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Question on MaBSTOA Side Signs (Manhattan Routes), 1960s-'70s


WB Bus Subway

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Given photos around the web of MaBSTOA buses - both "batwing" and non-"batwing" - during the 1960's and '70's, and how the side signs were laid out, I have a few questions that some may or may not have an answer to:

- On the "batwing" signs, what would have been the order of the routes from first to last (I would count "Special" and "No Passengers") - especially given the route duplications ("6 Bway-7th Ave of Americas"/"6 72 Street Crosstown," "15 Fifth Ave Jackson Hts"/"15 23 Street Crosstown" etc.)?

- After the 1969 elimination of the "2" (Fifth/Madison/Lenox) upon the startup of the "101A" (Third/Lexington/Lenox), were any "batwing" signs made up with the new route, and if so, would it have looked something like this:

mabstoa_101a_batwing-sim.jpg

. . . being as I haven't seen such a sign on batwings plying that route in the 1969-74 period . . . but apparently non-batwing signs had it (in smaller fonts, of course) . . .

- This is more detailed:  Besides the M10 (8th Avenue/Central Park West) route, there was another "10" - an upper Broadway (from 135th Street to Fort George) pull-in and pull-out route run by Fifth Avenue Coach since 1921 (so sporadic and unofficial, it wasn't on any bus maps or even dispatcher's maps) and carried over by MaBSTOA to at least 1973.  Would anyone who has side rollsigns saved from 1974 Flxible 53102-6-1's built for MaBSTOA advise as to what route number, if any, the "M10 Broadway" would have been changed to at the point of the massive 1974 route renumberings that saw the (QM)15 (Jackson Heights) route become M32, M6 (72nd Street Crosstown) turning into M30, and so on?

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I remember these. Batwing buses was: TDH-5303 5516-5525, 6701-6900. 1967 TDH-5303A 8001-8202 & 8301-8780. 1968 T6H-5305A 8826-8877, all made from GMC. Flxible had one: the 1975 53102-6-1 7753, which brings me up this question. Why only 7753 had it and not the rest of the fleet, even though it had no side windows on the top. One of the Gruman of the 1980s #631 had it except it was a A style Batwing and smaller. If one didn't happened to get on fire and the NYCTA sold all of them in 1984 after 3 1/2 years of service. They would've gotten them. 

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