The Tennessee Coach Company (TCC) was a regional highway-coach carrier, founded in 1928 and based in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. It was in operation until 1976, when it became merged into the Continental Tennessee Lines, a subsidiary of the Transcontinental Bus System, called also the Continental Trailways. Continental Trailways was by far the largest member company in the Trailways trade association, which was then named 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 1924 between Knoxville and Chattanooga, and the Safety Coach Company, which had started running in 1925 between Knoxville and Johnson City. Background The story of the TCC dates back to 1919 in Ohio with Onnie Bruce "O.B." Baskette. He drove first for the Cleveland-Akron Bus Company, then for the Cleveland-Elyria-Toledo Bus Company (which, despite its name, ran only between Cleveland and Norwalk, Ohio, beyond Elyria but short of Toledo). He then returned to the former firm in a management job. Baskette 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 1925 became a major part of the newly founded Carolina Coach Company. In May 1940 the latter firm became a member of the Trailways association and became known also as the Carolina Trailways; in 1997 it became a wholly owned subsidiary of Greyhound Lines, Inc. (GLI). One curious result of that last step is that a Greyhound subsidiary, the Carolina Coach Company, the Carolina Trailways, is a member of the Trailways association, now the Trailways Transportation System]. While Baskette was in North Carolina, he met two brothers, Al and M.H. Kraemer, who became connected (although not as principals) with the Carolina Coach Company in its beginning. Baskette, seeking an opportunity to start a firm of his own, moved to East Tennessee. In March 1925 he began running between Knoxville and Johnson City along US highway 11E (US-11E) via Jefferson City, Morristown, and Greeneville. In the next year, 1926, he incorporated his operation as the Safety Coach Company. He started with two Fageol Safety Coaches and added seven more by the end of 1926. In naming his firm he took a cue from the brand name of the Fageol Safety Coaches, as did a number of the founders of other