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The Original Prototype Golden Eagle
The original prototype Golden Eagle, Continental Bus System 800, later 1800, was hand built by Kässbohrer (pronounced "case-boar-er) for M. E. Moore at Continental in 1956. It had an M.A.N. V-8 diesel with a Z-F transmission and a type of hydraulic leveling system. Moore ran it between Dallas and Houston to evaluate it. Little information seems to be available about this period beyond the fact that on the initial press trip, the suspension system caught fire, a distraction that didn't keep the bus from completing the trip. Moore though, was obviously pleased with his new bus and sent it out on a promotional tour with Art Linkletter's House Party TV show and as a demonstration vehicle in many cities showing Continental's new fleet of Golden Eagle buses. In the mean time, he ordered a production run of 50 Golden Eagles, this time with torsion bar suspension like the Flxible Vistaliner had and with some modifications to the front upper windshield area. The original had glass directly over the driver's head without a driver's a/c unit and the driver burned up in the sun. The picture of Continental's 801 in front of 315 Continental Avenue in a promotional picture shows the first of the 50 production Golden Eagles which was delivered in 1957.Before the Golden Eagles began arriving in 1957, Moore purchased 2 articulated buses which were 60 feet long. These were called "Academy Express" units and were assigned to Continental's D.C.S.P. Motorway operation in Denver as 8905 and 8906. One of the buses seated 58 and the other had an extra row of seats for a capacity of 62. They were originally painted green and cream which was how Moore painted his original 5-Stars using ACF IC-41's. Later, one was repainted red and cream. They were powered with a pancake M.A.N. diesel mounted under the floor. They also had no interior baggage racks, overhead "sightseeing" windows, no underfloor baggage room and were NOT air conditioned. They did have a rack on the trailing unit's roof to stow luggage outside. They were only slightly modified designs being produced by Kässbohrer in Europe and while Moore didn't order any additional units, he was obviously taken with the idea of high capacity coaches.
BTW, if any of you keep track of bus numbers and wondered what D.C.S.P. 8901-8904 were, they were glass topped Flxible sightseeing buses that were used on local tours to Rocky Mountain National Park. ;-)
Forty-four Golden Eagles were delivered in 1957 and the production run was finished in early 1958 with the last six units, four for ABL and two for Continental Western.
While the Academy Express units operate from Denver to Colorado Springs and Pueblo, Moore had his new Golden Eagles spread all over his routes in the U.S.:
Dallas-Houston Los Angeles-St. Louis-New York City Seattle-Sacramento-Los Angeles San Francisco-Los Angeles Kansas City-Wichita Memphis-Dallas Memphis-New Orleans Memphis-Biloxi Atlanta-Birmingham-Memphis Los Angeles-Las Vegas
In 1958 the last of the original 50 bus order for Golden Eagles came off the line, four for ABL (6802-6805) and two for Western Lines (4813-4814).Obviously pleased with whatever he was looking for with the Academy Express units, Moore ordered four special 50 foot articulated Super Golden Eagles. When delivered, these buses were assigned to DCSP as 8907-8910. Unlike previous Kässbohrer units, the Super Golden Eagles had a 275 hp, supercharged, Rolls Royce diesel engine, 6-speed ZF transmission, independently diesel powered air conditioning and all four seated 63 passengers. The engine was located in the forward unit with the a/c system located in the trailer. The galley on these buses was located in the accordion articulation turntable between the two sections like the Academy Express buses. In the very rear was a 9 passenger lounge with 2 card tables like the 40 foot Golden Eagles.
Five Star Service out of Denver was expanded and extended north to Cheyenne and south to Colorado Springs and Pueblo. Traffic on the Cheyenne schedules never justified the service and it was discontinued. Later on, all four of the Super Golden Eagles were transferred to Continental Western Lines where they operated between Los Angeles and San Francisco.
I've included two shots of the buses, the first a well known color view taken for a postcard when they were assigned to Western Lines and the second in from of Colorado Spring's bus station when they ran for DCSP. The driveway for the bus station there was a straight through tunnel like affair which ran across the inside of the back on the Stratton Hotel, the entrance door is visible in the picture. It exited with a hard right turn into a narrow alley. One of the failings of articulated buses is that they can't back up more than a few feet without the trailing section going either right or left. Disaster struck one day when a DCSP driver from the Denver extra board caught an SGE run without being told not to go in the driveway with these buses. When he tried to leave the driveway, he got the Super Golden Eagle wedged in the doorway. Getting it out took a number of hours, thus, you'll notice that the picture shows the Super Golden Eagle loading on the street in front of the terminal.
Moore wasn't finished with his experimenting and he next ordered 46 versions of the 40 foot buses except without the galley and rear lounge. He called these 46 passenger buses Silver Eagles. These buses were mechanically identical to the earlier Golden Eagles but were somewhat different body wise. I've reposted an earlier color picture of a Continental Dixie unit showing a right front view, the side window line indicating that the rest room was two seats forward of the rear and a left side view of a Continental Western car which shows a modified window pattern on the left side showing the lack of a galley. The Silver Eagles did away with the front "moustache" trim and replaced it with a front destination sign and the "Z bolt" on the side of the bus was slightly different. For some reason, the rear roof windows were retained even though the rear lounge was gone. It wouldn't be long before several of these windows would be removed and replaced with panels in an attempt to keep the area cool.
Operation of the Silver Eagle version was confined to areas already running the Golden Eagles since the problem still existed with getting them maintained. The bulk of the buses went to Dixie, Western and Central, although ABL, Arkansas and Southern also received some. Compared to the introduction of the earlier Golden Eagles, Continental was quite quiet about these Silver Eagles. Visiting in Denver in the late 50's, I was surprised to discover them. They were running all the thru runs between Wichita and Denver although the schedules at the time carried no reference to the special new buses.
Moore, however, must have liked what he saw. After the run of the 46 buses, and with the better part of two years operating experience, he asked Kässbohrer for a number of changes. The drive train was giving the most problems.
A scant ten years out of the end of World War II, Germany was still rebuilding and their industry was a curious blend of hand craftsmanship and mass production. The M.A.N. engines, while quiet and quick on level ground, were quite close to hand built and fitted. The Europeans had never envisioned their engine operating over 100K miles a year nor was the concept of continuous, high speed operation known there. As the German diesels began to build high mileage, the crankshafts began to go out of round, taking out valves and pistons and leaving the engine trashed a d ruined. Additionally, the ZF transmission were too susceptible to electrical problems. The transmission fix was easy, they turned to Spicer and a 4-speed manual gear box. The engine proved more difficult.
As a temporary fix, the Kässbohrer units were converted to big, turbo charged in-line sixes. With change in power, the buses would fly and the whistling turbo charger made them sound a bit like a jet, however, the 4-speed gear box lugged the engines and cost engine life in the long run, Continental was still looking. They finally decided that the newly introduced Detroit Diesel 8V71 was just the ticket. There was just one fly in the ointment, GM wouldn't sell them the engine!
Oh, GM would sell all of them anyone wanted to "repower" existing trucks or buses, but they wouldn't sell them for O.E.M. installation. Continental filed suit, with the DoJ looking over their shoulder. If GM had just produced the engines as GM power plants, they may have prevailed, but they also made the same engine under the Detroit Diesel brand, and that was their undoing. The legal term is called "restraint of trade," and Continental's victory opened the door for everyone else. Flxible and other manufacturers began offering their products powered with Detroit Diesels which is why 1960's Flxible Hi-Level or Clipper Eagle came factory equipped with a Detroit Diesel 671.
Because the front and rear of the bus were impossible to keep cool, the caps were redesigned. Interior changes were also made, the step down aisle became a flat floor dash and interior appointments were made more durable, and the lavatory was moved to the right rear corner. Kässbohrer engineered the changes and Moore ordered what would become the Model 01 Eagle... except... he wanted too many buses, Kässbohrer's existing facilities in Ulm didn't have the capacity and the family decided that they didn't want to expand based on a single customer.
The problem was solved by the Kässbohrer family selling the design rights and jigs to build the Eagle to Moore. Moore began a search in Europe for a location to build his buses. He settled on Brugge in Belgium and incorporated Bus & Car. Construction was begun on a brand new factory, but in the meantime, in 1960, a contract was give to La Brugeoise, located in Brugge to temporarily build the Model 01. The German jigs were moved to their plant and 85 Model 01's came off the La Brugeoise production line, all still carrying Kässbohrer's "Flying K" emblem and the SETRA name.
Finally, in 1961, with the Kässbohrer German jigs moved again, Model 01 Eagles began to roll off the newly completed Bus & Car production line. Use of these jigs continued at the Bus & Car plant in Brugge until 1976 when Bus & Car went into bankruptcy liquidation in the Belgian courts.
The Kässbohrer jigs laid unused until in 1982 when Jim Kerrigan from Trailways, Inc. decided to set up a second Eagle production line at Harlingen Airport in Texas. The new operation was called Trailways Manufacturing and the original Kässbohrer Eagle jigs were purchased from the Bus & Car bankruptcy trustee in Belgium. The German jigs from Kässbohrer had three advantages over the American built jigs in use at the Brownsville plant.
First, the German jigs remained constantly true, whereas the American jigs had to be re-trued every six months, shutting down production at Brownsville while this was done.
Secondly, the German jigs had the ability to build right hand drive buses, the American jigs couldn't. This meant that Eagle's Model 10 could again be sold to Greyhound Australia. The Penfold family promptly ordered buses along with Lever Coach Lines and several others down under.
Thirdly, the German jigs could build both 96," 1-2" (remember the Model 07's from 1969, and Australia's 98½" width, used on their initial Eagle order for Model 05's in 1975. Later on, when the Harlingen plant proved unfeasible from a financial standpoint, the Kässbohrer jigs were moved again, this time to the Brownsville plant where they made possible the Model 15 Eagle introduced in 1985.
As the epitaph of this final remnant of the Kässbohrer Eagles from 1957, ownership of Eagle passed from Trailways, Inc. to Fred Currey's Greyhound in 1987 and then, with Greyhound's bankruptcy, Eagle was sold again, this time to Mexico's Moto Diesel. Just prior to Moto Diesel's demise, the Kässbohrer jigs were moved again into Mexico, most likely to Aguascalientes. Where they are exactly now, or if they still exist seems to be a question no one can answer.
Finally, Kässbohrer as a bus builder is gone, the SETRA name and bus is now built by Daimler Chrysler. The Kässbohrer name remains building, among other things, Pisten Bully snow grooming machines used by ski resorts worldwide.
Jon Hobijn
