Eagles International Forum

I found this 1946 photo of an American Bus Lines ACF Brill with a emblem on the side that really looks like the precursor to the Silver Eagle metal emblem. I can't tell if it is metal or painted on, but in the circle it says "American Bus Lines". It may very well be the inspiration for the Eagle circle emblem. This came about as the result of a discussion with Clifford Allen about whether a Silver Eagle Emblem on a GM 4103 was legitimate. He thought that Trailways. back in the thirties and forties had levels of service described as "Silver" or "Golden". I have not found reference to that, but this picture really indicates that someone at American Bus Lines might have created the image that was later refined in metal. I have one other picture of a ACF Brill in 1945, but it is not as good, but it indicates that there was more than one. Since American Bus Lines was in the Trailways System, it looks like the idea spread into the designs for the first Eagles a decade later.

Great Detective work.

I will be anxious to see of anyone has additional input.

Jim

I got my info from Norris many years ago,I found a pamphlet for sale on Ebay with the Trailways 4104 GM for the Chicago to Omaha run with the same and there is a picture in Ed Stauss the Bus World of a 4103 with it.

luvrbus wrote:I found a pamphlet for sale on Ebay with the Trailways 4104 GM for the Chicago to Omaha run with the same and there is a picture in Ed Stauss the Bus World of a 4103 with it.

I tried to find the eBay pamphlet, but unless you have the correct wording, the search doesn't find it. Was the emblem like the one in the ACF Brill picture, or was it like the Eagle one?

Daniel told me on F/B that was a trademark of American Bus Line and when they joined the Trailways network Trailways kept the trademark Eagles or maybe American wanted it kept as part of the deal,anyways that were the Eagle came from long before they manufactured the Eagle,and American had different levels of service so did Trailways like Norris said.You don't see many photos but American Bus lines model 10's had the Eagle on the sides on a smaller scale mounted about the middle I saw one on a site Go Trailways big red or something like that

Attached is a picture of an American Bus Lines Schedule dated 1946 that has a clearer illustration of what their emblem looked like then. It appears to match the one on the ACF Brill picture of the same year. This was clearly the precursor to the final Eagle emblem on Model 01's. It looks very similar, but the placement of the red, white, and blue band is lower in the circle, and wider. So the emblem existed on non-Eagles a decade or more before the Eagle bus existed. Norris's memory was correct, and Cliff passed it on. All of this might be trivial in the grand scheme of things, but if these details are not remembered, they will be lost forever, and credit for the creation of an enduring symbol will be misplaced.

Here is a photo of an American Bus Lines 1952 GM 4103 with the same emblem.

What???????

No one woke me up for this???????

LOL!!!!!!!

A few words on the original Eagle emblem.

Some called it a streamer and I called it a banner. Either way, it's all good.

American Buslines designed it in the late 40's or early 50's and it went on ACF and other brand coaches back then. Later on Continental started using it on it's first Eagles although the very first one seems to have left the factory without it.

At any rate, American had a single New York-Los Angeles route that had a lot added to it when it took over the bus operations of the Burlington Route, AKA the C B & Q railroad. Around 1948 Continental bought the combined American and Burlington services which really expanded Continental's route network at the time. A number of other buses had it added but it didn't become Continental's 'trademark' until the German Eagles were produced. In time, other buses with the Banner Eagle had them removed on disposal and perhaps reused on new GM 4104 buses for a time. I've never seen or heard of any new Flxible buses (1955-60) using this emblem as they had a unique decoration from the factory. Same for the GM 4106. Continental never bought any but a number of independent Trailways operators used GM 4106 buses but never with the Banner Eagle attached.

Joe,

I was giving up hope that you would chime in, I was sure that this subject would draw your interest. My intent was to reveal the surprising (to me at least) discovery that the Eagle Emblem was not originally created with the birth of the first Eagles, but by someone who was with or hired by American Bus Lines in 1945, according to the attached document (with no author mentioned) that was posted on eBay along with pictures of two complete sets of Eagle Emblems. The previous pictures of buses that I found confirm this, and because the pictures are not real clear, it looks like there are at least two versions of the original emblem, and that it developed over time. The illustration on the 1946 Schedule clearly shows the design of the emblem as we know it today, particularly the Eagle Head. In the histories of Eagle that I had seen previously, I did not see mention of this situation, where the emblem was created before the bus we know as the Golden or Silver Eagle was ever created. I happen to think that this is a interesting fact.

Of course, you will note a mistake in this history which states that the first Eagle was produced in 1975, when actually Kässbohrer produced the first prototype in 1956. So, I have to wonder if there were any other mistakes. Any information on when the Continental Trailways emblem was used?