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The name of the Pacific Bus Museum’s Membership Newsletter is “The Paddle”… but why?

This is the name that was given to the turn-by-turn directions/schedules drivers used to make sure they followed the correct bus route and were on time. These were often paper schedules similar to what you might see laminated today. In the past, these schedules were mounted to a board and passed from one driver to the next, so they resembled a paddle. Thus the nickname.

Now that you know, you will find many variations of this story and its implementation documented all across the internet.

PBM Member Tim Evans wrote this story, called “Paddles” for the April/May 2020 edition of The Paddle, which tells us more.

Paddle Archives

The Pacific Bus Museum archives most of The Paddle editions going back to the 1980s. This is the membership newsletter for PBM, but also was the newsletter for the predecessor to PBM called the West Coast Motor Coach Society/Museum.

Our archives include both WCMCM and PBM Paddles back to 1986.

We have begun the process of digitizing and transcribing those paper archives to be made available to current Pacific Bus Museum members. Excerpts are being provided online, and full editions are being stored as PDFs.

Having full access to these archives is one of the many benefits of becoming a PBM Member. If you are not already a member, consider becoming a member today.

Non-members can view this index to see which archive editions have been digitized.

If you are a researcher or would like to request access to specific Paddle editions, please Contact Us.

Pacific Bus Museum

* In Full Color

West Coast Motor Coach Museum

• 1991 – Line 8
• 1990 – Line 7
• 1989 – Line 6
• 1988 – Line 5
• 1987 – Line 4
• 1986 – Line 3
• 1985 – Line 2
• 1984 – Line 1

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