1959 Mini Bus

Dubbed the "Little Hound Line", this scale-model bus is 3' 5" wide and 4' 4" high

Miniature Bus For Small Riders
in March 1959 Popular Mechanics magazine



Eight children and one adult, the driver, can ride in a miniature bus constructed by L.A. Beretta of Lexington, Mo., from sheet aluminum and parts of cars and arm machinery.  The tiny bus, a scale model of the type used by one of the cross-country buslines, has a top speed of 25 miles per hour.  It's powered by an eight-horsepower engine and has an automatic transmission that works through a centrifugal clutch. 

The midget bus has a wheelbase of 83 inches and weighs 1280 pounds.  Beretta spent three years of his pare time on the project, plus $475 for materials.  He did all the work himself except for welding the frame.  The springs came from a hay baler and from a mower.  The bus has tractor headlights, fender parking lights from a 1941 Ford and directional lights converted from the parking lights of a 1941 Chevrolet.  License-plate holders serve as side windows.

1960 Downtown Manhattan Ice Skating at Apartments

Ice Skating Rink Built Into Downtown Apartment
Midtown Manhattan seems an unusual spot for a private ice skating rink, but at 213 West 58th Street there's a 20 by 32-foot skating area built into the rear of a fashionable apartment building.  The owner, Alan Murray, a shoe manufacturer and ice-skating instructor, had the rink built into the site of an unused stable behind the building so his friends and students could take a turn on the ice without inconvenience or temperature worries.  An ice-making machine capable of freezing 10 tons of ice a day keeps the ice in shape, and Mr. Murray's apartment and offices are around and above the rink.  

The picture shows the host and his daughter as they watch the skaters from the apartment.

From December 1960 Popular Mechanics magazine