Hammond Transit

[andrethebusman]

HW&EC went bankrupt 8/17/29, purchased by one Morse DellPlain 12/31/29. DellPlain organized Calumet Rys (DellPlain president, Henry B Conkey Secretary) and transferred ownership to same 2/25/30, filed for abandonment 4/25/31. On 0522/31, sale of Calumet Rys, Shore Line Motor Coach Co, and Midwest Motor Coach Co to Chicago & Calumet District Transit Co (Walter J Cummings, president) approved by INPUC

Gary Rys Co sold rights in Hammond and East Chicago to Shore Line Motor Coach Co circa 04/29/26 (office 1085 Broadway, Gary). Also same date bought Farina's Bus Line and Transportation Co (Hammond-Chicago Heights) and BP Shearson (Michigan City to Long Beach). 26 buses from Gary Rys

09/28/27 SLMC applied for rights Muskegon to Chicago, then 6/24/29 Benton Harbor to Chicago

Midwest Motor Coach Co started 63rd/South Park to Gary 04/20/25. Originally an Illinois corporation, by 1928 owned by same interests as Shore Line Motor Coach

From IN PUC orders

[andrethebusman]

On ‎1‎/‎26‎/‎2018 at 2:02 PM, artthouwill said:

It certainly  crossed my mind that  those Huskie RTSs wound up in Hammond.  I didn't  know if ATC had a company wide numbering system or contract specific numbering system 

 

ATC numbered by year, 1000's would be from 1980. 1100's 1981, etc. VanDerAA numbered sequentially, school buses and transits, in order bought. ATC sold the RTS's to VanDerAA because they were considered too expensive to operate compared to either fishbowls or Gilligs.

[Busjack]

8 hours ago, andrethebusman said:

HW&EC went bankrupt 8/17/29, purchased by one Morse DellPlain 12/31/29. DellPlain organized Calumet Rys (DellPlain president, Henry B Conkey Secretary) and transferred ownership to same 2/25/30, filed for abandonment 4/25/31. On 0522/31, sale of Calumet Rys, Shore Line Motor Coach Co, and Midwest Motor Coach Co to Chicago & Calumet District Transit Co (Walter J Cummings, president) approved by INPUC

Since this is the only reference relevant to my question, the only thing indicated is that Walter J. Cummings organized C&CD, also seems to have been running the Des Moines and Chicago and West Towns* systems, and took control of all Insull properties in the Lake County area, buying Gary later (Indianapolis Star, 1932, via newspapers.com) although his main business seems to be banking (head of the FDIC, and then Continental Illinois Bank, Hammond Times, 1934,via newspapers.com).

*via Google Books

However, since NCL seems to have started about 1939, that doesn't answer the question, which is essentially ownership betweeen 1939 and 1955.

[andrethebusman]

1939-1955 both C&CDT and Gary Rys seem to have been run by one Henry P Bruner, later known for starting Kenosha Motor Coach and Racine Motor Coach to take over Milwaukee Electric. While KMCL and RMCL was in his own name, his involvement with C&CDT and Gary were apparently  as part of what was left of the Cummings interests. Bruner started his career with Insull's Midwest Utilities. He was also involved with Peoria in the same time frame. In 1956, C&CDT went to ATC, Peoria to NCL, and Gary to apparently local interests. Bruner would have been 45 at the time, but apparently decided he had enough.

[Busjack]

52 minutes ago, andrethebusman said:

1939-1955 both C&CDT and Gary Rys seem to have been run by one Henry P Bruner, later known for starting Kenosha Motor Coach and Racine Motor Coach to take over Milwaukee Electric. While KMCL and RMCL was in his own name, his involvement with C&CDT and Gary were apparently  as part of what was left of the Cummings interests. Bruner started his career with Insull's Midwest Utilities. He was also involved with Peoria in the same time frame. In 1956, C&CDT went to ATC, Peoria to NCL, and Gary to apparently local interests. Bruner would have been 45 at the time, but apparently decided he had enough.

A Google book on Decline of Transit says that Bruner was surveying transit lines for NCL and GM. Other sources indicate that he was a consultant and didn't have the money to pull off all those acquisitions himself.

[busfan2847]

20 hours ago, Busjack said:

A Google book on Decline of Transit says that Bruner was surveying transit lines for NCL and GM. Other sources indicate that he was a consultant and didn't have the money to pull off all those acquisitions himself.

Here is his obituary from the Tribune

Henry P. Bruner, 93, a former transportation consultant and executive and resident of Oak Park, died Monday in West Suburban Hospital in Oak Park. His 55-year career as a transportation executive in the Chicago area included owning bus and rail transportation companies in southeastern Wisconsin during the early 1940s. He served as president in the late 1950s of Gary Railways Inc., the Gary bus system, and of Greyhound Van Lines Inc., the household moving subsidiary of Greyhound Corp. He retired from those positions in the mid-1960s and operated a consulting business. Survivors include his wife, Katharine; five sons, Henry, Philip, Stephen, David and Robert; and nine grandchildren. A memorial service will be at 5 p.m. Saturday in Austin Boulevard Christian Church, 634 N. Austin Blvd., Oak Park.

[Busjack]

6 minutes ago, busfan2847 said:

Here is his obituary from the Tribune

Henry P. Bruner, 93, a former transportation consultant and executive and resident of Oak Park, died Monday in West Suburban Hospital in Oak Park. His 55-year career as a transportation executive in the Chicago area included owning bus and rail transportation companies in southeastern Wisconsin during the early 1940s. He served as president in the late 1950s of Gary Railways Inc., the Gary bus system, and of Greyhound Van Lines Inc., the household moving subsidiary of Greyhound Corp. He retired from those positions in the mid-1960s and operated a consulting business. Survivors include his wife, Katharine; five sons, Henry, Philip, Stephen, David and Robert; and nine grandchildren. A memorial service will be at 5 p.m. Saturday in Austin Boulevard Christian Church, 634 N. Austin Blvd., Oak Park.

I had seen that, and noted it didn't mention Hammond, but maybe his family didn't find it noteworthy.

[RTS Bus Fan]

On 1/23/2018 at 10:07 PM, artthouwill said:

If you are referring to Hammond routes, I guess there was a realignment at some point.  What you referred to as  Rt 4 actually became Rt 1.  During my time there in Hammond,  this was the only HRS route  ran with 2 buses.  Rt 4 was the route that served the Highland Apts on Kennedy Ave just North of the Highland border as well as Hessville, Woodmar, Dan Rabin Transit Center, and East Chicago South Shore station.  Rt 2 and Rt 5 also served  Woodmar Mall. Rt 5 served Kmart and Ultra in Highland.  You could connect there to the Ridge Rd Gary route.  Rt 1 connected with CTA routes 30 and 106 at 106th and Ewing. I believe Gary Rt 12 was the Tri City route connecting Gary with East Chicago and the Dan Rabin Transit Center in Hammond, where connections could be made with Pace routes 350, 355, and 364.  Interestingly,  Hammond Yellow had commuter buses running on Hohman Ave to downtown but didn't serve the transit center while most, but not all 355s did. 

 

  

In the summer of 1995, GPTC started a Route 3 Ridge Road Connection express Route between IU Northwest in Gary and Hammond Clinic in Munster. It connected with Hammond Route 5 at Indianapolis Blvd (at Ultra Foods) and Route 1 at Hammond Clinic. For a couple of years there were two routes designated with "3". How? GPTC was still running the "Georgia Delaware" route in the city of Gary until 1997 when they  made some service changes, eliminating "Georgia Delaware" and adding the South Broadway Express, which extened service into Merrillville and Crown Point. This is when GPTC started using route numbers in their destination signs, i.e. "17 S. Bdwy Exp, 35th to 93rd". None of the destination signs buses before the 1995 Flex buses could handle route numbers.