Motor Coaches (v): Public Transit in Kingston. A tribute to Ted Baker.

[This is one of a series of articles written by Merrill Weekes for the newspaper Old Autos, starting in April, 2004. The series is written with the collective title of "Model T's to Motor Coaches."]

By the year 1877, the military and lake port City of Kingston had grown from a settlement of a few hundred people to a city large enough to require a transportation system. The Kingston Street Railway was formed and for the next 16 years, horse drawn rail cars carried residents to their work places and down town to shop.

In 1893, the Kingston, Portsmouth and Cataraqui Street Railway inaugurated an electric street car service. Electric streetcars served the community until Christmas Eve, 1929, when a fire destroyed the car barns and most of the rolling stock. The Public Utilities Commission made an arrangement with Colonial Coach Lines to supply buses to provide a service to replace the street cars. Robert Orwell managed the operation for a few months until the Kingston City Coach Company was formed.

Three second hand vehicles were purchases for the new city service: a GMC model "W" coach with a Cadillac V8 engine and two 29 seat Leyland "Lionesses", numbers 44 and 45. No. 45 was right hand drive and remained in service until after World War Two. It carried hundreds of R.A.F. pilots, training under the Commonwealth Training Program to Kingston and back to Norman Rogers Airport during the war years. I had the pleasure of driving #45 many times. The seats had been removed and wooden benches installed down each side and across the back end. Wooden posts in the center provided support for standees. After leaving the airport with a standing load of young airmen early one evening, #45 was sideswiped by a stolen car. I passed a note book and pen to the passengers for witness names for my accident report. When it was handed back to me it contained about 80 signatures.

Ted Baker was hired to drive for the Kingston City Coach Co. in March, 1930 at the age of 19. He retired in 1975 after 45 years of being the friendly bus driver for many thousands of passengers. Children who rode with him in the early years grew into adulthood and he eventually carried their children and grand-children. After Ted's wife passed away a few years ago, he sold his home and moved into an apartment. Because of an eye problem he does not have a driver's license, however, he owns an electric ride-on vehicle and visits the local shopping mall, weather permitting, to meet and share memories with a host of old and new friends. Next April sing "Happy Birthday" to Ted on his 95th.

Merrill S. Weekes, 2004