Beautiful old Buicks

[Paul Steinberg]

Tom is a major contributor and driving force along with Walt McCall, and Brady Smith in publishing The Professional Car... They are the glue that bring it all together. If it were not for these three men, we wouldn't have an award winning magazine!!!

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[Keith Snyder]

Thank you for this detailed information. Is Mr. Mc Pherson; a PCS member, I don't show him listed in our members. I would be great to have him as a site supporter with all his information/knowledge. Or are you his spokesman? Thanks for all the info.

Spokesman....not really. Friend...yes (I would hope). He is able to answer most if not all pro-car related questions because of his knowledge of and involvement with and in the industry. Not to mention his large collection and the intense research he has done into the field. He is always ready to answer questions or help in any way he can....and usually enjoys doing so.

 

[Steve Lichtman]

Thank you for this detailed information. Is Mr. Mc Pherson; a PCS member, I don't show him listed in our members. I would be great to have him as a site supporter with all his information/knowledge. Or are you his spokesman? Thanks for all the info.

Tom most definately is a PCS member, and is listed in the 2010 Membership Directory. (The new list, on CD, will be out later this year.) He is quite generous with the information he has amassed and writes articles and books frequently on the history of professional cars.

 

[Skip Goulet - Deceased 1945 - 2018]

Really? He averaged 140mph for the whole run?

I may be a bit wrong on the mileage, but it is right at 100 mi. or a little more from Dimmit to Lubbock. But I do know that he was averaging close to 120 mph, or so he had told me; and I've seen that little Buick flying down the road a time or two with him behind the wheel.

We once had a nice 1971 C/B Olds Seville ambulance that was a fast-runner like that in which we made the 100 mi. run from Lubbock to Snyder, TX in just over 45 minutes. The odd thing was that I never went over 88 on the speedometer. On the way we passed a DPS unit who blinked his overheads at me. We were running "hot", so I just blinked back and kept on going. There had been a bad school bus wreck east of Snyder earlier in the day that killed 7 and injured 25. We were called down to bring one of the kids back to Lubbock to an orthopaedic hospital. As we were loading our patient from the Snyder ER the DPS trooper whom we had passed showed up and just as I was head towards the driver's seat, asked me what we had under the hood of the Olds. I replied that it was a 455 and asked why he had asked. He then asked if I remembered passing him on the highway, to which I nodded "yes", and then he asked if I knew how fast we were going. I told him that once I had reached open highway after having cleared the small town of Post that I had set my cruise control on 85 and it was somewhere near there when I passed him. He chuckled and said that when I went through his radar we were doing 120 and "moving on", as he put it. He said that he just had to see that car close-up. Needless to say, I had the speedometer checked that Monday, and it turned out that there was a problem with the speedometer, quite a bit, I'd say, and it was corrected.

But, Steve, a lot of the short coaches that prevailed in these environs were fast runners. I tried my best to grab that Buick when it was retired and was replaced by a Summers hightop Suburban; but it was kept as second-out and later given to Dimmit's hospital along with the Suburban when the funeral home exited the ambulance service. Can't win 'em all!

 

[Steve Loftin]

Fentress Mortuary (Ft. Smith, AR)
1968 Trinity/Buick Royal endloader

(SL photo)

 

[Kurt Arends]

Why does it have chains on the rear wheels? I would think that it would be hard to find a set of chains in Arkansas.

 

[Steve Loftin]

Why does it have chains on the rear wheels? I would think that it would be hard to find a set of chains in Arkansas.

Most roads in Arkansas are dirt; therefore chains, shovels, and at least two 12x2x60" boards are carried on every vehicle. You can't see them in this photo, but there are tow hooks under the front and rear bumpers so mule teams can pull them out of the mud. All Arkansas funeral home GPLs have a listing for these teams as well as hip boots for the minister and pallbearers.

 

[Steve Loftin]

Why does it have chains on the rear wheels? I would think that it would be hard to find a set of chains in Arkansas.

This photo was taken on Thanksgiving Day 1974, so it was possible that snow had been in the forecast.

This was their third out coach behind 1970 and 1963 Victorias. It was used for first calls as well as trips, and was moved up to first out during bad weather and road conditions.

 

[Steve Loftin]

"Just when we think we've seen 'em all..."

Here's a photo from the September, 1956 issue of Mortuary Management magazine. All I know is what's in the caption. These cars could've been built by any number of the smaller conversion companies...but I'm guessing Barnette, if only by the coach lamps on the hearse:

 

[Steve Loftin]

According to Walt, the '56 Buick hearse is a Memphian. Therefore, the limousines were also likely built by Memphis Coach.

 

[Skip Goulet - Deceased 1945 - 2018]

Nice as always, Steve. I like the Buicks second only to the Consorts. It's hard to tell from the copy of the pic. Is that a small whistle of some sort on the front bumper of the coach.

Wasn't that nice '58 Buick ambulance that appeared at Lancaster also a Memphian?

 

[Attila Bethlenfalvy]

St. Francis Hospital's first ambulance, a '42 Flxible. Image found by Ed Kalinowski, of Kapiolani Community College and digitally restored by graphic artist & paramedic Marc Sacco.

 

[Brady D Smith]

Skip, the 58 was...

A National.

 

[Skip Goulet - Deceased 1945 - 2018]

St. Francis Hospital's first ambulance, a '42 Flxible. Image found by Ed Kalinowski, of Kapiolani Community College and digitally restored by graphic artist & paramedic Marc Sacco.

Very nice old car. I'm surprised that pic doesn't appear in the Flxible book.

 

[Adam Borkat]

Representing many different coachbuilders...

1964 Abbott & Hast Buick (factory photo)
1957 National Buick hearse (factory photo)
1946 Flxible Buick - Bell's Ambulance Service, Healdsburg, CA.
1938 Superior Buick ambulance - Bartow-Frank-Durbin VFD, Durbin, WV.
1922 Meteor Buick hearse - Simmons-Rice Mortuary, Smith Center, KS.
1981 ACC Buick hearse - Last ACC conversion built, photo from eBay listing.

 

[Skip Goulet - Deceased 1945 - 2018]

That little Buick Sport Wagon was very popular for ambulance use also. The funeral home in Stanton, TX and one in Kermit both had '65 Buick wagons as their ambulances. Turned out that the two Buicks were the last two ambulances for each of those funeral homes before they exited the ambulance business in the late '60s.

 

[Attila Bethlenfalvy]

Argentinian '29 Buick as displayed @ 2010 Marin Sonoma Concours d' Elegance in San Rafael, CA.

Sporting 1930 CA plates, does this reside on the West Coast or was it merely brought into US for show?

 

[Rich Koski]

Winamac, Indiana. Fry and Lange Mortuary.

 

[Steve Loftin]

Winamac, Indiana. Fry and Lange Mortuary.

This firm is still in business, but under different ownership:

http://www.frainmortuary.com/?page=history

 

[Martyn Donaldson]

Argentinian '29 Buick as displayed @ 2010 Marin Sonoma Concours d' Elegance in San Rafael, CA.

Sporting 1930 CA plates, does this reside on the West Coast or was it merely brought into US for show?

This car and the blue '28 Packard you posted pics of in the Packard thread are owned by a west coast collector. He has an extensive fire apparatus and auto collection including many pro-cars.. Several horse drawn and carved panel coaches, '30s ambulances to '50s flower cars and at least two other Argentinian coaches!