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25

[[underlined]]To Mother, October 1, 1927[[/underlined]]: We had the Holmes in Saturday evening to play bridge. ...... Yesterday we left at 7 a.m. for Cleveland to see the exhibits at the American Electric Railway Convention at the Auditorium. We drove over and took Dick and Ethel with us. The exhibits were very interesting--all the latest and grandest streetcars, buses, snowplows, and railway apparatus of all kinds. The new buses are really the most luxurious things you've ever seen--it is almost unbelievable to see the luxury and refinement they have built into them. And the new cars are the same way except the builders haven't gone quite so far--leather-cushioned seats, gaudy colors, worm-drive trucks, ball and roller bearings throughout so they are almost noiseless. The motorman sits up and a sort of flat-top desk in front, with all his handles coming out of the desk-top, his instruments flush with the top, etc. No apparatus is visible at all, being inside the cabinet--no wires, pipes, etc. All the motorman's controls are nickel-plated and highly polished--not very practical but everything done up to present a neat, attractive appearance. They must make the street cars more attractive now to get the business. One of the buses had an observation parlor in the rear to accommodate about twenty people, raised up maybe two or three feet above the front compartment, with its front windows looking out over  the roof ahead.

[[image - line drawing of a new bus, with entry and compartment doors and two levels of windows]]

This particular one had restrooms in it, running ice water, wicker seats with leather upholstery. All the baggage was carried beneath the rear observation compartment. Some buses were as large as trolley cars, one being capable of carrying 100 people, and seating 45 comfortably. Another was equipped with shower bath, kitchen, breakfast nook, and rear observation parlor. This was for the president of some street railway company. Some had the engines mounted in the middle so there was no hood in front, and then they looked [[underlined]]just[[/underlined]] like a trolley car.

[[image - line drawing of bus with engines in the middle, showing the door, windows, and just behind the front wheels, vents which allow air to go in to cool the engine.]]