There are standard-gauge tracks close by, but they can’t be seen here, since they’re underground in this neighborhood. We’re at Columbus Circle in New York’s borough of Manhattan, on Thanksgiving Day in 1951, Nov. 22. How can that be deduced? Well, that’s the famous Macy’s parade that’s passing down the street, complete with a snowman (Frosty?) on a float that can be seen over the crowd of people in the foreground. This would have been even more definitive had it shown the cartoon character “Mighty Mouse,” since it was making its first appearance at the holiday event in 1951.
Beyond is a building identified as the “Baltimore & Ohio Motor Coach Station,” which might arouse your curiosity. The B&O had service between New York and Washington, D.C. at this time, but utilized the rails of the Reading Co. and the Central Railroad of New Jersey to reach the Hudson River; its own trackage didn’t go further north than Philadelphia in the northeast. However, while this reached the Hudson at the CNJ’s riverfront station in Jersey City, a separate conveyance in the form of a ferry was required to get to and from Manhattan.
The “Best and Only’s” competitor, the Pennsylvania railroad, had solved the river-crossing problem via the construction of Penn Station, which required tunnels to enable Pennsy (and Long Island Rail Road) to cross under both the Hudson and East Rivers, the west and east boundaries of Manhattan, respectively.
During World War I, when the country’s railroads were under government control, the B&O was given the right to serve Penn Station, but this had ended by 1926, pushing the Baltimore-headquartered carrier back across the river to New Jersey. To ameliorate what it perceived as a competitive disadvantage, the B&O looked to a competitive mode, motor vehicles, so that, as indicated in the April 25, 1954, B&O System timetable.
Passengers using the Baltimore & Ohio route may also use (without extra charge) B&O motor coach service between trainside at Jersey City and any of 15 motor coach stations and stops in New York and Brooklyn.
According to Herb Harwood Jr. noted rail photographer and author, as well as a retired railroad executive, the railroad owned the buses used in this service, and they were painted and marked for the B&O. Over the years between 1926 and when all B&O passenger service was discontinued north of Baltimore, there were three kinds of buses utilized: front-engine Yellow intercity coaches, followed by air-conditioned custom-built streamlined bodies from the White Motor Co., and later, standard/stock Whites.
As we can see in the Thanksgiving photograph, unlike most other railroad bus service operated to feed a rail terminal, the origin/terminal points on the multiple routes served (five, as of April 1954) could properly be called “stations,” and at least some, including the one opposite Grand Central Terminal on 42nd Street had a ticket counter staffed by B&O employes. The intermediate stops on the bus routes were typically hotels, or in one case, a prominent department store, Wanamakers.
At Jersey City, the buses pulled right up to the departing B&O train they were scheduled to serve and then were turned for their next outbound trip with detraining passengers via a small turntable. Crossing the Hudson was accomplished by the bus using the CNJ’s lower Manhattan ferry service, which accommodated cars, trucks and buses as well as passengers.
Interestingly, those that read the “Explanation of Reference Marks and Notes for Tables 10 to 12” on page 12 of the April 25, 1954, B&O system timetable would learn that not only the company buses, but private automobiles could drive to trainside at the CNJ’s Jersey City terminal, “on payment of ferry charges”, and provided a telephone number to call to set this up.
A convenience provided in both directions to rail passengers was the ability to have their hand baggage transferred directly to the motor coach service, or, on outbound trips, to tender these items at the boarding station, where they were transported directly to the seat or space occupied by the passenger on the train.
As late as 1952, the stations in Manhattan and Brooklyn offered checked baggage service: “Trunks and other large pieces of baggage may be checked from any B&O motor coach station to destination.” However, by the 1954 timetable this had been changed to “Trunks, theatrical scenery and similar unwieldy pieces cannot be checked from motor coach stations and stops. However, these items may be checked to or from Liberty Street Ferry Station or Jersey City Terminal.”
The B&O was not alone in having a bus feeder service between a waterside New Jersey rail terminal and Manhattan in the twentieth century. The Erie provided this for its long-haul passengers to get to Rockefeller Center in midtown, with several intermediate stops. Unlike the B&O, which included the motor coach service in the rail fare, the Erie charged a modest fee for theirs, and apparently passengers needed to handle their own baggage between the train and bus.
This service persisted following the Erie’s move to the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western’s Hoboken terminal, and for that matter, following the Erie Lackawanna merger in 1960. The Hoboken facility also had ferry service across the Hudson to downtown Manhattan, as well as access to the Hudson and Manhattan Tube Trains.
Alas, by the end of April 1958, neither checked or hand luggage, nor passengers, were being handled by the motor coach service, since the B&O opted to end its passenger service east of Baltimore and thus its railroad bus service to Manhattan.
Finally, a note about those underground standard gauge tracks in the vicinity of the Columbus Circle motor coach station. They belonged to the New York City subway system and provided a major connecting point between what were the “Independent” division, and the “IRT” (Interborough Rapid Transit). The former includes the A, B, C and D lines today; the latter, the 1 and 2 lines.
