Photos: After 34 years of service...

[Nabinut]

This is what's left of WMATA Fishbowl 6633:

[Perry]

Ugh, that's very sad to see. The funny thing is I don't remember those types of seats on the 6600's, I remembered the ones that were just one piece. 

Where did you find this?

[WMAveteran]

I remember those seats.  I believe that bus was a former AB&W vehicle.

[Perry]

I always thought those were in the lower 1000 series GM's.  I remember when those were green and those horrible plastic seats on the old 6700 series DC Transit buses.

[WES]

I don't remember those seats, though I don't ever remember riding that particular unit.  I agree with Perry, ugh, that bus seemed to be in pretty good condition when it retired. 

Somebody please rescue that unit and bring it back to it's glory.  It's getting down to it's first WMATA paint scheme.  If it goes any further, it might be in it's DC Transit colors.

Man I need to win the lotto pretty soon.  So many buses to save, no money and little time.

[DCT S9Z4Z6]

6633 Was a former DCT vehicle. . .  I might be wrong, but Bladensburg was its home.

The seats of the original 6633 were bench type & after WMATA took over, WMATA did reupholster the seats, but still had the bench configuration.

Where was this pic shot at??

[Nabinut]

The Baltimore Streetcar Museum owns that bus and it's being used for scrap to bring back BTco Fishbowl 1962

[Perry]

At least it's being put to good use!

[WayneNYC]

Always sad to see one of the good 'ol buses end this way.  I was happy to find that some were still around when I moved here in '96.  Also - I'll never forget the days when many of those 64-6600 (and others) served us in NYCTA land.  I was in high school at the time and I used to pretty much stalk the WMATA buses every chance I got.  They seemed to be in much better shape than the typical NYCTA fishbowl from the mid-60s.  To be fair to NYCTA, they had just gone through their deferred maintenance era, which lasted most of the 1970s because the city was broke.

[DCT S9Z4Z6]

I came across some WMATA/NYC pix recently. .  dont remember what website I came across them at, but 1 was a 2600 WMATA Flxible with a NYC fishbowl behind it. .  also saw a pic of 4-5 FLX's sitting in a parking lot. .  again. .  dont remember the site. .  but still had the WMATA colors & a RED 4 digit number in the windsheild.


I remember NYC having peoblems getting their day 2 day buses running in the 70's, (very early 80's?) so WMATA sent up some of the 'reserve fleet". Funny. . .  I dont remember any buses returning to DC.

[WayneNYC]

I came across some WMATA/NYC pix recently. .  dont remember what website I came across them at, but 1 was a 2600 WMATA Flxible with a NYC fishbowl behind it. .  also saw a pic of 4-5 FLX's sitting in a parking lot. .  again. .  dont remember the site. .  but still had the WMATA colors & a RED 4 digit number in the windsheild.



I remember NYC having peoblems getting their day 2 day buses running in the 70's, (very early 80's?) so WMATA sent up some of the 'reserve fleet". Funny. . .  I dont remember any buses returning to DC.

Yes, NYCTA borrowed a few WMATA new look Flxibles too.  Most that I saw were  in the 6800 series and unlike the GMCs, these Flxibles pretty much stayed on Staten Island.  Most of the
buses we borrowed were GMC 64-6600s, but there were also some 1300, 2500 and 3800s.  NYCTA's deferred maintenance era of the 1970s sort of led to them needing to borrow the WMATA, buses, but it's not the main factor.  The way it happened was that in 1980, NYCTA started receiving an order of 837 Grumman Flxible 870 buses.  At the point where 637 of the buses had been delivered, the TA (and other agencies) pulled the buses from service after the infamous A-frame cracks which were repaired by Grumman.  Since NYCTA was busy withdrawing older buses as the Grumman 870s came in, they were suddenly 600 buses short.  They were able to put a number of "retired" buses back on the road, but they were still short of buses.  In the short term the NYCTA was able to lease 150 buses from WMATA for local service.  We kept the WMATA buses for about 2 years.  The WMATA buses eventually went back home.  NYCTA also sent along two of their own buses to reimburse WMATA for two of their buses we lost when a pier collapsed.  The red 4-digital decal on the WMATA buses on was the fleet number assigned by NYCTA.  They were numbered in the 1700-1900 series.   

NYCTA dealt with another crisis in '84 when they decided to pull all Grumman 870 (851 total) from service permanently.   This time NYCTA had a bit of a spare fleet.  They also sent 350 "expired" GMC new look out to be rebuilt by Blitz.  They rehabbed other new looks in-house and they also leased 150 MCI MC-8 buses from Greyhound.

[Bryan]

When WMATA sent the fishbowls out for rebuilding by BLITZ. Per the late general Manager Carmen Turner. The buses came back with alot of oddities. For instance 6633 came back with seats for a 1300 series which was AB&W 300's. 6607 preserved today with a high speed Transmission.
Apparently as they came down the rebuild line The power trains or seating were not lined up with the original bus. But it was nice to see so many were rebuilt and lasted as long as they did. DC has always had superb maintenance especially the VA divisions. 2600 which also survives today was the prototype bus. It was not redone at blitz it was done in house. The front of the dash was painted black but the operators side was still in DC Transit green and the bus still had dest.sign roller cranks and not the toggle switch with electric motors to work the signs.