Buses have certainly come a long way, but that doesn’t mean they’re more interesting than they’ve ever been. I’d argue that’s actually the opposite of what’s happened since their heyday, when their diesel engines rumbled through the countryside in style that rivaled contemporary airplanes. Though never as fast as their winged cousins, the first double-decker buses were nearly as impressive, as this 1955 Greyhound Scenicruiser surfaced by Barn Finds clearly shows.
With an asking price of $50,000, this rare double-decker Greyhound is being sold on Craigslist as a project in need of major restoration to get it back to its former glory. If you’re not very confident in your diesel restoration skills, then you’ll be glad to know the current owner has shared a few maintenance and repair videos on YouTube, which you can watch to get a feel for your potential purchase. Regardless of your intent to buy, it’s just fun to watch someone wax poetic while working on an old diesel powerplant from an iconic American machine.
We take such machines for granted now, but the Scenicruiser was a groundbreaking vehicle when it debuted around the mid-20th century in 1954, as the seller tells it. In fact, the bus bears official connection to designs by French icon Raymond Loewy, who had a hand in its creation and came up with everything from famous locomotives to the livery of Air Force One. The striking lines and personality of Loewy’s designs are clear in the Scenicruiser, which was made in partnership between Greyhound and General Motors Truck and Coach Division.
The coach liner was powered by dual 4.7-liter inline-four GM diesel engines at first, and, later, by a 9.3-liter V8 from Detroit Diesel; the 1955 Greyhound being sold here is powered by the latter. The bulk of the Scenicruiser’s passenger capacity was concentrated on the second level, of course, where folks could appreciate the passing scenery perched above most anything else rolling down the highway. Shortly after its debut, the image of a double-decker Greyhound rolling through the country became synonymous with America.
Still, it seems the GM and Greyhound partnership yielded only 1,001 models of the Scenicruiser throughout a production run that lasted a brief couple of years, from 1954 to 1956. The imposing design of the big bus was not without its issues, and Barn Finds reports that the project soured relations between Greyhound and its drivers, mechanics, and partners. The bus had many mechanical issues and suffered from structural problems related to its unique build, which finally wore away the charming design. Greyhound and GM managed to address the issues, but it took a while. The declining popularity of bus travel finally did the double-decker in, but not before it was seared into the collective imagination of the country.
Your daydreams of Americana are now a measly $50,000 away, although the seller says he would prefer a buyer who can give the Greyhound the care and attention it deserves as well as a proper (spacious) home. Barn Finds says that this bus could be one of the last models capable of actually being driven on the road. That alone might be worth the price of admission, or investing in a garage to house the big Greyhound.
Got tips? Send ’em to tips@thedrive.com