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SEPTA Goes 'Old School' As Part Of Anniversary Celebration

By Tim Jimenez

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - As part of its yearlong 50th anniversary celebration, SEPTA dusted off and showcased a bus from 1970 in South Philadelphia Thursday afternoon.

It was certainly a "Throwback Thursday" for Phillies fans getting off the subway at Broad and Pattison. They were able to snap pictures and go through the green, silver and white SEPTA bus, bringing back memories for many, including SEPTA's Assistant GM Fran Kelly.

"Riding the 39 bus, running up Cedar Street to catch it at Cedar and Huntingdon and try to make it to school at North Catholic on time," he reminisces.

Fred Hewiitt, one of the mechanics who helped restore the bus, says he had fun working on this 1970 GMC:

"They used a fishbowl body style from 1959 to 1976. It's a 6v71 with a V body transmission. It has 190 horsepower."

And how about windows that open?

"That's the old sliding windows. Sometimes they didn't open though back in the 70s. It probably was better that they didn't," Kelly says.

SEPTA hopes to bring these vintage buses out a few more times this year.

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