[PRCo] Re: Bus museums

[Herb Brannon]

Interesting article.  No link, however.
On Sat, Apr 16, 2011 at 11:58, Bob Rathke <bobrathke at comcast.net> wrote:

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> See Wall Street Journal article below.  Also click on the "More photos...."
> link to see 12 photos of the museum vehicles.
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> Bob
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> By CONOR DOUGHERTY
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> FREMONT, Calif.—Creating nostalgia for a form of transportation many people
> think of as grimy, crowded and low class isn't easy. Just ask Ron Medaglia,
> president of the Pacific Bus Museum.
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> Mr. Medaglia, a retired bus driver, has spent the past five years trying to
> raise money to build a home for the group's 22 vintage vehicles.
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> Lowly Bus Seeks Love
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> View Slideshow [SB10001424052748704529204576257104293191300]Brian L. Frank
> for The Wall Street Journal
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> The Pacific Bus Museum in Fremont, Calif., is home to 22 vintage buses in
> various stages of restoration.
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>    • More photos and interactive graphics
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> "We think buses are the greatest thing since sliced bread," Mr. Medaglia
> says. "The public doesn't quite see it that way." So for now, much of the
> museum's collection sits parked behind the battered metal doors of a dank
> warehouse here.
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> Touring the collection, Mr. Medaglia points out some of his favorites.
> There's a 1955 Greyhound Scenicruiser, a sleek, silver bus whose features
> include a raised back cabin and a bathroom, which he says is to bus
> aficionados what the classic 1957 Chevy is to car buffs. Another favorite: A
> 1955 Flxible Visicoach with a shiny black and cherry-red paint job. "A real
> babe magnet," he says.
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> The Pacific Bus Museum's struggles are a metaphor for buses' place in the
> public's heart. Take music. Songs about cars and trains are full of romance,
> from the passing American landscape in "Chattanooga Choo Choo" to the
> mechanical muscle powering the Beach Boys' "Little Deuce Coupe."
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> Songs about buses? There's ZZ Top's "Waitin' for the Bus," which includes
> the line, "I got my brown paper bag and my take-home pay." Meanwhile, the
> Fatima Mansions, a now-defunct Irish rock band, bluntly summed up many
> people's feelings with their single "Only Losers Take the Bus."
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> "It's the poor people's mode of transport," says Cathal Coughlan, who wrote
> and sang "Losers." He says the track is meant to be a dig at 1980s
> conservatives who wanted to cut back social-welfare programs.
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> [BusMuseum]
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> A 1957 City Transit Bus
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> Many museums are dedicated to cars and trains, but only a handful mark the
> countless bumpy bus rides Americans take to school, around town and across
> the open highways. There's the Greyhound Bus Museum in Hibbing, Minn., and
> the Museum of Bus Transportation in Hershey, Pa. The Henry Ford museum in
> Dearborn, Mich., has the bus that civil-rights hero Rosa Parks was riding
> when she refused to give her seat to a white man, sparking the Montgomery,
> Ala., bus boycott.
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> More typical, though, is the fate of the Chicagoland Historical Bus Museum,
> which stores its 14-piece collection at parking lots around the city as it
> tries to raise money for a building. "We have had problems with vandalism
> and have no protection for the collection in the harsh Chicago winters," the
> group writes on its website.
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> The Pacific Bus Museum has another way to raise funds and build excitement
> about buses. Several Sundays a year, the museum provides two classic buses
> to shuttle passengers between a commuter rail station and parking lot and
> another, very popular attraction in town: a railway museum. Passengers are
> asked to donate $1 for their bus ride.
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> On a recent afternoon, David Greenstone, an engineer from Berkeley, Calif.,
> caught a ride with his wife, Althaea, and their two young sons. Mr.
> Greenstone, 40, says he's a fan of public transit but has no use for most
> buses. His gripe: all the "gnarly encounters" buses seem to foster. "Just
> people getting in your face," he says. "It happens a lot on the bus."
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> Pam James, another passenger, was surprised to learn that as she headed
> toward a train exhibit she was, in fact, riding in part of a separate museum
> dedicated to bus travel. "I don't do buses," says Ms. James, a preschool
> teacher. "I love trains."
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> Jim Lehrer, the 76-year-old anchor of the Newshour on PBS and an avowed
> "bus nut," argues buses, while unglamorous, are an important part of the
> nation's history and economy. In the days before widespread car ownership,
> buses were a crucial link between cities and rural America. Mr. Lehrer
> thinks buses aren't so fondly remembered because they enjoyed only a few
> decades of prosperity before cars took over as the primary form of
> transportation.
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> "It had a kind of short window of opportunity for glory, let's say," Mr.
> Lehrer says.
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> Today Mr. Lehrer, like Mr. Medaglia, is trying to preserve his bus memories
> for the next generation. He collects all forms of bus memorabilia, from
> depot signs to cap badges. He helped found Hershey's Museum of Bus
> Transportation and is also a member of Mr. Medaglia's museum.
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> Mr. Lehrer even has his own bus: A restored 1946 Flxible that's painted
> blue and yellow, the colors of a bus line his father founded. Mr. Lehrer
> keeps it in a barn at his farm in West Virginia and has sometimes taken
> friends for rides.
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> "I've had little excursions around the countryside," he says. "It's great
> fun."
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> Mr. Medaglia notes that historical buses are relatively easy to find and
> acquire (cities are often eager to give them away), but storing them can be
> costly. Along the way, he has tried to get his collection into a few auto
> museums, but they either weren't interested or didn't have the space. One
> trolley car museum cut him off before he could ask the question.
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> "He said, 'If you're thinking of moving your buses here, you can forget
> it.' "
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-- 
Herb Brannon
In Cuyahoga Valley National Park