Eagles International Forum

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If my VIN correctly reflects my serial number, my bus 20504 was sold to Union Bus Lines. I've searched the internet for info on Union Bus Lines and haven't found anything. Does anyone know the history behind this company?

Thanks

It became Southeastern GreyHound

I have to take belated 'credit' (discredit is maybe more correct) for the rumor that Eagles with the frame numbers 58101 to 58185 were built by La Brugeoise et Nivelles in Belgium. These were in fact NEW Silver Eagles rather than 01 Eagles, the last batch produced in Germany by Kässborher-Setra. Trailways records show that 58101 to 58160 were 1960 models while 58161 to 58185 were from early in 1961. One of the last of these was intercepted at the port of Antwerpen in Belgium and delivered to the La Brugeoise plant on the outskirts of the city of Brugge, Belgium. La Brugeoise disassembled the coach, measured everything and made the drawings needed to create the machine tools for fabrication. They also called in local suppliers to see who could supply what so that La Brugeoise didn't have to make every last nut, bolt and washer. Of course this didn't apply to what was to be imported, stuff like Ross steering, Lockheed brakes, Carrier compressors and of course the Detroit 8V-71 and the Spicer transmissions. This done, the bus was put back together and shipped to Houston. The first NEW Silver Eagles came with 300 HP Cummins NRTO engines, which was a straight six. They worked well enough but were rather loud in operation and quite thirsty. When the 8V-71 was announced late in 1960, Continental stopped using the NRTO and the last buses produced came to Houston without engines. I suspect this happened with the 1960-61 model changover. These last NSE's had their new engines installed at Continental's Houston shops and the other NSE's were re-engined as quickly as possible.The older German Eagles also had their MAN engines replaced by 8V-71's and all later Eagles from Belgium came with them.

Returning to the Belgian part of the story, La Brugeoise was mostly a maker of railway equipment. While all this was going on, they were producing 62 large diesel locomotives for the railways of Belgium (42, numbered 5501-42) and Luxembourg (20, numbered 1801-20) and some of them are still running today. This is noteworthy because these locos were powered by GM 16-567 engines. The 567 is a scaled-up version of the 71 series engine. More interestingly, the 8V-71 had 568 cubic inches, almost the exact same size as one cylinder of a 567 engine. La Brugeoise was no stranger to tooling up for small production runs of large equipment. They soon had the tools, dies and jigs needed for Eagle coaches ready and set up a production line in an unused part of their large factory. Eagle 01's started rolling off the line with frame number 6101 while Continental searched for a suitable building site nearby and got their factory building constructed. When the building was ready, the production line was moved in and operations restarted. I do not know which frame number was the last made by La Brugeoise and which was the first made by Bus & Car but the numbering carried forward. The B & C factory was up and running late in 1961. I've seen photos of the grand opening and there were a number of completed coaches in view and everyone was wearing winter clothes. The completed coaches in the photos must have been the last made by La Brugeoise. La Brugeoise then trained the first workers hired by B & C and the two went their own ways afterwards except that La Brugeoise continued to make the Torsalistic suspension assemblies at least into the 80's if not later and that includes for Eagles made in Brownsville for at least the first few years.

La Brugeoise later shortened its name to BN (from Brugeoise et Nivelles, the legal title) and is now part of Bombardier of Canada. Bombardier continues to build railway and tramway equipment in the same plant to this day. BN is also famous for hundreds of PCC trams/streetcars it made for Brussels, Antwerpen and Gent in Belgium plus Den Haag/The Hague in Belgium.

So how did I get this wrong back in the 80's? I used the info I had from interviewing Trailways people in Dallas and looking at delivery and fleet lists. As no one told me anything different, I went with the idea that the NEW Silver Eagles were made by La Brugeoise mostly because they were outside of the normal Setra range of serial numbers. As time passed, I gathered more and more of the info that you see above. I was later able to talk to people at BN and MOL and get some of this straightened out and also got more info from various Trailways people over the years. Unfortuneately, I had the New Silver Eagles listed as being built by La Brugeoise in the Eagle Special that I wrote for Bus World and that misinformation got perpetuated from then to now. Just to make sure that everyone gets it, The buses with frame numbers 58101 to 58185 were in fact made in Germany by Kâssbohrer and not by La Brugeoise in Belgium. By the way, if you have a bus from this group of frame numbers or know someone who does, look at the steering wheel. If it's still the original, it will have a golden letter K on the horn button. No prizes for guessing what that signifies.
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tsh4432 wrote:If my VIN correctly reflects my serial number, my bus 20504 was sold to Union Bus Lines. I've searched the internet for info on Union Bus Lines and haven't found anything. Does anyone know the history behind this company?

Thanks

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Union Bus Lines was a small local carrier that Continental Trailways bought out back in 1952. They were in southwest Texas, mostly in the Rio Grande valley. They must have connected with Bowen or Missouri Pacific at one time which is how they became Continental's neighbor. You can use this link to see where they ran: http://www.chicagorailfan.com/greyhrtx.html

Your original Trailways bus number was 22113. It became 7687 in the Greyhound fleet. Let's see... 7 + 6 = 13 and 100 (nice round number) - 87 = 13. Makes you wonder just a bit.
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I need to see photos of the following 1969 Model 05 Eagles. Chances are very good that all 12 will be the same. These were the very first 1969 models built and I'm thinking they still had the 01 round body and not the 05 New Look body. If you have one of these, I'm extremely interested to know about it. Of course the bus could have been rebuilt with Model 10 crowns so that would make it hard to tell. As they are 05's the drive axle should be behind the tag axle. Old style buses will have round tail lights and not the square ones unless converted. Old style buses also have wraparound windows at the rear corners which were deleted on the new style.

Frame Numbers......Continenetal Old Numbers......Continental New Numbers

7647...................6625.................................29506.......32652......Reassigned to Safeway and renumbered.

7648...................6626.................................29507.......32653......Same as above.

7649...................6627.................................27501

7650...................6628.................................27502

7651...................6629.................................27503

7652...................6630.................................27504

7653...................6631.................................25508

7654...................6632.................................25509

7655...................6633.................................25510

7656...................6634.................................25511

7657...................690...Edwards Lakes to Sea.....33506.......Renumbered when Continental purchased Edwards in the 70's.

7658...................691...Edwards Lakes to Sea.....33507.......Same as above.

I tried clicking the link but keep coming up with a page not found error. Would someone mind sending me a copy?
dresserandkeeper@gmail.com

My bus had 3 different info plates on it, all of the had # 294 written on the back. VIN: IEUDN6Z16JB090039 Registration: 89B2293

Clicking on the link in the first post gets me this...


error

You have reached this page because of a link error or an image or page that is no longer present on this website. Thank you for visiting our website. Feel free to continue to browse our website


Thanks

When we converted the old Eagle Site to the new site, those files did not make the trip. When I went to reload them, I noted that they were compiled by a person named J. Bowman who had a Canadian address. The records also had an email address.

I wrote to him to get permission to publish his data. I did not hear from him. About the same time we published the great list compiled by by you (Bus and Car aka Joe Richards).

I will spend some time in the next few days to get the files loaded.

Jim

Mine is a 74 model 05 original s/n 9482