Boston & Maine Transportation Co. 784

General Motors Corporation (GMC) built a large number of intercity highway coaches between the 1940s and 1980. GMC designated these as “parlor” buses to distinguish them from transit buses. No. 784 is a model PDA-3703 bus indicating the following: P – Parlor D – Diesel engine A – Variation from PD 37 - 37 seat, 35-foot length 03 – Series 3 GMC produced this model between 1946 and 1949. This model featured a rounded rear end, a sunken aisle, reclining seats, baggage racks and under floor luggage bins. Starting in the 1920s, steam railroads and electric interurban lines operated buses to supplement or replace passenger rail service. The Boston & Maine Railroad was an early bus operator. In 1924, it formed a subsidiary, Boston & Maine Transportation Company (B&MT), to operate its buses. B&MT expanded through northern New England, partly by acquiring former trolley routes as well as replacing or adding to Boston & Maine Railroad passenger train service. In 1949, B&MT purchased five PDA-3703 coaches, Nos. 782-786. These were among 17 similar PDA coaches that B&MT acquired between 1947 and 1949. No. 784 is believed to have operated on most of B&MT’s main routes. The busiest route was between Boston and Portland via Kennebunk, ME. No. 784 carried a stylish “speed stripe” olive green and cream paint scheme with red stripes, silver side bands and an illuminated sign on the rear. During the 1950s, growing automobile use caused B&MT shrunk its operations. In early 1957 it sold its Lawrence, MA – Manchester, NH route to Trombly Motor Coach, along with No. 784 and three other buses. No. 784 became Trombly No. 84 and then No. 158 in 1959. The bus ran on the Lawrence - Manchester route as well as in charter service. In 1961, after a fatal accident where a Trombly bus collided with a tractor trailer truck, Trombly went bankrupt and sold its bus fleet. The former No. 784 went to Michaud Bus Lines of Salem, MA where it briefly operated in charter service, still as No. 158. After a year, it went back to Trombly which resumed charter service, but without using ex-784. In 1964, W&W Bus Lines of Antrim, NH acquired the former No. 784, numbering it No. 1, their only bus. It operated for a total of three weeks between Hillsboro, NH and Rockingham Race Track. In 1966, Dublin Christian Academy of Dublin, NH acquired the bus to provide transportation for school events including twice-annual trips to South Carolina with the school’s choir. About 1978, Loring Lawrence, of Manchester, NH, acquired the coach. Lawrence is Editor-in-Chief of Bus History Magazine published by the Bus History Association. He operated No. 784 locally and had the Manchester Transit Authority overhaul the engine. In 1999, Loring Lawrence donated No. 784 to Seashore. In 2020, the museum adopted a plan to restore No. 784 as part of its Strategic Plan.