Model Diecast Toy Bus > Diecast Model Buses > Corgi Buses > Corgi General Motors 4507 Fifth Avenue (New York)
Corgi General Motors 4507 Fifth Avenue (New York)
Model # / Description...
98604 / Corgi Classics
Model Diecast Bus Manufacturer / Country...
Corgi (UK) / Made in China
Model Diecast Bus Dimensions and Scale...
8" L x 2 1/4" H x 2" W
Model Diecast Bus Description, Bus Collector Value ($US) and Notes...
A General Motors Coach old look 4507 in Fifth Avenue (New York City) trim released by Corgi in 1995. Destination sign reads, "4 - Penna Station." Fifth Avenue Motor Coach later became absorbed by the Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority, (MaBSTOA).
This is # 4033 of 8,000 produced.
From the Corgi info card...
TD-4507 Fifth Avenue Coach Company
The distinguishing feature of the 4507 is the air intake above the destination board, which was part of the Thermo-Matic ventilation system introduced on this model. In all, 3049 TD 4507s were made and those taken on by Fifth Avenue Coach were used to replace the streetcars in Manhattan and the the Bronx, staying in service until 1966.
YOUR COMMENTS
The colors on the signs should be reversed. I worked with Corgi to bring this bus to market but they still couldn't get it right. Mention of replacement of streetcars in Mahattan and Bronx is also incorrect for this bus - that text supplied to Corgi by me was supposed to go with the model of the Surface Transportation TD4507 that Corgi also released
These busses replaced double deck busses, not street cars. Fifth Avenue Coach did not operate in the Bronx; at least not until it acquired Third Avenue Railways.
GM and Mack busses replaced street cars on Third Avenue Railways.
In spite of the colors on the sign being reversed, it looks like the real thing.
Can anybody let me know where I can get a new one.
martinpl3@earthlink.net
My name is Michael and I am an art director in San Francisco currently working on a movie that has a 1955 bus like this one that we are about to paint and we are looking for specific color and graphics information. Does anyone know how I can contact Marc Eboli or anyone else who would have this information??
Thanks for your help.
You may contact me geisha bus
Mark I have tried to contact you throught this web page but the link doesn't seem to work. Here is my email:
consolidatedstudios@mac.com
Thanks,
Michael
I am looking to purchase a Corgi GM 4507 NYC 5th ave coach co. bus model 98604. Please advise where I can get one by E-mail nynhh@msn.com Rich Pedersen
Thanks to the link to eBay on this website, I got my copy of this model today. The paint-job looks the way I remember it, from my childhood. That "Go the Motor Coach Way" logo looks good. Corgi did an ecellent job with this model; but it's not perfect. For me, the most noticeable exception are the wide bumpers. I believe this model, like its predicessors, had narrrow bumpers. I think the wide bumpers were new with the buses with filleted windows. The extra lights below the headlights are not prototype. And the right hand front window has and unauthentic piece of metal in its right hand corner. As super perfectionist, I wish there were a core, over the driver's seat, as in the original. The sign says 5thAve-101st St. Fort Washington Ave., and Penna Station. That's a bit of a joke for anybody who knows Manhattan. (There was a car barn around 101st St. between Fifth and Madison.) And which was is this bus going; to Fort Tryon Park or Penn Staion? The Fifth Avenue had the word Omnibus on its double deckers; see www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?15896 And finally, the GM logo on the front isn't too close to the real thing, and the wrong type outside rear view mirrors come with it. But I'm keeping my model, because it looks like what I rode to school in sixty years ago.
To Mr. Martin, et.al.:
Thanks for your reply. I'm, glad you could find a model of this bus despite the errors and imperfections. I'll check mine. I never noticed that the sign reads 101st Street, should have been 110th St. Someone at the factory must have character reversal problems because they worked from photos of a real bus. As I mentioned before they got the colors mixed up because they did not submit a pre production mockup for me to check. There were also errors on their 4507 models of New York City Transit and Surface Transportation and the Madison Avenue 4506. I corrected their Surface bus but they still insisted on putting Michigan plates on the bus and did not place the red stripes above the front sign. The Fifth Avenue Double Decker bus lettered"Omnibus" is not the original lettering. This was done by NYCTA as part of the museum fleet because they could not legally letter the bus for "Fifth Avenue Coach Company". These never ran lin service lettered "Fifth Avenue Omnibus"
Thanks for responding to my post, Mr. Eboli. Fort Washington Ave. is in the 190ies. 110th St. was where the 4 ran crosstown, between Riverside Drive, in my childhood, and Broadway now; and 5th then and 5th and Madison now. I didn't know that Corgi made a model of a Madison Ave. bus. I'd love to get a hold of that. I've got their DeCamp bus which doesn't even have the blue roof stripe that's shown on the photo of a real former DeCamp bus, that they include in their package. But it is a nice model of an early GM suburban bus, with filleted windows. The lettering on the museum double decker isn't the way I remember it; but I do remember "Omnibus" on those buses years ago. Both New York City Omnibus Corporation, and Fifth Avenue Coach Company, are actual names of the company. See www.nycsubway.org/img/maps/bus-nycomni3.jpg, or 2.jpg, for a company broshure and picture of an unusually painted bus; and nycsubway.org/bus/busroutes.html, for a concise history. As for the Surface bus with Michigan plates; that's not too bad. I remember when one of their drivers took his bus to Florida. He made the newspapers.
Sorry the link www.nycsubway.org/img/maps/bus-nycomni3.jpg for the New York City Omnibus Corp. and bus photo, listed in the above post doesn't work. If you want to dig it up, go to www. nycsubway.org, and use the Google at the bottom of their page for New York City Bus Historical maps.
Here is the complete link for the concise history: www.nycsubway.org/bus/busroutes.html
Here's a working link for the NYC Omnibus Corp brochure: nycsubway.org/maps/busmaps.html
I have fond memories of these buses and the bus company. The 5 Avenue Coach Company began at the turned of the century. They operated in Manhattan and the Bronx until 1962 when the company went bankrupt. These buses were much nicer than New York City Transit Authority buses. I wish the company was in operation today.
I loved the Fifth Avenue buses too, especially the open top double deckers, riding them from the late 1930ies, until closure. But they didn't go to the Bronx; they stayed on Manhattan island, except for the one over the Queensboro Bridge to Jackson Heights. They didn't go out of business because they were bankrupt. The share holders voted out management and gave it to a man who had had sucess with the bus company in Scranton. He mad economies, and the union leader, Mike Quill, pulled a strike. Mayor Robert Wagner said "We can't have that," condemned the company and its equipment, and the MTA took it over.
Philip Martin
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