[PRCo] Re: Bus museums

[Bob Rathke]

The link line was embedded in the WSJ article, and must have become de-actived in my post. 



Try: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704529204576257104293191300.html 



Bob 








----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Herb Brannon" <hrbran at cavtel.net> 
To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org 
Sent: Saturday, April 16, 2011 11:37:05 AM 
Subject: [PRCo] Re: Bus museums 

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

> 
> See Wall Street Journal article below. Â Also click on the "More photos...." 
> link to see 12 photos of the museum vehicles. 
> 
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> 
> Bob 
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>    � 
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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. 
> 
> 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. 
> 
> Lowly Bus Seeks Love 
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> View Slideshow [SB10001424052748704529204576257104293191300]Brian L. Frank 
> for The Wall Street Journal 
> 
> The Pacific Bus Museum in Fremont, Calif., is home to 22 vintage buses in 
> various stages of restoration. 
> 
>    � More photos and interactive graphics 
> 
> 
> "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. 
> 
> 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. 
> 
> 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." 
> 
> 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." 
> 
> "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. 
> 
> 
> [BusMuseum] 
> 
> A 1957 City Transit Bus 
> 
> 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. 
> 
> 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. 
> 
> 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. 
> 
> 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." 
> 
> 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." 
> 
> 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. 
> 
> "It had a kind of short window of opportunity for glory, let's say," Mr. 
> Lehrer says. 
> 
> 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. 
> 
> 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. 
> 
> "I've had little excursions around the countryside," he says. "It's great 
> fun." 
> 
> 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. 
> 
> "He said, 'If you're thinking of moving your buses here, you can forget 
> it.' " 
> 
> 


-- 
Herb Brannon 
In Cuyahoga Valley National Park