The Newbies...

Everybody that ever gets a Scenicruiser is..... a Newbie. I was a Newbie. Even those that have owned other buses, trucks, classic cars etc. etc. etc..... "Think" their experienced "Owners" but generally speaking, No.... they're Newbies. A Scenicruiser is a very unique vehicle and for the time, 65 years ago, it was about as cutting edge as you'd find. While yes, like a truck it has air brakes but... they aren't exactly like the air brake systems on trucks. Yes, it's a diesel but, the old Detriot Diesel 8V71, or "318" as the truckers call them, had some different features and ways of doing things. The electrical system is so much more complicated than any truck or car someone may have probably had experience with, that it's a brand new day with troubleshooting electrical gremlins. 

I say all this becasue one of the first things new owners tend to say is...."I've worked on trucks all my life" or "I've restored countless XYZ model cars" and things of that nature. So, my first piece of advice is....be a little humble and realize you're stepping into a different world.

Speaking of that "world", another funny thing that happens with new Scenicruiser folks is they don't realize that this world is significantly smaller than they may realize. So, some rough numbers.... There were EXACTLY 1,001 actual Scenicruisers built by GM exclusivly for Greyhound. Don't count the prototypes and the GX'rs. Of that 1,001 there are approximitly 250 or so left in the world. New ones, amazingly pop up now and then, but it's rare. By the way, one sign of an experienced Scenicruiser owner, or even real fan, is that one always refers to these coaches by their serial number. Mine happens to be 847. Yea, there are so few they're "named".

Of the 250 or so, fewer than 30 are still what we refer to a "seated". In other words they still have all of their original passanger seats in them. The rest have been converted into motorhomes or other "interesting" configurations. One is a mobile DJ booth with huge doors on the sides that open up. There are a couple that have been modified to carry a car in the back and one pretty well known one is the Red Bull "Party Bus", for lack of a better term, that travels around to Red Bull sporting events.

A more important number in my view is how many are actually drivable, licensed, insured and..... used! In talking with others and trying to do a "cocktail napkin calculation", the number is probably south of 50. So, if you see a Scenic driving down the highway, it's a pretty rare thing.

Now, as small as the number of Scenicruisers as there are, the number people involved with these things in a meaningful way is wayyyyyy smaller. There are a number of folks that have 2, 3 or more Scenics in the yard. The number of people that really know these things, work on them, own them, drive them somewhat regularly and could be considered experts, is probably in the neighborhood of 20. A small club indeed.