By David Hubbard

The only Trailways Scenicruiser in existence enjoyed a short-lived supporting role in the 1992 film, That Night.

In his book of remembrances on the road, Square Wheels on the Interstate, veteran Trailways driver emeritus, Robert J. Beard, tells the rest of the story on what appears to be one of the only Trailways Scenicruisers in existence.
The bus, which belonged to one Pete Brenenstuhl, is shown parked on location for the movie, That Night. Based on the novel by Alice McDermott, this 1992 romantic drama written and directed by Craig Bolotin, starred C. Thomas Howell and Juliette Lewis, and tells the story of a young girl coming of age in Long Island in the early 1960s.
According to Beard, the set crew first painted this vintage Scenicruiser in the authentic Greyhound colors complete with lettering and the iconic running greyhound. However, the plan changed suddenly when the director failed to get the okay from Greyhound to use the company name and logo.
Beard writes in his book, Working quickly in fading light, crew members removed the dogs, covered the other markings and numbering, and instead lettered TRAILWAYS BUS LINES on both sides of the bus.
To true diehard bus aficionados and Greyhound drivers then and now, this competitive signage on a beloved Scenicruiser must come across as an absolute sacrilege.
But as Beard says, at one time or another everyone has been told, “Hey, it’s just a movie.”

In his book of remembrances on the road, Square Wheels on the Interstate, veteran Trailways driver emeritus, Robert J. Beard, tells the rest of the story on what appears to be one of the only Trailways Scenicruisers in existence.
The bus, which belonged to one Pete Brenenstuhl, is shown parked on location for the movie, That Night. Based on the novel by Alice McDermott, this 1992 romantic drama written and directed by Craig Bolotin, starred C. Thomas Howell and Juliette Lewis, and tells the story of a young girl coming of age in Long Island in the early 1960s.
According to Beard, the set crew first painted this vintage Scenicruiser in the authentic Greyhound colors complete with lettering and the iconic running greyhound. However, the plan changed suddenly when the director failed to get the okay from Greyhound to use the company name and logo.
Beard writes in his book, Working quickly in fading light, crew members removed the dogs, covered the other markings and numbering, and instead lettered TRAILWAYS BUS LINES on both sides of the bus.
To true diehard bus aficionados and Greyhound drivers then and now, this competitive signage on a beloved Scenicruiser must come across as an absolute sacrilege.
But as Beard says, at one time or another everyone has been told, “Hey, it’s just a movie.”

By Glenn Swain

Touring cars sit in front of the State Game Lodge in Custer State Park in South Dakota in this 1920s-era photo. The State Game Lodge was also the “Summer White House” for Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and Calvin Coolidge.

Restoring a vintage 1920s tour bus has become a labor of love for Herman Jones, owner of Mount Rushmore Tours in Rapid City, South Dakota. Jones first had the idea to restore an old bus back in 1970. Through the years Jones had refurbished a 1932 Ford five-window vehicle with a rumble seat that had been given to him in the 1960s, but he really wanted to restore a bus. He had seen a number of photos of original 1920s rag-top, 15-seat passenger tour buses that hauled passengers in the nearby Black Hills region. The vehicles had been owned by the Black Hills and Western Tour Company.

“I decided I wanted to find one of these tour buses, so I started looking,” Jones says. “I found one in Minnesota and they wanted $56,000 for it. I didn’t have that kind of money then. Besides, if I did I would have bought a big bus and made some money with it.”

In 2005 he finally located one in Harmony, PA. The price was right at $6,000 and he bought it sight unseen over the phone.
“It was obviously a basket case,” Jones says of the condition of the bus. “A father and son got started working on it and got the motor finished, but eventually they had it more torn apart than together.”

While Jones had visions of using the bus for specialized commercial uses, his insurance man suggested he be very careful in putting too much money into the restoration. Vintage vehicles can sometimes be nearly uninsurable.

“There’s no reason to have one of these if you can’t use them,” Jones says. “My approach is to try to get it up to DOT standards. We’ll be able to use it for specialty events like weddings, anniversaries and parties. It’ll be more of a fair-weather rig than an all-weather vehicle.”

The cost to get the old bus back on the road is not cheap.

“We’ll easily dump $80 to $100,000 into it,” Jones admits. “That’s to make it look like is just rolled off the showroom floor. I’m one of those guys who says if we’re going to do it let’s do it right. Let’s not poor boy it where you have to fix or repair the thing constantly for the next ten years.”

Jones did confirm the bus was used in the Black Hills in the 1920s. He found a physician in Loma Linda, CA whose hobby is, oddly, keeping track of serial numbers of antique tour buses.

Herman Jones’ vintage 1920s touring bus looks like a junkyard heap now, but plans are to restore it to working order.

Jones is currently working with a guy in Illinois to buy and ship a new chassis for the tour bus so it can meet specifications. When found, it will be a simple matter of transferring the body onto the new chassis.

Jones predicts the finished project is maybe a year away.

“It’s a labor of love. It’s not something that we’re doing to make lots of money off of. It’s something to give somebody that nostalgic appeal that wasn’t expected. We try to give people what we promised them, and more.”

StarMetro used funds available through the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Art Enhancement Program to recycle old bus parts through Dickson’s hands. FTA provides full grant monies to local transit agencies such as StarMetro to incorporate local art in the design of their transit facilities.

Dickson says his creation represents the power of the wind in a sail, the forward motion of wheels on the road and the feeling of momentum moving us forward. He used discarded bus rims and exterior bus panels to create the work that now stands in front of the offices on Appleyard Drive.

“We are very excited to integrate art from local artists in our transit facilities,” says Ron Garrison, Executive Director of StarMetro. “Good design and art in various forms and media can enhance the appearance of a facility, give vibrancy to a community’s public spaces and make the public feel more welcome.”

Dickson, a member of the Council of Culture and Art (COCA), has studied with respected sculptors and attended Florida State University to study fine art and metal fabrication. He now owns his working studio in Tallahassee.

Florida sculptor Mark Dickson at work on his conversion from scrap to art for StarMetro. He used discarded bus rims and exterior bus panels to represent what he sees as the power of the wind in a sail, the forward motion of wheels on the road and the feeling of momentum moving us forward.

Other notable works by Dickson in the Tallahassee area include a sculpture in The 621 Gallery’s Charles Hook Sculpture Garden in Railroad Square. He also had a hand in installing Hugh Nicolson’s ‘Storm Song’ sculpture — the iconic dolphin sculpture on the back steps of the capitol building.

“It is an exciting and progressive step for our local public transportation to include the arts as it moves into a bright future,” says Dickson. “Tallahassee will continue as a cultural attraction with the advancement of public art.”

The Flxible Company, Loudonville, OH, built  Bus No. 50 for Utah Parks Company in 1955 as part of an order for three of the new Flxible Visicoach model 218-FA1-55s.

It came equipped with 24 reclining seats and a five-passenger rear divan. A six-cylinder Fageol (Hercules) gasoline engine, mated to a four-speed mechanical transmission, powered the vehicle, which measures 33-feet and is 96-inches wide.

The popular Flxibles were ideal for transports requiring a smaller capacity coach and were well suited for traversing the scenic, winding roads in many parks and wilderness areas.

Bus No. 50 eventually turned up in Glacier National Park Transportation Inc., where it ran as No. 77 until 1987 alongside two other Utah Parks Flxibles

Transportation Insurance Brokers (TIB) bought Bus No. 77 from the private party who had purchased the three Flxibles from the Glacier operator in 1989.

TIB intended to show it at bus and motorcoach trade shows, feeling their preservation of a historical vehicle was a visible way to promote the company and give back to the bus community. ABC Bus Sales painted it for TIB, and Sardo Bus and

Coach Upholstery refurbished the seats. TIB flat-bedded the old bus to many shows.

Richard Twining, an avid bus enthusiast and past president of the Pacific Bus Museum, acquired the coach from Transportation Insurance Brokers in the early 1990s, adding it to his historic bus collection. He donated the Flxible to the museum in 1996, along with five more of his historic buses, shortly before his untimely death.

Twining knew he was terminally ill at the time and wanted to ensure No. 77 a good home. PBM humbly accepted all six buses and now include them as part of the permanent collection of restored historic buses.

In need of mechanical attention at the time, museum volunteers have since restored the Flxible to operating condition and frequently take it around to events throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.

I was looking at photos on Trailways Bus Driver Web site and came across the photo of the Super Golden Eagle. The picture was taken in December 2008. Does anyone know where the bus is located or have any info on who owns it?

It was owned and restored by Pete Wilson of Wilson’s Bus Co. in East Templeton, MA. Its mate (only four were built) sits unrestored at the Green Tortoise yard in southern Oregon.

That olden Eagle Articulate that Pete Wilson has now isn’t that the same  Golden Eagle that AC Transit used for a few years on its Trans Bay runs into San Francisco from Oakland and surrounding areas?

Yes it is…and continues to be used in special charters.

So the photo of the AC Golden Eagle is the same one that Wilson Bus Lines has restored and has seen the pictures. If so, Wilson had to do a huge amount of restoration as this bus does look in very rough condition. Double koodoos [sic] for the restoration.

The four Super Golden Eagles were initially delivered to DCSP in Denver and then went to Continental Western where they finished their life in Trailways red and cream running between SFO and LA.

While everyone is aware of one of the cars being sold to AC Transit, the other three were sold to Nashville’s Loch Raven Coach. Loch Raven was both an artist’s coach converter and also a lesser of artist’s coaches.
Loch Raven destroyed one of the cars when they took the trailer off and tried to make it a 35-ft car. It didn’t work. That is the shorty frame sitting behind Wilson’s shop. The other two were converted to artist’s coaches with the trailer of one of them being shortened.

Wilson acquired all four of the SGEs; AC Transit’s and the two running as artist’s coaches by Loch Raven plus the remains of the one they destroyed.

Wilson evaluated the three still running and decided which was the best to rebuild. That was the AC Transit unit, chiefly because of its continuous excellent maintenance. The ex-LR unit with the shortened trailer was subsequently sold as a motor home and the final LR unit was sold to The Green Tortoise — shall we just say transportation service for alternative lifestyles.

The Green Tortoise’s unit is inoperable and presently for sale because it needs a new articulation unit. The articulation unit is not just the connecting turntable, it is more complicated.  The mechanics manual explains that the turn made by the front unit automatically calculates the steer of the trailer tires to allow the trailer to track the lead unit exactly. This means the 60-ft SGE drives in the same space as a 35-ft bus — as long as the artic mechanism is working, otherwise it’s just the same as a 60-ft tractor trailer.

The Kässbohrer factory in Ulm, Germany, still had one original SGE spare artic unit in the crate and they gave it to the Wilsons to rebuild the AC Transit car.

I was going to detail what the Wilsons did to their car in the rebuild, but suffice it to say it was stripped to the frame and all 60 feet of it was re-engineered and essentially remanufactured as a virtually new bus.

However, the TR car at Green Tortoise is available for your mechanics.