Up for bid is a CD of over 500 images taken during the 1991-1996 period of the LA bus scene as the SCRTD transitioned to the LACMTA starting in May of 1993. All photos were taken by the legendary bus photographer, driver, and Bus World featured artist known as RT4957 owner of the 1975 Sacramento RT 4957 Flxible coach.

This era is widely known as the “Dead era” of Los Angles bus photography as few if anybody was out there with a camera getting the imagery covered in this CD that covers mostly the SCRTD/LACMTA operations at the time and will also cover other transit agencies covered on the list below.

A system tour of RTD Divisions, Terminal’s, and the Central Maintenance Facility including a super rare set of photos taken at the Pomona Division 16 when the 9900 Neoplan Double Decker’s were kings of the system just about a year before Division 16 ceased operations.

The tour begins with the twilight years of the SCRTD including the following coach series and paint schemes listed below. The primary focuses of the photos are the final years of the "New Look" buses that were retired in May 1993 (One of the first acts LACMTA did was to pull the new looks out of service after the murder...merger of the SCRTD) many of the shots are to show the new looks running alongside the newer equipment. The shot of 1062 is seen on the last day of RTD new looks in operation.

1000-1099 GMC T8H5307A "New Looks" from 1973 featured in the Tri-Stripe and Two-Stripe schemes. This includes a detailed series of shots of coach 1001, and Division 8 "Special Bus" 1083 with interior shots showing the 1083 as it was salvaged from a near early retirement and given custom treatment for the remainder of its run.

1100-1189 Neoplan AN440/3 from 1987 featured in the Tri-Stripe and Two-Stripe schemes. This set includes a rarely seen shot of 1170 with the short lived “Clean Air Diesel” decal when a handful of 1100’s were given twin exhaust particulate traps. Also shown is a detail shot of the twin exhaust pipes.

1200-1502 TMC T80206 RTS Methanol in the two-stripe scheme as delivered with SCRTD logos and “Methanol Powered” decals. These were the last buses bought by SCRTD and amongst the first to be re-logoed for LACMTA.

1800-1809 Flxible 40102-6C from 1990 the first CNG buses (Including action shots) that were a very rarely seen in revenue service and that spent nearly all of their life in dead storage at the Division 15 cage area.

1900-1970 TMC T80206 RTS Methanol from 1989 featured in the Tri-Stripe and Two-Stripe schemes.

2000-2266 TMC T80206 RTS from 1988 featured in the Tri-Stripe and Two-Stripe schemes.

2300-2402 TMC T80206 RTS from 1989 in the two-stripe scheme as delivered and including some of the 10 “Clean Air Diesel” decal buses that featured a particulate trap with street exhaust that was not standard to the rest of the buses in that fleet.

2500-2649 Flxible 40102-6C from 1988 featured in the Tri-Stripe and Two-Stripe schemes.

2700-2764 Flxible 40102-6C from 1989 featuring the tri-stripe “Error” scheme applied by Flxible with an all white bus and the tri-stripe reflective decal stripes. Also included are “Corrected” Two-Stripes that were few featured in this fleet.

2800-2689 Flxible 40102-6L From 1990 featuring the two-stripe scheme as delivered. Some include the backward RTD logo applied by mistake by Flxible.

3100-3299 GMC T8H5307A "New Looks" from 1974 featured in the Tri-Stripe and Two-Stripe schemes. This includes coach 3160 that a HO scale model by Busch is based on.

3300-3317 Neoplan AN440 from 1984 featured in the Tri-Stripe and Two-Stripe schemes. These include such rare buses as 3319 "Robocop 3" wrap ad, 3501 (White Rim bus) the only SCRTD Neoplan to wear white rims, 3524 Steel Jeans first LACMTA wrap ad with the "White Face" (That confused passengers into thinking the wrap buses were from another agency! As the wraps were the first buses to get the RTD logo vandalized by the new MTA logos), 3535 “Neoplan Wing” emblem bus and wrap (The only SCRTD-LACMTA Neoplan ever decorated with the metal wing logo on it!), 3559 rear Railroad Roman numbers, and a few more surprises such as Division 8 coaches 3474 and 3477 prepared to be assigned to ATE contracted services some of the few 3300's in the “One Stripe” paint scheme.

4139/4150 Carpenter 30 footers featured in the Tri-Stripe (4150) and Two-Stripe (4139) schemes. These were the last two Carpenters owned by SCRTD and were converted to CNG as an experiment.

4300-4339 Flxible 35 foot new looks from 1972 featured in the Tri-Stripe and Two-Stripe schemes. This includes a detailed series of shots of coach 4303 (Two-Stripe), and 4304 (Tri-Stripe) with interior shots.

4400-4434 GMC 35 foot RTS featured in the two-stripe scheme.

7500-7729 Grumman Flxible 870’s from 1980 featured in the Tri-Stripe and Two-Stripe schemes.

8200-9139 GMC RTS 04 40 footers from 1981 featured in the Tri-Stripe and Two-Stripe schemes.

9902-9922 Neoplan Double Decker’s from 1982 featured in great detail including interior shots.

9928-9938 Neoplan AN340’s from 1992 operated under contract for LADOT.

9940-9944 MCI MC-9 former Greyhound buses leased for use on a special service Line 646 after the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

Non-Revenue buses are included featuring Fishbowl 330 (Former 5090), and 340 (Former 5053) Transit Police Command Center, 5193 (Restored 1958 GMC TDH-4801 kept by LACMTA to this day), and M.A.N 40 footer 50-0999 (Former Golden Gate Transit Methanol1) used to transport V.I.P’s known as one of the two “Executive buses” at the time.

We also glimpse into early Blue Line train operations.

From SCRTD we move into other Southern California buses including.

UCLA Transportation
Former Orange County 35 foot Flxible, and former SCRTD 40 foot Flxible coaches.

Santa Monica Municipal Bus Lines 5100 Fishbowl, and 5200 Classic’s in their original schemes.

Orange County Transit District (Orange Stripe, and Orange/Teal OCTD schemes)
1100 class Flxible new looks, 3000 class GMC RTS 03’s, 4100/4500 Gillig Phantoms.

Las Vegas Transit (In a scheme that vaguley mimics the SCRTD Tri-Stripes)
GM New Look, MCI MC-5C, GMC RTS 03, TMC RTS 06 (RARE!), CAT New Flyer, and Gillig.

Los Angeles Department of Transportation
Stewart & Stevenson, Neoplan AN340 (Including coaches operated by SCRTD), and DASH operated RE National’s.

Long Beach Transit
GMC RTS 04 3500/4400 classes including Landshark, TMC RTS 06 (Including 9200 ”Bulldog” face style), GMC RTS #4701 (First production RTS 01), Eagle charter buses, Orion Runabouts (LBT and Runabout schemes) , and Promenade Tram, all LBT buses are in the "GMC RTS demo" blue and white paint scheme.

Torrance Transit
Flyer D900, and Gillig Phantom.

These are all high quality photos you will never find anywhere else. From the scans on this auction you can get a flavor of the fun ride you are about to go on with this great CD of vintage LA bus photos in a time that few people were interested enough to photograph it all.

All shots are very clear documentary style 3/4 or flat views.

Scans are Hi-Res and usually come out to 1MB (Give or take a few KB) each so you can study the details, decals and literally see right into the buses and backgrounds.

If you have been wanting to start a collection of RTD-MTA material this is it, the best collection scanned to a CD for your home enjoyment as it is all here from this "Dark" era.

All scans are from slides by RT4957 and are not intended to be re-used or given out to the internet. The burned in Trikora Trading Co. is just for the auction only and will not be on the CD images.

For a serious collector and historian this will be hours, if not days worth of amazing Los Angeles transit material most people have only dreamed to see. As almost anyone knows my collection covers the best and after years of holding onto it in my archives I have opened my vault to serious bidders who intend to pay.

Do not bid if you want to play games. I am not interested in the voices in your head that told you to bid and not pay, your menstrual pains preventing you paying, or an alien abduction that got you while you were waiting to pay.

Item ships Priority mail with Delivery Confirmation. If you buy multiple CD's from me I will combine shipping into one, just give me a heads up after the auction so I can invoice you accordingly.

Email with questions, the auction holds a few samples.