A Union Pacific Stages bus on the Columbia River Route pulls into the Central Stage Depot on SW Park between Yamhill and Taylor in 1933. This is possibly a wood-frame bus and wicker seats can be seen through the windows. A similar scene was shown here.
(City of Portland Archives)
Tags: Boise, Bus, Chicago, Crouch's Diner, Kansas City, Omaha, Portland, Salt Lake, Spokane, Union Pacific Stages
May 2, 2012 at 9:45 am
Almost certainly this was a wood framed coach body. It was not however mounted on a wooden frame. Almost all automotive body makers from this period, relied upon wooden frame work, for many applications. Autos,trucks, coach builders, trailer makers all relied on hardwoods for form and other components as well as floor boards. Note the very term floor board. Heavy truck makers as recently as the 1960s used wood in cab framing. I believe Brockway was the last truck manufacturer to do so. Only very high end builders excepted.The primary material used in the suspension components turned to metal very early on from the oak and strap iron contraptions of the automotive pioneers as loads and speeds increased.The term wood frame should be regarded with skepticism. A very interesting photo.
May 2, 2012 at 10:30 am
1933… Columbia River route. So this thing would be running on the Historic Columbia River Highway?
That would be a scary thing to meet coming the opposite way near Crown Point!
I wonder how long we kept calling these things “stages” and when that term fell out of favor?
May 2, 2012 at 2:27 pm
Good question, Tad. Was “coach” a Western U.S. term? Was “bus” a British term that we later adopted? Maybe someone out there has the answers.
May 2, 2012 at 3:38 pm
What is the building behind the Depot?
May 2, 2012 at 5:08 pm
@ Dan Cousins: The Aero Club
May 3, 2012 at 10:24 am
I think that Bus is short for Omnibus, while Stage and Coach both derive (obviously) from Stagecoach.
It seems that in the “industry”, Bus is more along the lines of a transit or school bus, while Greyhound-type “buses” are called a “coach”.
When they went from Stage to Coach, I’m not sure…