Daily Bus Pictures Frontpage

[ncr]

The Daily Bus is great!

:) :) :)

Good idea, Ron. Any information as to who Charlie Sullivan is and why he took so many mass transit photos here in the 1960s?

[ttaaee]

New Daily bus - May 18, 2004
Bangkok bus 25-45, Austin, circa 1964-65. Charlie Sullivan took photos of buses in the 1960s. 2Bangkok.com is featuring one a day. Anyone know what street this is? Is it by the defense department?

Yes, Admin, you're right. The western-looking building on the right hand side of the picture is the Ministry of Defence (or Defense). Here are its websites in Thai (http://www.mod.go.th/) or English (http://www.mod.go.th/eng_mod/index.html), Note- Check the latter out, the poorly designed graphics on the homepage are not complimenting the ministry, one of the most important government agencies.

You can also see the top of San Lak Mueang (the City Pillar Shrine) right above the bus in the picture.

To answer your question, this street is definitely Thanon Ratchadamnoen Nai.

And just out of my curiosity, from Ratanakosin Walking Tour on Thailandforvisitors.com (http://thailandforvisitors.com/central/bangkok/ratanakosin/)
Further up the street is the Ministry of Defense building. Arranged on the front lawn of the building is a collection of cannons from Thai history. Its curious to note, as more than one guidebook does, that most of the cannons are aimed at the Grand Palace.
Is it true that most of the cannons are aimed at the Grand Palace? If it's true, anyone knows the reason(s) behind this?

[ttaaee]

I second that, khun ncr.

Will these pictures of the buses be archived somewhere on the website? I notice that the pictures look really good. The colors look great. Are they digitally enhanced? I'm just curious, it's been almost 40 years, most color photos should have been faded by now. Or may be they were reproduced from the negatives? hmm.....

By the way, Bangkok almost 40 years ago looks pretty clean and virtually no traffic jam to me...

[admin]

Charlie Sullivan took many photos in 1964-65 while a member of the US Army stationed in Bangkok.

We have previously featured his tram photos:
http://www.2bangkok.com/2bangkok/Tram/photoscs.shtml

As to why he took them, I assume he is another mass transit nut like we are. ;) I will write him to see if I can get more of a bio or other background info.

We will eventually post all the bus photos on an archive page (the page is already being built day by day, but we have not had a chance to format and post it yet).

We also have 63 old tram photos and 20 photos of steam trains in Vietnam from Mr. Sullivan--all never before seen--which will eventually be posted! (BTW: there are 68 Daily Bus photos in total to be posted.)

The photos were scanned from slides and were about 128-200kb when 2Bangkok.com received them. We reduced the file size (so they would load faster). On some we slightly cropped the photos (only when there was a large non-descript area of steet in the foreground) or sharpened the image. However, most of the photos are basically as we received them with beautiful and rich colors.

[admin]

I would guess Wisarut is right--it seems many foreigners try to read something more into the placement of the cannons than there really is...

[ncr]

As to why he took them, I assume he is another mass transit nut like we are.
:D the freaks... :p

Hello, Khun Wisarut,..... I guess you are implied in this description, too. ;)

Having said that, maybe someone should go out and take photos of contemporary Bangkok buses to preserve their memory for future generations? (How lovely that sounds.) Who volunteers?

[ttaaee]

Guessing from the shophouse building and, especially, from the blue sign (near upper left corner) which, again, I guess it reads Government Savings Bank, Na Phra Lan branch, I would have to guess it is(thanon) Na Phra Lan Road right in front of The Temple of the Emerald Buddha.

A higher resolution version of the pic would make it easier to read.

I could be wrong...

[sabaisabai]

Originally posted by ncr
:D the freaks... :p
Having said that, maybe someone should go out and take photos of contemporary Bangkok buses to preserve their memory for future generations? (How lovely that sounds.) Who volunteers?

I'd love to do that, if only I lived in Thailand..

I was thrilled to see the latest pictures of the bus 38s. I'm not alone in having a soft spot for the old bus 38, and take snaps of them when I'm in town (freak!).

Can anybody confirm that these bus 38s are actually the same route as the current 38? (Bangna to Pahonyothin). The resolution is too small to read the destinations.

[blue]

Yes, the bus 38 is one of the best so far!

Can anyone read the Thai sign on the Sumit gas station in the background? It seems from all the flags, it must be a holiday.

[sabaisabai]

Originally posted by blue
Yes, the bus 38 is one of the best so far!

Can anyone read the Thai sign on the Sumit gas station in the background? It seems from all the flags, it must be a holiday.
I can't make out the letters enough to make any sense of them.

Ron, would it be possible to make available higher resolution versions of these images on the archive page?

[ttaaee]

The sign reads "Long Live the King (or the Queen)"

I guess the picture was taken right around either H.M. King Bhumibhol's birthday, Dec 05, or H.M. Queen Sirikit's, Aug 12.

[ttaaee]

It must be H.M. The King's birthday.

Notice H.M. The King's initials on a small red sign with 3 small flags right above the bus driver.

[Wisarut]

Hi Everybody,

Wait until I made an investigation on the 1966 BKK bus route since many of them atre gone for good (e.g No. 31 - Pathum Thani - Sanam Luang). Some have been changed suhc as:

1966: Donmuang Railway Station - Hua Lamphong
2004: (Public) Rangsit - Hua Lamphong (shorten to
Chatuchak for soem case)
(Private) TU Rangsit Campus - Hua Lamphong
(Victory Monument for some case)

[Wisarut]

Khun Ron,

Afte taking a look at your daily bus homepage from Mr. Charlie,
I would like to tell you that some of them are ACTUALLY the intercity buses (e.g. the bus to Chachoengsao or so).

Hope that you could come up with higher resolution images so that I could POINT out the routes of thsoe buses ....

[admin]

Ok! I've had about 30 people ask for this now so I've posted all the original Sullivan images with links from the daily bus page to each one...

http://www.2bangkok.com/dailybus.shtml

[rhondda]

Oh how calm, quiet, and peaceful BKK looked in the days of the tram and daily bus pics. And what a pity it has degenerated into the noisy, dirty, poluted and overcrowded city it is today.

But getting about in the dark in those days must have been a risky not to say dangerous business.

Were the pics taken on a Sunday because there are very few people around?

[admin]

If you like the Daily Bus, wait until that series is over... Then we have the Daily Tram--many never-before seen photos...

[ttaaee]

Cool! Can't wait to see the daily tram series.

One note on the daily bus though, I just recently noticed that some of the buses featured in the daily bus were not actually Bangkok buses that serviced in the metropolitan area. They ran between Bangkok and other provinces such as the one featured in today's Daily bus, its sign reads Nakon Ratcha Sima. Another one on June 28th, its sign reads Cha Cheong Sao (which I just learned from somewhere that its name was derived from Cambodian, Khmer rather, meaning a deep canal :cool: )

[admin]

Well, by "Daily Bus" I meant "a bus a day" not "busses in Bangkok"