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Washington, D.C., 1936. "Bus transportation -- driver of Greyhound coach to New York." Seen earlier here. 4x5 inch glass negative, Harris & Ewing Collection. View full size.
This reminds me why we called the class-A uniform we had to wear in the Air Force in the mid-'60s our "bus driver blues."
I imagine mounting the driver's seat as a challenge for an older or corpulent driver. You'd have to bend and tuck to get between the seat back and the large steering wheel, while your feet dance around the gearshift lever.
This photo, for me, is now a visual for the opening scene of The Wayward Bus, in which the Greyhound driver reserves a forward seat for "Camille" so that he can hit on her. Let's assume the best about this driver, and imagine that he had more respect for women than that. A Yellow Coach Model 719 would probably have still been in service by 1947, the year of the novel's publication.
The two levers control the water flow for the heaters. Sans the heavy duty water valves, I had a similar heater box from a fire engine I installed in a Jeep a million years ago.
I love this photo. The bus driver is so sharp & well-dressed, the bus itself looks like it was built to last forever; everything is made of steel or metal & some of the components like the seat adjustment levers, look like they could have been manufactured for tractors. Nothing disposable here.
One question that I'm sure some Shorpy Sharpster out there can answer: is that a heater under his seat or is it some other type of contraption?
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