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Tim Jones (Jones)
We traveled quite a bit via Greyhound bus in my youth. The older Greyhoud buses were stuffy, I suppose because everyone smoked back then; I was allergic to cigarette smoke, so riding the busses was 'NOT FUN'. Then in 1955, the first delivery of Greyhound's new Scenicruiser buses came on line.
The Scenicruiser was designed but the Raymond Loewy Industrial Design Group, was 40 feet long and double deck in design. One thousand Scenicruisers were built by the General Motors Coach Division, all for Greyhound.
The biggest Diesel engine General Motors had at the time was the venerable 6-71 of about 200 horsepower. That wasn't enough power for the huge Scenicruiser, so GM installed two of the 4 cylinder model 4-71 engines side-by-side and connected them together via a fluid coupling. The twin engine configuration proved problematic.
One of the great features of the Scenicruiser was the very powerful air conditioning system. People were still smoking on the busses, but at least the air was fairly clean. The bus also had a lavatory, big windows and skylights. Compared to the older Greyhound busses, the Scenicruisers were the 747 of busses back in the day.
The iconic Scenicruisers were America's favorite buses (except for Greyhound that owned them and GM that built them). Numerous mechanical issues with the twin engine design strained the relationship between Greyhound and GM. Finally in 1960, GM completed design on the V-8 two stroke Diesel engine of around 300 horsepower.
Greyhound bit the bullet and replaced the twin engines with the single 8V-71 on the entire fleet. It cost Greyhound millions to do, but solved the mechanical issues. Greyhound continued to operate the Scenicruiser into the 1980's.
I had toyed with the idea of restoring a Scenicruiser into a motorhome for years. Finally concluded it was beyond the scope of what I could do, not only the technical part, but the cost as well. There are some nicely rebuilt Scenicruisers out there, but they are huge. Can't imagine taking one into the typical RV park.
Realize in hindsight, that the Greyhound Scenicruiser was my Symbolic Spaceship Freedom Bus, taking me away from the Northwest and Catholic school. That bus changed my life for the better. No wonder a ten year old mechanically inclined kid became enamored with a big-ass state-of-the-art bus. They really were cool buses. Very 1950's post war-ish. Lots of innovation and functionality.
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