A few months back, I saw an announcement for this interesting HO scale bus from Small Wonders (a Sylvan Scale Models affiliated company.) I ordered one from a seller on ebay a couple weeks ago. It's a classic late Steam to Diesel era bus. They were used in longer haul service as well as typical municipal transit. The site Coachbuilt has a fairly good history of the General American Aerocoach buses. I have already decided to decorate mine for a fictitious southern Oregon regional bus line serving towns between Ashland and Grants Pass (unless I find good information about an actual bus line that operated this prototype in that area, at that time.)
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| Three quarters view looking at the front |
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| Three quarters view looking at the rear of the bus |
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| Underbody illustrating the styrene strips added to improve the fit |
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| Interior of the bus |
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| Straight-on side view |
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| The flaw caused by a bubble in the casting |
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| The parts bag |
Ted, bus service along US99 in Southern Oregon in that period almost certainly featured the "dog" (Greyhound). It may also have included Western Trailways. As I recall, SP had a stake in Greyhound and saw it as supplanting and replacing their own local train service. Recall that a 1951 Greyhound strike led to the extension in operation of Trains 327/328 Dunsmuir to Ashland. After the strike, the "Scoot" was discontinued. The Rogue River (Trains 329/330) served Ashland to Portland longer, lasting until August, 1955.
ReplyDeleteBill Decker
This site mentions historic bus lines in the Medford and Ashland area
ReplyDeletehttps://www.rvtd.org/Page.asp?NavID=15
Oops. Sorry I didn't get to comment sooner. Yes, Pacific Greyhound had Aerocoaches, but they only kept them for a couple of years. I don't know for sure why, but I assume it was because the Aerocoaches were gasoline powered. A Brill IC41 or a GM PD-4102 was diesel powered. And the Aerocoach used a Hall-Scott 6 which not only had an overhead cam, unheard of in those days, but was a pancake engine -- it was mounted laying on its side. An absolute bear to work on. Anyway, Pacific Greyhound's Aerocoaches were built in 1944, and sold to Southern Cities Transit in 1950. SCT became part of Cross Town Suburban Lines in 1959, and Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority in the early 60s. The Sylvan kit is a few years too new to represent them accurately. Try Flanagan's Bus Lines from Gardner, Massachusetts, on a cross-country charter. They were, literally, a rolling museum.
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