Demonstrators

As an exceedingly large property capable of placing substantial orders, Public Service was courted over the years by many bus manufacturers and operated numerous sample buses in demonstration service. Like many street railways, the company kept careful track of the performance of its demonstrators, in spite of its early enthusiasm for Yellows. Unfortunately the records have been lost, and for the 1920's, when most of the demos were on the property, there is no information about those that were not retained in the fleet. In later years there is better information, but the demonstration periods tended to be brief and the record-keeping not as thorough. Presented here is as much of the list as has been brought together, with the eventual fleet number of the demos that were kept appearing at the extreme right. It is presumed that there was a bus for every number from 1 to 66. In 1973 TNJ ran three sample buses on suburban routes in support of a transportation bond issue, which failed to pass, and these were numbered in a different series.