I remember that fire truck from when I was a kid! The department still had it when I became a volunteer! I thought it was gone forever!!! Wow. Thanks man. You just brought me back to the 80s in upstate NY!
If you Google there some information on Kenworth buses and quite a few pictures. Apparently there are some around that have been restored. I got a lot of hits on Marmon-Herrington, too. I learned some new things about buses! Thanks!
Yes that Kenworth bus has some really cute look to it.. Not even 1 bad angle. All those art deco chrome swirls & those rear windows.. IF I had the $20--30 K dollars, it would be money well spent just to see her on the road again. Fascinating tour as I love old buses.Fire engines, old cars too. 'Kenworth' ? -like the trucks right ? A Real dream machine. Hope she does get Saved !
Thanks for sharing these old buses with your audience and also telling us a little bit about each one of them. Hearing your perspective makes it even more interesting to see these. You have a real eye for Industrial Design features in these old buses; something that alot of people wouldn't even see when they looked at them. Fun!
Scott you are living the dream up there. Even to see them sitting there is far better than having been scrapped. Thanks for sharing the videos about them.
The school district where I first began my teaching career was running two 1963 vintage Kenworth Pacific school buses when I started teaching there in 1976. They both used big inline 6 cylinder International gas engines with 5 speed floor shift gearboxes.
ACF-Brill also made a lot of railroad equipment. ACF was American Car and Foundry and was well-known for building railroad passenger cars. Brill itself was well-known for interurban transit cars that were powered either by electricity or an internal combustion engine. GMC truck and coach pretty much pushed the smaller players such as ACF Brill, KW and Marmon-Herrington out of the coach business because I believe GM would not supply diesel engines to a competitor. Marmon-Herrington did get the contract to repower all of the Scenicruisers with a single 8V71.
Like those rear windows in the KW! Also like the wraparound windshields. That’s even better looking than the old Flxibles. I wonder who borrowed from who concerning the rearend, the Crown or the KW? Because it certainly resembles the Crown rearend-only there are 2 doors on the Crown. When I was a boy, Rose City Transit Co. was running the Old Look buses, here in Portland, And we had trolley lines running to nearby towns, and criss -crossing the City, along with electric buses, overhead wires everywhere. US Alderman was the largest bean and berry grower in the NW, and he leased mainly Crown School Buses from McMinville School District. So we rode Crown Buses 38 miles one way, to pick berries, and later pole beans. Some of the Crowns had gasser 501 Cubic inch Internationals, with unsynchronized transmissions, and some of them were late 40s. And some of the Crowns had diesels. The best looking school buses were the class A Crowns . The bean and berry grower’s initials were USA.
Enjoyed this video so thanks for sharing bro. Buses when I was a kid had a front mounted motor beside the driver here in NZ. I remember one we went on a school trip in had a 454 Chev big block V8 engine, sounded awesome.
There weren't many of those KW buses built. Something like 30 I think? Seattle still has one. Not sure how many still exist but it's a small number. That is one of the better ones I've seen, very cool.
There is one bus trip I will never forget, it was back in 1955 I was four years old, and my mother and I went from Michigan to Macon Georgia on a Grayhound, I don't remember much about it except we were going through the mountains in Tennessee, before I75 was built, and let me tell you that ol bus was rocking and a rolling, and i got sick to my stomach, my mother yelled at the bus driver, he stopped the bus, took me out, leaned me over the ditch, as i through up, and before long he started throwing up, and that is about all i remember about that part of the trip, so that was my introduction to busses, and it didn't sit too well with me, and my stomach.
Great tour! I could spend hours wandering around here. I never knew KW made buses. I like the Greyhound next to it best. It's good to know this stuff is still around and might be salvaged some day.
I surely had no idea Kenworth made Buses either. There is a site called Hank's Truck forum. There you will find some good reading on The Kenworth Buses 1920 to 1950...Thanks Scott for the video very interesting indeed. I hope the old Kenworth gets restored one day soon...
Now that was fun! I like when you go inside, regardless of condition. Seeing the driver's location is fascinating - some of them have so many buttons and switches. I think you should get a Greyhound Scenicruiser and restore it to show condition! 😃🏆
A friend of mine had a Flexible like the one in this video. Had it converted when it was new. Then did the same thing later with a new Buffalo. I was fortunate enough to get to drive both from time to time.
The Ford (Marmon-Herrington) is an 8MB model, which IIRC was the last of the "cracker box" models. The Kenworth is a KW1 model, I remember Kenworth later made school buses with a "forward cab" design. And that 4104 simply stole my heart! Thanks for the video!
I love watching these bus videos one of the few channels I keep a close eye on especially since my dad owned one a few years ago i couldn't tell you exactly what is was but a 60 or 70s model gmc but I scrolls across a video on DEBOSS GARAGE on their war plane video and I saw they had an old bus in there that kinda resembled the KW in yours I believe and I thought immediately of you guys and figured I'd share it with y'all! Any ways thank you guys for the entertainment and history lessons!
Enjoyed seeing this collection and one thing I liked seeing is they were all setting on aired up tires. I hate seeing vehicles like these setting on flats and into the ground. Good going Phil.
Scott where about in Indiana are you from? I'm from the Knox County area and my dad for years worked for I-V Coaches. They ran from Indianapolis to Vincennes and Vincennes to Evansville. Dad was the shop foreman and I remember many many weekends or nights when we would have to go to work with him cause something broke or someone was having issues with their coach. I love watching these videos. Brings back so many memories. I can still smell the grease and diesel fuel covered shop when I watch you work.
Thank you for the tour of these awesome rare buses. But ya know....the MCI-8 Americruiser will always be one of my personal favorites, along with the MCI-9 AMERICRUISER II.
I'd love to see you work on one of the pancake powered crowns. Got to ride on one of our districts last manual transmission busses in 1991 because my driver had been there 30+ years and was one of the last ones trained to drive it. It was a crown with single dual rear wheels . That's when I fell in love with the sound of the 2 stroke detroits. Our district was still using auto trans double drw crowns as band/sports team busses when I graduated in 2004. They we're '79 models. I had no clue they were pancake until years later.
I Instantly called it and knew it was a KW! I should know, rode around with my dad in several of those older Kenworth Bullnose Cabovers with Detroits and that loud air starter all over the country.
This place is so full of history and the older guys seem to love what they are doing. Only thing that worries me is will the younger volunteers will come in and keep it going when all the old timers are gone. I see this happen with all other types of historical groups.
Oh my Gosh!! the old fire truck you photographed came from East Fishkill N.Y. !! I used to work at the old I.B.M. plant in East Fishkill N.Y. from summer 1977 to late summer 2007. Several of my friends were members of 3 different fire departments in the area including East Fishkill !! I would bet they would remember this old truck!! WOW!!! The old busses are way cool too, Never dreamed Kenworth made busses but then Mack Trucks made a few busses too in the day "mid to late 50's' IF I REMEMBER CORRECTLY!! John Bellas KC2UVN is my Ham radio call sign.
I dont know anything about busses but I saw a 48 ACF Brill that had a opposed 6 cylinder gas engine that sat before the rear axle under the floor like you described
I would have guessed it was a Brill. I knew KW made busses but the one's I saw were different than that.30 years ago ,I knew a guy that had a 56' brill with a hall scott, he bumped up the governor from 48 MPH to 52 MPH and blew the engine. thanks nice tour.
I love looking at the old buses well all the vehicles in particular they just have so much character that new vehicles lack back in the early 1970s when I was a young kid I traveled from Guadalajara to Mexico city to see a cousin who was in the hospital and I rode by bus it was a sultana 4 axle two deck with a two-stroke Detroit diesel what a beautiful bus that was they never imported those into the US the closest thing would’ve been a scenic cruiser anyways excellent video thank you for anybody who took the time to read this I’m glad to know that I’m not the only guy who likes buses my friends think I’m weird but then again nothing new
Some of those older buses, even if not restored to running condition, could be good specimens for display in a bus museum. I know there is one that preserves Greyhound buses, but few that include good examples of ACF Brill and municipal transit buses similar to old look GM and FORD and Faegol TwinCoach buses. Not to forget other lesser known manufacturers.
From the book, Highway Buses of the 20th Century, it looks like it is a Model W-1 Kenworth. Only 25 were made. Five went to Intermountain Transportation of Anaconda, Montana. The picture of the Intermountain Transportation bus in the book has the same paint scheme.
AC Brills were more common in the west I think. Our "Metropolitan Transit" had a bunch. Then they bought New Looks/Fishbowls. in the late 60s through 70s/80s. Now they are New Flyer hybrids.
Kenworth school buses were semi-popular in Washington and Oregon, but never made it to California, locked out by Gillig and Crown. KW highway coaches were obsolete when fielded due to the Hall-Scott 190 gas engine, same as was used on the ACF-Brill IC41, which GM drove out of business by 1954. Hall-Scott-powered highway coach: 2 to 2.5 MPG. GM 4103: 7 MPG on cheaper #1 diesel fuel. Crown kept selling the Hall-Scott well into the 1960s before settling on the "baby Cummins" as their stock diesel, adding the 6L-71N later.
Scott, Have you ever run into a city transit coach converted into an rv with the original 2 speed transmission? There is a version of the Detroit Diesel engine that was designed to mount at a 15 degree angle. I believe the 6-71 was designed as a pancake engine but Detroit sold hundreds of 6-110 engine for use in Self propelled RDC cars built by the Budd Company. The largest user of Budd cars as they were commonly referred to was the Boston and Maine Railroad which owned over 110 Budd RDC cars including their own version of the Budd car model number RDC-9 with no windows on the end cabs and one single 6-110 engine. All the Budd cars were rated at 300 horsepower giving a standard car 600 horsepower per car.
The Flx is a VL-100. Love um. The Hi - level looks like a GM buffalo, and the Flxliner has the straight top and high windshield. Way ahead of their time in styling, and had torsalastic like an eagle. I'd love to have a Flxliner (or Hi-Level) if the $$$ allowed