Contents
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Origin
- 3 Background
- 4 Development
- 5 A sharing arrangement
- 6 Between Knoxville and Bristol
- 7 Sale of TCC
- 8 Merger into Continental Trailways
- 9 Conclusion
- 10 Postscript
- 11 Bibliography
- 12 Related articles
//
Introduction
The Tennessee Coach Company (also called TCC) was a regional highway-coach carrier, based in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, from 1928 until -76, when it became merged into the Continental Tennessee Lines, a subsidiary of the Transcontinental Bus System (also called the Continental Trailways), which was the largest member company in the Trailways trade association (then named as the National Trailways Bus System).
Origin
The TCC began in the Volunteer State in 1928, combining the Southern Motor Coach Company, which had started running in -24 between Knoxville and Chattanooga, and the Safety Coach Company, which had started running in -25 between Knoxville and Johnson City.
Background
The story of the TCC dates back to 1919 in Ohio with O.B. Baskett, who became a driver for the Cleveland-Akron Bus Company, then drove for the Cleveland-Elyria-Toledo Bus Company, then returned to the former firm in a management job.
Baskett moved to North Carolina during the winter of 1924-25 and started working (albeit for a short time) for the Carolina Motor Coaches (running between Raleigh and Greensboro), which in November -25 became a major part of the newly founded Carolina Coach Company — which in May -40 became a member of the Trailways association (and thus became known also as the Carolina Trailways), and which in -97 became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Greyhound Lines, Inc. (also called GLI).
While in North Carolina, Baskett met two brothers, Al and M.H. Kraemer, who became connected (although not as principals) with the Carolina Coach Company in its beginning.
Baskett, seeking an opportunity to start a firm of his own, moved to East Tennessee. In March 1925 he began running between Knoxville and Johnson City via Jefferson City, Morristown, and Greeneville along US highway 11E, then in the next year (-26) he incorporated his operation as the Safety Coach Company (having started with two Fageol Safety Coaches and adding seven more by the end of -26).
The two Kraemer brothers left the Carolina Coach Company in 1927, and they joined Baskett in his firm in Tennessee.
Development
In 1928 O.B. Baskett and Al Kraemer incorporated the Tennessee Coach Company, bought the Southern Motor Coach Company (running between Knoxville and Chattanooga), then merged that firm and Baskett’s own Safety Coach Company (running between Knoxville and Johnson City) into the new TCC.
The State of Tennessee in 1929 issued a joint certificate (of public necessity and convenience) to the TCC and the Union Transfer Company (also called UTC), based in Nashville, for service between Nashville and Knoxville via Murfreesboro, Woodbury, McMinnville, Sparta, Crossville, Rockwood, and Kingston along US-70 (later redesignated in part as -70S).
The Tennessee Coach Company in 1929 extended its Johnson City line to Bristol (on the state line between Tennessee and Virginia) and in -30 to Bluefield (on the state line between Virginia and West Virginia), and in -38 it added service to Atlanta (in Georgia) both from Knoxville and from Chattanooga (although along rural backwoodsy routes through lightly populated areas — because the Southeastern GL already ran between Chattanooga and Atlanta through more populous areas via Rome, Dalton, and Calhoun).
The TCC also provided extensive local commuter service from Knoxville to Kingston, Rockwood, Harriman, Oliver Springs, and — especially during World War II — Oak Ridge (still sometimes called the Secret City), the site of the headquarters of the top-secret Manhattan Project, which in 1945 produced the world’s first nuclear weapons.
A sharing arrangement
The Tennessee Coach Company and the other carrier — first the UTC, later the CCC, even later the Southeastern GL — shared their joint certificate (between Nashville and Knoxville) in an unusual way: One carrier ran in one direction on any given scheduled trip, then the other carrier ran in that direction on that same sked the next day — and vice versa. That is, they ran in opposite directions, and they changed directions each day.
The TCC also took part in several through-routes (interlined pool operations) — that is, the use of through-coaches running through the territories of two or more operating companies — in cooperation with both the Atlantic GL and the Southeastern GL — including those between Birmingham (in Alabama) and Bristol and between Memphis (in Tennessee) and Washington (in DC, the District of Columbia).
That plan continued until 1956, when the TCC joined the National Trailways association. With the approval of the federal Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), the TCC took over four of the nine daily trips in each direction, and the Southeastern GL took over the other five trips each way.
Between Knoxville and Bristol
In 1929 — the same year in which the TCC and the UTC obtained their joint certificate (for service between Nashville and Knoxville) — another significant neighboring carrier came into existence:
Three major players in the early highway-coach industry — Arthur Hill (of the Blue and Gray Transit Company, of Charleston, West Virginia), John Gilmer (of the Camel City Coach Company, of Winston-Salem, North Carolina), and Guy Huguelet (of the Consolidated Coach Corporation, of Lexington, Kentucky, which in 1936 became renamed as the Southeastern Greyhound Lines) — organized one more carrier — named as the Old Dominion (also called OD) Stages (using the nickname of the state or Commonwealth of Virginia) — to run between Knoxville and Washington, DC, via Bristol, Roanoke, Lexington, Staunton, and Winchester (all five in Virginia) — along a route which divided between the territories of the Blue and Gray and the Camel City companies — with those three men owning the new firm in three equal shares. Service began on the day before Thanksgiving Day in November -29.
The Blue and Gray Transit Company and the Camel City Coach Company in December 1929 together became the National Highway Transport (also called NHT) Company; NHT soon formed operating ties to Greyhound and began negotiations with Greyhound, then in early -31 NHT began using the trade name of the Atlantic Greyhound Lines (while at first retaining its previous corporate name) and in July -31 became renamed as the Atlantic Greyhound Lines (also called Atlantic or AGL).
In May 1932 the Old Dominion Stages leased its route segment between Knoxville and Bristol (on US-11W via Rutledge, Bean Station, Rogersville, and Kingsport) to the Tennessee Coach Company. Thus the TCC began running between Knoxville and Bristol along -11W (the leased route) as well as -11E (its own original route).
Later in 1932 Messrs. Hill and Gilmer bought the one-third interest of Mr. Huguelet in the OD Stages, then they merged OD into their Atlantic GL.
The TCC continued to run the leased Old Dominion route (between Knoxville and Bristol) along US-11W as well as its own original parallel route along -11E — until 1956, when the TCC joined the National Trailways association, and when the TCC returned its leased right to the OD route (along -11W) to the Atlantic GL (as the successor in interest of the OD Stages) — as a part of the deal related to the dissociation of the TCC from Greyhound.
After that the TCC continued to run between Knoxville and Bristol — but only on its own original route along US-11E.
Sale of TCC
In 1960 the Tennessee Coach Company became sold to a new firm (created specifically to buy the TCC) named as the Tennessee Trailways, Inc. — owned in three equal shares by three other Trailways member companies — the Virginia Stage Lines (also called the Virginia Trailways), the Smoky Mountain Lines (the Smoky Mountain Trailways), and the Continental Tennessee Lines (which ran in part between Nashville and Knoxville along US-70N via Lebanon, Carthage, Cookeville, and Crossville) — which last company was in turn a wholly owned subsidiary of the Continental Southern Lines, based in Alexandria, Louisiana — the last two of which firms were members of the Transcontinental Bus System (also called the Continental Trailways), which was the largest member company in the National Trailways association. The TCC retained its old name — until later — despite the sale.
In 1966 the Transcontinental Bus System (the Continental Trailways), based in Dallas, Texas, bought most of the large Trailways member companies along the Atlantic seaboard — including the Safeway Trails (the Safeway Trailways), the Virginia Stage Lines (the Virginia Trailways), the Queen City Coach Company (the Queen City Trailways), and the Smoky Mountain Stages (the Smoky Mountain Trailways) — although not the Carolina Coach Company (the Carolina Trailways) or the Tamiami Trail Tours (the Tamiami Trailways).
Thus the Transcontinental Bus System (the Continental Trailways) acquired the other two-thirds of the ownership of the Tennessee Trailways (which had bought the Tennessee Coach Company in 1960) — through its purchase of the Virginia Trailways and the Smoky Mountain Trailways — in addition to the one-third share which previously was the property of the Continental Tennessee Lines, already a subsidiary of the Continental Southern Lines, which in turn was a division of the Transcontinental Bus System (also called the Continental Trailways).]
Merger into Continental Trailways
Eventually in 1976 the Continental Trailways merged the Tennessee Trailways (that is, the Tennessee Coach Company) into the Continental Tennessee Lines — at the same time when it merged also the Continental Crescent Lines into the Continental Tennessee Lines.
Conclusion
Thus ended the separate existence or identity of the Tennessee Coach Company.
Postscript
In 1968 the Holiday Inns of America, based in Memphis, Tennessee, bought the Transcontinental Bus System (the Continental Trailways), then later renamed it as the Trailways, Inc., also called TWI.
In 1979 the Holiday Inns sold the TWI to a private investor, Henry Lea Hillman Sr., of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
In 1987 The Greyhound Corporation — the original parent Greyhound firm — which had become widely diversified far beyond transportation — sold its entire highway-coach operating business — its core bus business — to a new company — named as the Greyhound Lines, Inc., also called GLI, based in Dallas, Texas — a separate, independent, unrelated firm — which was the property of a group of private investors under the promotion of Fred Currey, a former executive of the Continental Trailways (later renamed as the Trailways, Inc., also called TWI, also based in Dallas), which was by far the largest member company in the National Trailways trade association.
Later in 1987 the Greyhound Lines, Inc., the GLI, the new firm based in Dallas, further bought the Trailways, Inc., the TWI, its largest competitor, and merged it into the GLI.
The lenders and the other investors of the GLI ousted Fred Currey (as the chief executive officer) after the firm went into bankruptcy in 1990.
The GLI has continued to experience difficulties and lackluster performance under a succession of new owners and new executives — while continuing to reduce its level of service — by hauling fewer passengers aboard fewer coaches on fewer trips along fewer routes with fewer stops in fewer communities in fewer states — and by doing so on fewer days — that is, increasingly operating some trips less often than every day (fewer than seven days per week) — and by using fewer through-coaches, thus requiring passengers to make more transfers (from one coach to another).
Now a few pieces of the Tennessee Coach Company still exist — but only as unrecognizable parts of the Greyhound Lines.
Bibliography
Hixson, Kenneth (2001). Pick of the Litter. Lexington: Centerville Book Company. ISBN 0-87642-016-1.
Motor Coach Age (a publication of the Motor Bus Society), various issues, especially these:
August 1977;
May 1980;
April-June 1995;
October-December 1998.
Backfire, the corporate newspaper for the Southeastern Greyhound Lines, all issues, from January 1938 through February 1956.
Jon’s Trailways History Corner, a web-based Trailways history by Jan Hobijn (also known as Jon Hobein) at http://cw42.tripod.com/Jon.html.
Related articles
Please see also the Wikipedia article on the Atlantic Greyhound Lines, the Dixie Greyhound Lines, the Florida Greyhound Lines, the Southeastern Greyhound Lines, and the Teche Greyhound Lines.
Retrieved from “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee_Coach_Company”
Category: History of transportation