In -39 the federal ICC gave its required approval, and the NEGL began operating. In -40 Greyhound transferred to the NEGL the routes of the EGL of New England between Boston and New York City, on which the latter firm had begun (in -30). Then the EGL of New England continued running – but only on routes to the north of Boston, on routes which it had already acquired, to Portland, Maine, then on several other lines in Maine, reaching eventually Saint Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada, on the border, across from Calais, in the eastern part of Maine, until 1950, when Greyhound merged the EGL of New England into the NEGL. [More about the EGL of New England is available in my article about the New England GL.]
Thus ended the EGL of New England.
More Growth of the Second Central GL
The main second Central GL continued to develop its route network, mostly and typically, by acquiring other pre-existing properties.
In 1942 the CGL of New York took over the Champlain Coach Lines, thus gaining its routes between New York City and Montréal, Québec, Canada, including not only a branch on the east shore of the Hudson River (via Hudson, Poughkeepsie, and Beacon) between Albany and New York City but also a branch along each side of Lake Champlain (on the west side via Plattsburgh, New York, and on the east side via Rutland and Burlington, both in Vermont), between Albany and Rouse’s Point, New York, at the Canadian border.
Further, in 1946 the main second Central GL took over the West Ridge Transportation Company and its wholly owned subsidiary, the Buffalo and Erie Coach Corporation, thus gaining their route networks, roughly within an irregular polygon enclosed by line segments connecting Ashtabula, Erie, Buffalo, Olean, and Pittsburgh, then back to Ashtabula. Greyhound then transferred the routes in the southwest corner of the Empire State to the CGL of New York.
Further Events for the Second Central GL
In 1947 The Greyhound Corporation finished reacquiring the remaining shares of the non-voting common stock in the second Central GL which it had transferred in -35 to the NYC System. [Greyhound had begun to reacquire it in -37.]
No longer having a need or wish to maintain a subsidiary coinciding with the territory of that railway firm, Greyhound next reorganized some of its routes in the Midwest and the Northeast, seeking a more efficient operation.
On 31 December 1948 The Greyhound Corporation merged the Illinois GL into the main second Central GL. The routes involved were all in Illinois except into four destination cities on state lines. The most important of those routes were these:
between Chicago and Effingham (on the way to Memphis, Tennessee, and onward to New Orleans, Louisiana);
between Chicago and Saint Louis, Missouri, on the way to Kansas City, Missouri;
between Chicago and Louisiana, Missouri (not the state of Louisiana but rather the city of Louisiana, Missouri), on a shortcut to Kansas City, thus bypassing Saint Louis.
On the last day of 1948 Greyhound converted the main second Central GL from a subsidiary into a division of The Greyhound Corporation, thus ending the separate existence of the CGL as a corporation – after the completion of reacquiring the stock in the CGL which the NYC (railway) System had held.
Merger of the Second CGL into the Pennsylvania GL
In 1954 Greyhound merged the main second Central GL and the Capitol GL into the Pennsylvania GL; then in the next year, -55, Greyhound reorganized and redesignated the newly enlarged Pennsylvania GL, along with the New England GL, as the Eastern Division of The Greyhound Corporation, known also as the second Eastern GL, the first of four huge new divisions (along with Southern, Western, and another Central – the fifth Central GL).
Thus ended the second Central GL (as well as the Pennsylvania GL, the Capitol GL, and the New England GL), and thus began the second Eastern GL.
About the end of 1955 Greyhound merged the CGL of New York into the new Eastern Division (that is, the second Eastern GL) – as described above, in the section about the fourth Central GL.
Thus ended the fourth Central GL (the CGL of New York).
Through-coaches on Through-routes
The main second CGL and the CGL of New York together ran a large number of through-coaches along their own routes, including those between Chicago and Boston, Chicago and New York City, Montréal and New York City, and Buffalo and New York City.
They took part in relatively few pooled interline through-routes in the Northeast in cooperation with other Greyhound operating companies – those between Montréal and Washington and between Syracuse and Philadelphia, each with the Pennsylvania GL; between New York City and San Francisco, California, with the Overland GL and the Pacific GL; and between Cleveland and both Miami and Saint Petersburg, both in Florida, with the Atlantic GL and the Florida GL.
Starting in 1948, however, after receiving the routes of the former Illinois GL, the main second Central GL took part in several more pooled interline through-routes – those between Chicago and New Orleans, Louisiana, with the Dixie GL and the Teche GL; between Chicago and both Houston and Laredo, both in Texas, with the Southwestern GL; and between Chicago and Los Angeles, California, with the Southwestern GL and the Pacific GL.
Meeting Other Greyhound Companies
The second CGL and the CGL of New York met the Eastern Canadian GL to the north; the New England GL and the EGL of New England to the east; the Northland GL, the Overland GL, and the Southwestern GL to the west; the Atlantic GL, the Dixie GL, and the Southeastern GL to the south; the Great Lakes GL at several points between Chicago and Detroit; and the Pennsylvania GL at various points along most of their respective routes.
The Fifth Central GL
On 01 September 1957, in another round of consolidation, Greyhound further merged the Great Lakes GL into the Northland GL (NGL), a neighboring company. Greyhound then renamed the newly expanded NGL as the Central Division of The Greyhound Corporation (known also as the Central GL, making the fifth of six uses of that name), the third of four huge new divisions (along with Eastern, Southern, and Western).
Thus ended both the Great Lakes GL and the Northland GL, and thus began the fifth Central GL.
The Sixth Central GL
For a short time late in the 1980s, the second Greyhound Lines, Inc., the second GLI, made the sixth and last use of the name of the Central Greyhound Lines, not as an operating division or subsidiary but rather as an internal administrative department (in accounting and other such functions), along with the Eastern GL, the Southern GL, and the Western GL.
Beyond the Fifth Central GL
Later, about 1969, The Greyhound Corporation reorganized again, into just two humongous divisions, named as the Greyhound Lines East (GLE) and the Greyhound Lines West (GLW); even later, about 1975, it eliminated those two divisions, thus leaving a single gargantuan undivided nationwide fleet and a likewise undivided nationwide management and administrative organization.
[More about the continuing history of the GLI (up to 2022) is available in my article entitled “Greyhound Lines after WW2.”]
Conclusion
The Central Greyhound Lines, in the sense of the first five (of the six) uses of the name, made major, significant, and lasting contributions to the present Greyhound route network.
Very Special Articles
Please check also my very special cornerstone articles at this website:
“Northland Greyhound Lines” (NGL): It tells not only the history of the NGL but also the origin and the early years of the overall Greyhound Lines, starting in 1914 in Hibbing, Minnesota. [The people and the events involved in the early part of the story of the NGL are the same people and events involved also in the origin and the early development of the larger Greyhound empire (including its many divisions and subsidiaries).]
“Greyhound Lines after WW2”: It describes:
the major mergers and consolidations (1948-75);
the changes in leadership at the top;
the move from Chicago to Phoenix (in 1971);
the sales of the Greyhound Lines, Inc. (GLI, in 1987, 1999, 2007, and 2021);
the purchase (in 1987) of the Trailways, Inc. (TWI, previously known as the Continental Trailways) and the merger of the TWI into the GLI;
the sad and regrettable deterioration in the level of service of the formerly great and formerly respected (but now utterly disgraced and discredited) Greyhound Lines;
and the latest development of Greyhound under the ownership of FlixMobility (a German firm) and under the oversight of Flix North America (with a recent Turkish immigrant as the chief executive).
“The Scenicruiser”: It covers the background, conception, evolution, development, design, creation, production, rebuilding, repowering, and operation of the GM PD-4501, the famous, beloved, unmatched, and iconic Scenicruiser (an exclusive coach built for Greyhound alone, which served in the fleet from 1954 until about 1975).
“Growing Up at Greyhound”: It tells about my growing up at Greyhound — as the title says — while my father worked as a longtime (37-year) coach operator for the Greyhound Lines, starting in 1940.
Related Articles
Please see also my articles about the Atlantic Greyhound Lines, the Capitol Greyhound Lines, the Dixie Greyhound Lines, the Florida Greyhound Lines, the Great Lakes Greyhound Lines, the Illinois Greyhound Lines, the New England Greyhound Lines, the Northland Greyhound Lines, the Northwest Greyhound Lines, the Ohio Greyhound Lines, the Overland Greyhound Lines, the Pacific Greyhound Lines, the Pennsylvania Greyhound Lines, the Pickwick-Greyhound Lines, the Richmond Greyhound Lines, the Southeastern Greyhound Lines, the Southwestern Greyhound Lines, the Teche Greyhound Lines, the Valley Greyhound Lines, The Greyhound Corporation, the Greyhound Lines after WW2, the Tennessee Coach Company, and the Scenicruiser.
Bibliography
Jackson, Carlton, Hounds of the Road. Dubuque: Kendall Hunt Publishing Company, 1984. ISBN 0-87972-207-3.
Jon’s Trailways History Corner, an online Trailways history by Jan Hobijn (known also as Jon Hobein) at http://cw42.tripod.com/Jon.html.
Meier, Albert, and John Hoschek, Over the Road. Upper Montclair: Motor Bus Society, 1975. No ISBN (because of the age of the book).
Motor Coach Age, ISSN 0739-117X, a publication of the Motor Bus Society, various issues, especially these:
January 1975;
August 1977;
March 1979;
September 1979;
October 1979;
May 1980;
April 1982;
July 1984;
July 1990;
January 1992;
March 1993;
October 1996;
October 1997;
October-December 1998;
October-December 1999;
January 2001.
Rushing, Duncan Bryant, Wheels, Water, Words, Wings, and Engines. New Albany: Fidelity Publishers, forthcoming.
Schisgall, Oscar, The Greyhound Story. Chicago: J.G. Ferguson Publishing Company, Company, 1985. ISBN 0-385-19690-3.
Online schedules and historical data at www.greyhound.com.
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Posted at 21:10 EDT, Sunday, 05 June 2022.