Traversing the Fairgrounds Courtesy of Greyhounds

John Fritz Walters of Delavan, Wisconsin, sent us this interesting postcard he obtained from an estate sale, touting the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair. John was curious as to what type of transport vehicle was used to ferry passengers around the Windy City’s edition of the famous exhibition. The postcard’s description boasts of transporting visitors via a fleet of 60 semi-trailer type open buses, which could accommodate 15,000 to 20,000 passengers per hour.  

As it turns out, the vehicles used were built by Greyhound and if you look closely, you can see the running dogs on the side of the trailer in the postcard. It was the official transporter at the World’s Fair and the cabs used a streamlined appearance developed in cooperation with GMC; they were referred to as “Auto-Liners.” The 60-foot-long transporters had a capacity that could accommodate 50 seated passengers with long, exterior-facing bench seats for 22 people on each side and a forward-facing bench in the back for 6 more. There was also room inside for another 40-50 passengers to stand in the trailer’s center aisle. The total cost of the entire fleet? At the time it was approximately $300,000–more than $7 million in today’s dollars.

Greyhound’s headquarters was in Chicago at that time, and being the only form of transportation allowed around the 400-acre, 2.7-mile-long site, the carriers kept the Greyhound name visible – and no doubt helped them limp through the tumultuous decade. Today you can find many toys and models of the fair’s transporters as they were a popular promotional souvenir at the time. 

John is wondering if any of the original intra-fair vehicles still exist, and we would like to know as well. 

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