User:DocRushing/Tennessee Coach Company

Introduction
The Tennessee Coach Company (also called TCC) was a regional highway-coach carrier, based in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, from 1928 until -76, when it became merged into the Continental Tennessee Lines, a subsidiary of the Transcontinental Bus System (also called the Continental Trailways), which was the largest member company in the Trailways trade association (then named as the National Trailways Bus System).

Origin
The TCC began in the Volunteer State in 1928, combining the Southern Motor Coach Company, which had started running in -24 between Knoxville and Chattanooga, and the Safety Coach Company, which had started running in -25 between Knoxville and Johnson City.

Background
The story of the TCC dates back to 1919 in Ohio with O.B. Baskett, who became a driver for the Cleveland-Akron Bus Company, then drove for the Cleveland-Elyria-Toledo Bus Company, then returned to the Cleveland-Akron firm in a management job.

Baskett moved to North Carolina during the winter of 1924-25 and started working (albeit for a short time) for the Carolina Motor Coaches, running between Raleigh and Greensboro, which in November -25 became a major part of the newly founded Carolina Coach Company -- which in May -40 became a member of the Trailways association (and thus became known also as the Carolina Trailways), and which in -97 became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Greyhound Lines, Inc.

[One curious result of that last step is that now a Greyhound subsidiary (the Carolina Coach Company) is a member of the Trailways association (now named as the Trailways Transportation System).]

While in North Carolina, Baskett met two brothers, Al and M.H. Kraemer, who became connected with the Carolina Coach Company in its beginning.

Baskett, seeking an opportunity to start a firm of his own, moved to East Tennessee, then in March 1925 he began running between Knoxville and Johnson City via Jefferson City, Morristown, and Greeneville along US highway 11E, and in the next year (-26) he incorporated his operation as the Safety Coach Company (having started with two Fageol Safety Coaches and adding seven more by the end of -26).

The two Kraemer brothers left the Carolina Coach Company in 1927, and they joined Baskett in his firm in Tennessee.

Development
In 1928 O.B. Baskett and Al Kraemer incorporated the Tennessee Coach Company, bought the Southern Motor Coach Company (running between Knoxville and Chattanooga), then merged that firm and Baskett's own Safety Coach Company (running between Knoxville and Johnson City) into the new TCC.

The State of Tennessee in 1929 issued a joint certificate to the TCC and the Union Transfer Company (also called UTC), based in Nashville, for service between Nashville and Knoxville via Murfreesboro, Woodbury, McMinnville, Sparta, Crossville, Rockwood, and Kingston along US-70 (later redesignated in part as -70S). [In -30 the Consolidated Coach Corporation (also called CCC or the CCC Lines), based in Lexington, Kentucky, bought the UTC; in -31 Consolidated adopted the brand name, trade name, or service name of the Southeastern Greyhound Lines (also called SEG, SEGL, or the SEG Lines); and in -36 the Consolidated firm became renamed as the Southeastern Greyhound Lines (GL).]

The Tennessee Coach Company in 1929 extended its Johnson City line to Bristol (on the state line between Tennessee and Virginia) and in -30 to Bluefield (on the state line between Virginia and West Virginia), and in -38 it added service to Atlanta (in Georgia) both from Knoxville and from Chattanooga (although along rural backwoodsy routes through lightly populated areas -- because the Southeastern GL already ran between Chattanooga and Atlanta through more populous areas via Rome, Dalton, Calhoun, and Cartersville).

TCC also provided extensive local commuter service from Knoxville to Rockwood, Harriman, Oliver Springs, and -- especially during World War II -- Oak Ridge (still sometimes called the Secret City), the site of the top-secret Manhattan Project, which in 1945 produced the world's first nuclear weapons.

The Tennessee Coach Company and the other carrier -- first the UTC, later the CCC, even later the Southeastern GL -- shared their joint certificate (between Nashville and Knoxville) in an unusual way: One carrier ran in one direction on any given scheduled trip, then the other carrier ran in that direction on that same sked the next day -- and vice versa. That is, they ran in opposite directions, and they changed directions each day.

That plan continued until 1956, when the TCC joined the Trailways trade association (then named as the National Trailways Bus System).

With the approval of the federal Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), the TCC took over four of the nine daily trips in each direction, and the Southeastern GL took over the other five trips each way. [TCC also started one daily trip each way between Nashville and Knoxville via Lebanon, Carthage, Cookeville, and Crossville along US-70N, joining the Continental Tennessee Lines, based in Nashville, another Trailways member company, on that route.]

Between Knoxville and Bristol
In 1929 -- the same year in which the TCC and the UTC obtained their joint certificate (for service between Nashville and Knoxville) -- another significant neighboring carrier came into existence:

Three major players in the early highway-coach industry -- Arthur Hill (of the Blue and Gray Transit Company, of Charleston, West Virginia), John Gilmer (of the Camel City Coach Company, of Winston-Salem, North Carolina), and Guy Huguelet (of the Consolidated Coach Corporation, of Lexington, Kentucky, which in 1936 became renamed as the Southeastern Greyhound Lines) -- organized one more carrier -- named as the Old Dominion (also called OD) Stages (using the nickname of the state or Commonwealth of Virginia) -- to run between Knoxville and Washington (in DC, the District of Columbia) via Bristol, Roanoke, Staunton, and Winchester (all four in Virginia) -- along a route which divided between the territories of the Blue and Gray and the Camel City companies -- with those three men owning the new firm in three equal shares. Service began on the day before Thanksgiving Day in November -29.

The Blue and Gray Transit Company and the Camel City Coach Company in December 1929 together became the National Highway Transport (also called NHT) Company; NHT soon formed operating ties to Greyhound and began negotiations with Greyhound, then in early -31 NHT began using the trade name of the Atlantic Greyhound Lines (while at first retaining its previous corporate name) and in July -31 became renamed as the Atlantic Greyhound Lines (also called Atlantic or AGL).

In May 1932 the Old Dominion Stages leased its route segment between Knoxville and Bristol (on US-11W via Rutledge, Bean Station, Rogersville, and Kingsport) to the Tennessee Coach Company. Thus TCC began running between Knoxville and Bristol along -11W (the leased route) as well as -11E (its own original route).

Later in 1932 Messrs. Hill and Gilmer bought the one-third interest of Mr. Huguelet in the OD Stages, then they merged OD into their Atlantic GL.

The TCC continued to run the leased Old Dominion route (between Knoxville and Bristol) along US-11W as well as its own original route along -11E -- until 1956, when the TCC joined the National Trailways association, and when the TCC returned its leased right to the OD route (along -11W) to the Atlantic GL (as the successor in interest of the OD Stages) -- as a part of the deal related to the dissociation of the TCC from Greyhound.

After that the TCC ran between Knoxville and Bristol only on its own original route along US-11E.

Sale of TCC
In 1960 the Tennessee Coach Company became sold to a new firm (created specifically to buy the TCC) named as the Tennessee Trailways, Inc. -- owned in three equal shares by three other Trailways member companies -- the Virginia Stage Lines (also called the Virginia Trailways), the Smoky Mountain Lines (the Smoky Mountain Trailways), and the Continental Tennessee Lines (which ran in part between Nashville and Knoxville along US-70N via Lebanon, Carthage, Cookeville, and Crossville) -- which last company was in turn a wholly owned subsidiary of the Continental Southern Lines, based in Alexandria, Louisiana -- the last two of which firms were members of the Transcontinental Bus System (also called the Continental Trailways), which was the largest member company in the National Trailways association. The TCC retained its old name -- until later -- despite the sale.

In 1966 the Transcontinental Bus System (the Continental Trailways) bought most of the large Trailways member companies along the Atlantic seaboard -- including the Safeway Trails (the Safeway Trailways), the Virginia Stage Lines (the Virginia Trailways), the Queen City Coach Company (the Queen City Trailways), and the Smoky Mountain Stages (the Smoky Mountain Trailways) -- although not the Carolina Coach Company (the Carolina Trailways) or the Tamiami Trail Tours (the Tamiami Trailways).

Thus the Transcontinental Bus System (the Continental Trailways), based in Dallas, Texas, acquired the other two-thirds of the ownership of the Tennessee Trailways (which had bought the Tennessee Coach Company in 1960) -- through its purchase of the Virginia Trailways and the Smoky Mountain Trailways -- in addition to the one-third share which previously was the property of the Continental Tennessee Lines, already a subsidiary of the Continental Southern Lines, which in turn was a division of the Continental Trailways.

Final merger
Eventually in 1976 the Continental Trailways merged the Tennessee Trailways (that is, the Tennessee Coach Company) into the Continental Tennessee Lines -- at the same time when it merged also the Continental Crescent Lines into the Continental Tennessee Lines.

Conclusion
Thus ended the separate existence or identity of the Tennessee Coach Company.

Postscript
In 1968 the Holiday Inns of America, based in Memphis, Tennessee, bought the Transcontinental Bus System (the Continental Trailways), then later renamed it as the Trailways, Inc., also called TWI.

In 1979 the Holiday Inns sold TWI to a private investor, Henry Lea Hillman Sr., of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

In 1987 TWI became sold to the Greyhound Lines, Inc., GLI, based in Dallas, Texas -- a new, separate, independent firm unrelated to The Greyhound Corporation, the original Greyhound parent firm, which new firm earlier in the same year (-87) had bought the core Greyhound highway-coach business from the parent Greyhound firm.

GLI merged TWI into itself.

Thus some parts of the Tennessee Coach Company still exist -- but only as unrecognizable parts of the Greyhound Lines.