Designer Times
Page 2 of 2
In 1957 we built the second Main Street Antique car. It was painted yellow and had a longer body without a back entrance so as to carry more guests. The red car was then stretched and rebodied to be the same as the yellow car.
In 1958 I told Walt that we didn’t have a fire engine (just because I wanted one). It used a longer frame with the same Antique Car power train, but dual wheels on the rear axle. I bought a used 1938 Chevrolet fire engine from Crown Coach Fire Engine Company for $150 just to get all the fire equipment from it. Ward Kimball thought we should have a more important looking front end.....thus the nice brass radiator shell and big Rushmore headlamps.
When it was ready to deliver to Disneyland in July 1958, I drove it down the Santa Ana Freeway. The red car ran better since we used it at the Studio for testing and use in a movie. The yellow car was shipped by truck and never got the engine broken in right. So “my” fire engine would go to Disneyland on it’s own power. As I rounded a corner near the park, a small boy looked at the tiny 2-cylinder 12-horsepower fire engine and exclaimed “ mister, by the time you get there it will have burned down”.
Two Omnibus’s were built.....the first one in 1956. The nearby Travel Town had a late 1920’s double deck Yellow Coach on display, so I could get a lot of detail reference from it. But it was pretty tall for Disneyland’s so-called 5/8th scale. By using a 1956 International Harvester Z-drop frame beer truck chassis, I could place two inward facing seats on the first floor with the aisle headroom poking up in the space underneath the top outward facing seats. Thus full size guests could fit inside a 5/8th scale Main Street Omnibus.
We built them in the Studio Machine Shop. I drove the first Omnibus over to a local muffler shop for the exhaust system, then downtown to the Crown Coach Company for a paint job. I even drove it on Hollywood Boulevard during a bus strike. A little old lady climbed aboard thinking the old time double deckers had come back.....had a heck of a time getting her off! And naturally I drove the Omnibus down to Disneyland. I don’t think Walt ever caught on to all the driving I “had” to do as part of the Main Street Vehicle development. At least for a while these Main Street Vehicles were my very own personal rides.
Next month: Disney becomes a ride manufacturer
-- Bob Gurr
Bob Gurr began working with Disney in 1954. He retired in 1981 but occassionally consults for the Company. Since Disney he's worked on the sinking ship at Las Vegas' Treasure Island, Universal Studios' King Kong, Godzilla for the film by the same name and much more. Among his proudest accomplishments he lists "making Walt tickled pink that some of the things he wanted to build actually worked. You could tell how proud he was when he would show off things to his friends and the press. Lincoln and the Monorail were two big ones for him."
Designer Times is normally posted the second Wednesday of each month.
The opinions expressed by Bob Gurr, and all of our columnists, do not necessarily represent the feelings of LaughingPlace.com or any of its employees or advertisers. All speculation and rumors about the future of Disneyland and the Walt Disney Company are just that - speculation and rumors - and should be treated as such.
-- Posted February 14, 2001
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