Welborn

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Welborn Bus Lines, Inc. was a motor bus common carrier in operation from the 1940s to 1989 that was home-based at Donaldson Center in Greenville, South Carolina in its later years. Operating a mixed fleet of Greyhound-style General Motors/MCI coaches and Trailways-style Silver Eagle model 01s, Welborn connected Greenville with Easley, Pickens, Clemson, Seneca, Walhalla, Westminster, and offered "vacation travel planning, individual & group tours, charter busses (sic) & service", according to their yellow pages advert in the October 1979 Southern Bell telephone directory. Their color-scheme was a Trailways-like white with red trim and lettering over silver sides. Their operation received mixed reviews from customers. After the disastrous experience of Tiger Band on the roadtrip to Jacksonville for the 1977 Gator Bowl, (bathrooms not pumped out at Jax, broken seats on board, tire failure en route back to Clemson), Welborn was not invited to bid on the 1978 band contract, and Greyhound took over for the next several years. It changed its name to "Travelways, Inc.", probably on July 28, 1980. Their one inch by two inch box ad in the listings advised the reader to "Call Collect - 277-6713".

The volume "South Carolina - The WPA Guide to the Palmetto State", compiled by the Workers of the Writers' Program of the Work Projects Administration in the State of South Carolina, copyright 1941, and republished by the University of South Carolina Press in 1988, noted that the Greenville bus station located at 105 West Washington Street was served by Atlantic Greyhound, Eagle Bus, Red Top, and "Welborne Bus Lines." (Page 242).

State records show a March 3, 1948 charter date for the corporation.

On-line records of Flxible Clipper intercity bus serial numbers show two Clippers, Model 29B147, c/n 8025, and Model 33B148, c/n 8933, sold to Welborn Bus Lines of Liberty, South Carolina. Flxible built Clipper models from 1937 to 1942, and resumed production, 1944 to 1950. A Flxible VisiCoach, model number 218B1-50-33IC, c/n 30065, was delivered on October 27, 1950. (Reference: Flxible VisiCoach Serial Numbers - http://www.flxibleowners.org/SERIALNOS/vis01.htm.) VisiCoaches were manufactured between 1950 and 1958.

On August 10, 1966, the Acting Chairman of the South Carolina Public Service Commission directed Welborn Bus Lines to answer charges by the South Carolina Selective Service that the company had violated its contract:

YOU ARE THEREFORE ORDERED to appear before this Commission at 11:30 a.m., Wednesday, August 17, 1966, at its offices in the Wade Hampton State Office Building, Columbia, South Carolina, to show cause, if any you can, why your charter rights, applicable to the transportation of draftees on behalf of the South Carolina Selective Service, should not be revoked by reason of certain alleged irregularities in the transportation of such draftees, such irregularities, if true, being in violation of the statutes, rules, and regulations of this Commission in accordance with the terms and provisions of Section 58-1422 of the Code of Laws of South Carolina (1962) and of Rule 92 filed with the Secretary of State for the State of South Carolina. BY ORDER OF THE COMMISSION. (Reference: Rule to Show Cause, Docket No. 13149, Order No. 13524, August 10, 1966 - http://dms.psc.sc.gov/pdf/orders/44F23C18-DFA7-4C69-7E5BE1E167B130FC.pdf.)

According to South Carolina state records, Travelways, Inc., registered agent - D. Jack Pharr, Address: 507 Cedar Lane Road, Greenville, South Carolina, was dissolved on September 29, 1989, in a Forfeiture case. (Reference: http://www.scsos.com/index.asp?n=18&p=4&s=18&corporateid=11844.)


Trivia

  • A Welborn Silver Eagle 01 was featured in The Midnight Man scene filmed in Anderson in 1973 where "Quartz" follows Senator Claiborne onto a bus.
  • Members of Psi Mu Psi music honor sorority had an Unhymnal-worthy chant about being members of the "Welborn Whore Corps", or the "WWC". Psi Mu Psi integrated into Mu Beta Psi in 1976 following the passage of Title IX legislation in 1972.
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