Tuesday, June 30, 2009

On the last day of June, the next Museum I want to tell you about is The Forney Transportation Museum (http://www.forneymuseum.com/) located at 4303 Brighton Boulevard, Denver, Colorado 80216 - phone 303-297-1113.

It houses a one-of-a-kind collection of over 500 exhibits relating to historical transportation. It began with antique cars, but soon expanded to include vehicles of all kinds. Some of these are familiar, while others spark the imagination. I can't tell from their website if they own any buses--but the vehicle in the picture belonged to Amelia Earhardt!

Monday, June 29, 2009

Attention: TOY LOVERS - I've found some more GREAT toy buses for you to drool over!

The first is a Fageol Safety Coach from the 1920's. It is 12 inches long.

The second is a 1930's cast iron bus - 7-3/4" long, red and silver with white rubber tires on wooden hubs.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Talking about travelling around the country visiting Bus Museums--I came across this bus token from Hawaii! Oh, wouldn't we love to spend the summer in Hawaii!

In 1951, the Honolulu Rapid Transit Company produced bus tokens with a hula girl on both sides. So many tourists took them for souvenirs, that the company never used a hula girl design again! This is one of those tokens. It measures 7/8 inch in diameter, and is in mint, uncirculated condition. Dated 1951

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Do you ride a bus to work? Do you have a bus pass? Is it an electronic card of sorts? Well--look at these vintage bus passes from Milwaukee that I found on the internet. The graphics are GREAT and note the one that says "everyone can't ride the first bus"!

Friday, June 26, 2009

Of course, the best venue to visit during your summer vacation is your own Museum. This Saturday (June 27, 2009) is the 14th Annual Museum Car Show and Flea Market on the grounds of the Museum. The show opens with registration at 8:00 AM on the Museum grounds and runs until 3:00 PM.

The Car Show is open to all pre-1984 vehicles including antiques, classics, street rods, trucks, buses, motorcycles and sports cars! Other activities will include a 50-50 Raffle, antique car rides and a behind the scenes look at one of the Auto Museum's storage facilities including additional vehicles not on public display.

Special Museum exhibits include a new Antique Motorcyle Club of America Foundation motorcycle display and Sports Cars in America featuring a variety of domestic and imported two-seaters that traveled America's highways after World War II. Also, take the time to visit the Museum of Bus Transportation's new display cabinets (which rotate every 6 weeks) and the Wolf Bus Lines' Fitzjohn currently on display.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Jumping around the country--today, I'd like to point out the Virginia Museum of Transportation (http://vmt.org/). They are located in Roanoke, VA, and have an automobile collection railroad collection, buses parked around the property and a GREAT toy train exhibit that you won't want to miss.

They are located at 303 Norfolk Avenue SW, Roanoke, VA 24016 - right along the rail yards. Their phone is 540-342-5670.

We have actually been there and there is a lot to see. We especially enjoyed the toy train exhibit. Unfortunately, their buses are sitting outside in the weather.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Since it is now officially SUMMER, I thought I would explore a few lesser known bus/transportation destinations around the country. In my search, I discovered a delightful museum located in St. Paul, MN (193 Pennsylvania Avenue E., St. Paul, MN 55130 - 651-228-0263).

It is officially called the "Minnesota Transportation Museum". Their website is http://www.mtmuseum.org/ and they have some delightful photographs of their Museum on it including several buses.

Here's what they list as parts of their Museum:

Jackson Street Roundhouse

Osceola & St. Croix Valley Railway

Classic Buses

Minnehaha Depot

So you can see they are more than buses--but most bus fans also like other commercial transportation. So if you are going out that way--check them out and let us know what you thought.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

For all your toy collectors, checkout this website that one of our faithful members sent to me about Japanese Tin Toys from the Golden Age of the American Automobile - The Yoku Tanaka Collection (http://www.japansociety.org/image_galleries). From a previously unknown private collection in Tokyo, Buriki focuses on toys made for the U.S. market during the 1950s and early 1960s, with the emphasis on models that celebrate, in faithful detail, the Golden Age of American automobile styling.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Did I actually hear NO RAIN for this upcoming week??? I can hardly believe it. I will tell you that the Truck Show in Macungie was soggy--the vendor area was all mud...we are so blessed to have such a wonderful building that we can hold our vendor sales INSIDE instead of outside!

A few pictures in this blog show the interior of the Altoona bus and the great work that Ken McNellis, Bob Devine and Jeff Holland have been doing.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY! The Museum is open today and offers free admission to all the Fathers out there!

Just a few more pictures from the Spring Fling that one of our vendors sent to me--thanks Angel!

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Work continued at the Memorial Annex this week. We took a break for a week after the Spring Fling but there is always work to do at the Annex.

8 buses were moved back into the Annex. The floor was cleaned with a leaf blower to remove dog hair and other debris. The floor in the "shed" was patched. Trash was removed and
dumped. The pit was uncovered and pumped out. If the weather would cooperate, the grass will be needing mowing soon too.

In the Susquehanna Valley, as in other parts of the East Coast--we have had rain almost the whole month of June--hard to keep up on the grass mowing when everything is wet.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Today we are heading out to the Truck Show at Macungie, PA--and believe it or not--there often is a bus or two....so I'll keep this post short as we need to get on the road. Macungie is about 2 hours from us--a delightful ride through the Pennsylvania countryside.

We also own a 1969 DIVCO milk truck--and we go to the truck show to "hang out" with the DIVCO people! Enjoy your day.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Today I went through the remaining pictures I had from the Spring Fling and thought I would post them--if anyone else has some pictures that I did not post, please feel free to email them to me (thebusmuseum@yahoo.com).

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

If you were unable to attend the Spring Fling, plese checkout the gift shop page of the Museum's website (http://www.busmuseum.org/GiftShop.html)--as we are featuring the NEW sage green shirts sponsored by Wolf Bus Lines with the Fitzjohn on it that is currently on loan to us and on the Museum floor. It is a GREAT looking shirt with the Wolf Bus Lines logo on the back of the shirt -- in fact, the ONLY shirt we have with printing on the back of the shirt.

Also, please note that that we no longer have the 3x sizes in the Michaud shirts (so they were removed from the website selling)--they are going fast, so if you want one--email me (thebusmuseum@yahoo.com) and I can still grab one and ship it to you ($21.95 includes the shipping cost).

We are also out of the tan golf shirts with the Museum logo.

So don't be left out--get your new Fitzjohn shirt today!

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

I think I could talk about the Spring Fling forever!!! Today let me introduce you to Bob Devine - he was chosen as the 2007 Volunteer of the Year--Bob comes from northern NJ (so has a 3+ hour drive)--he works fearlessly on the buses--he and Jeff Holland and Ken McNellis refurbished the Altoona Bus--it is so gorgeous.....they are now starting work on the Williamsburg bus--they worked on Saturday on the wheels--here is Bob (with his GREAT shirt on) in his work gloves--he washed down the interior of the Williamsburg bus.

Also, I'd like to comment on all the people who came from all over the country (and I hear, all over the world) to the Spring Fling. Also is a picture of Bev Fitzpatrick and his son who came from Roanoke, VA--they represent the Commonwealth Coach & Trolley Museum (hope I have that right)....we were down there a few years ago and Bev gave us a personal tour, thank you, Bev.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Okay--now I'm going to show you some of the buses that we had--these were parked up at the Museum because of our soggy ground (thanks to about 10 days of rain and all-day rain on Friday).

The red one is a motorhome, the five in a row (above) were driven here by the fellows of the NJ Transportation Heritage Center (and I know they appreciated the fact they didn't have to drive in 95 degree temperatures this year!), and the Trailways bus--not sure who brought that--someone sent me that picture.

And if you didn't see it--the Museum had the KISSMOBILE on display too!

Sunday, June 14, 2009

You know we can't exist without food and when you think of food at the Spring Fling--you think of Pastor Dan Lehman--who with the help of Don Barlup and Maureen Devine--had a great setup for the food tables.

Thank you to all who ate with us--it was our most successful food enterprise to date according to Dan. Thought you would enjoy a few pictures from "Dan's Diner".....Dan, of course, is on the left, and Don Barlup on the right. Sorry, Maureen, I didn't get a picture of you back at the food concession. Actually Maureen was all over the place--she helped for quite a while at the Gift Shop table too--you might have thought you were seeing her twin!

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Wow, can hardly believe a week has passed already....still sorting through pictures. This by far was our most successful event--thank you sponsors, vendors, guests and volunteers! I thought you might enjoy some more pictures.

This was Louk Markham's School Bus display--it was GREAT! By the way, they came all the way from Michigan to display these license plates and I hope you all had a chance to look through his great pictures.

Friday, June 12, 2009

More on our vendors: Terry Cosention and John Dockendorf each had tables selling bus items, as well as Bob Beard in the center section.

Along the outside (east) wall was Ken Cosgrove with his "flat" wooden painted buses--always popular with our visitors.

Along the west wall was Dave Dearstyne and his model buses....see small picture.

Check out the rest of my pictures at our website www.busmuseum.org--just click on Current Activities and follow the link to the Spring Fling 2009 photos.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

More on our vendors: Jeff Silver of Awesome Diecast was there from Boca Raton, FL, along with his son. He was located along the inside row.

There were quite a few people who had tables that don't necessarily have retail shops or websites--see the list I posted yesterday.

Of course, the Museum's GIFT SHOP had a display table and we sold our shirts--deals were flying off the table in every direction!

John Lenhart of New Holland, also had two tables along the east wall (next to the Membership Table)--John is also one of our volunteers on the floor--thanks John!

Next to John Lenhart's table was Custom Painted Models by Angel Tollens and his lovely wife Becky (Becky took some pictures for me when I couldn't get up to the Museum--thanks again Becky). The Tollens come down from Rochester, NY, for the event.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

I think I am finally catching my breath. Let me introduce you to a few of our vendors--I, unfortunately, did not get all their photos--so if anyone wants to send me some, please send them to thebusmuseum@yahoo.com.

On the west wall from the front to the back--Pete's Model Garage (2nd picture) from Massachusetts (could you tell from his accent???). Charlie Wotring/Royal Coach (top picture) had the tables further down that wall.

Here's the list of vendors and/or displays:

Awesome Dyecast/Jeffrey Silver
Don Barnes
Robert Beard
Mr. Copestine
Terry Cosentino/Berks Historical Society
Ken Cosgrove
John Dockendorf
Joe Golabiewski
John Lenhart
Alex Lock

Louk Markham (School Bus Display)
Wayne Mathias
Matt Michner
Tom Mozer/Dave Dearstyne
New Jersey Transportation Heritage Center
Pete’s Model Garage
Royal Coach/Charles Wotring
George Slezak
Irv Smith
Angel Tollens Custom Painted Models

Thank you all for your participation in our day....watch the blog in the following days for more pictures.

And, I want to add a BIG THANK YOU to our volunteers -- without these people, we could never have pulled this off in such a big way (the numbers are in - 77 paid attendees on Friday and 302 on Saturday). Especially, to those who worked in the RAIN on Friday--thanks to Ken McNellis who (in addition, to helping vendors empty their vehicles and set up) directed traffic (vendors, buses, etc) at the Annex in the rain on Friday--he was soaked to the bone but went outside in the pouring rain every time the bus appeared!

Thanks also to Dan Lehman who cooked for us and Bob Devine and his family (Maureen and Tara) and to Don Barlup who helped with the food on Saturday. A BIG THANKS also to Tom Mozer--he is tireless! He was relentless in setting up and tearing down the tables--not sure where he gets all his energy! Thank you Dino Mandros for those GREAT meatballs and the rolls and for helping with the buses/parking on Saturday! Thanks also to Ed Wolf, who handled the silent auctions and the 50/50 drawing, Bob Smith and Doug Campbell who manned the floor at the Museum while we were all at the Annex, and Tom Collins who got things rolling on the buses up at the Museum. Thank you to Bob Beard who did all our publicity and got our sponsors.

We also thankfully had the help of Ralph Fetrow's son (sorry, I didn't get his name) who sold 50/50 chances for us. And, thanks Becky Tollens, one of the vendor's wives, who helped us with the set-up on Thursday--so you can see it was a "all hands on deck" event!

Of course, thank you to Oliver Ogden who maintained the Gift Shop table and has done a great job in setting up the archives in the "shed". He has wrangled a number of "free" (one of our favorite 4-letter words!) file cabinets and has been busy filing items. He also was able to get Ken Springirth (one of the Authors of the books we sell) to be here on Friday to autograph his books. Thanks, Ken.

I hope I didn't miss anyone--I'm sure someone will let me know if I did!

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

STOP THE PRESSES - Our webpage (http://www.busmuseum.org/) has now been updated with pictures from the Spring Fling.

We are still recovering (as I'm sure most of the vendors are doing)--from such a GREAT EVENT! However, while we were all at the Memorial Annex, there was lots going on at the Museum too!

One of the displays was from Greyhound who brought TWO brand new coaches and two drivers in fantastic uniforms! Here's one of the coaches. Thanks to Becky Tollens who took these pics for me on my camera as I did not get a chance to get up to the Museum to actually see the coaches.

And a big THANKS to Greyhound (and Board Member Howard Nice) for sending these two coaches for our display. I heard lots of great comments about them and people were especially excited to be able to go up in the coaches and see the insides of them too.

Monday, June 8, 2009

I know I'm late and I apologize--had to go back to work today after a GLORIOUS WEEKEND, which, of course, included our SPRING FLING. The 2-day event was a smashing success--as I'm sure most of you already know by now.

I'm going to make this short so that I can get this posted. I'm including a few pictures....first of our Gift Shop table and Harold Sauter, Maureen and Tara Devine--who were all BIG helps with manning the table. And a special thanks to Tara who also manned the Membership table and to Maureen who also helped at Dan's diner!

I will be posted more pictures during the week--just right now I'm very pressed for time. Please email me any pictures you might have taken--especially I'm looking for pics of the 5 buses that came from New Jersey! Thanks.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Well--it is OVER!!! The 2009 Museum of Bus Transportation SPRING FLING is now history!

What a glorious day we had today--temperatures were just perfect--in the 70s. We had a wonderful crowd.....the first bus arrived from the Museum by 8 am (earlier than expected because people were waiting to board!).

I hope to post some pictures during the week....enough it to say it was a SUCCESS! Thank you all who participated--thank you vendors, thank you volunteers and thank you participants!

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Thanks to everyone who made yesterday (Friday) such a success....despite the ongoing Nor'easter we had all day and gobs and gobs of rain (it never let up)--we had 178 attendees on our first day! We would consider this a GREAT SUCCESS!

More to come today when the skies are to clear and it is to be in the 70s! Yippee Skipee!! It was barely 60 yesterday and everyone was bundled up.

So hope to see you all--the first bus leaves the Museum around 9 am. When you park at the Museum and are waiting for the bus to take you to the Annex--take a few minutes to enjoy the five historical buses that came from NJ! Thanks guys!

In addition to the attendees, a big Thank You to Michaud Buses for Sale for their generous donation! It was good to see the Michaud family represented at the Spring Fling.

Friday, June 5, 2009

Well, it rained, dripped, drizzled most of the day. The ground is VERY wet. Hoping to get some dryer weather tomorrow. It is to be colder than today and today was about 65! So if you are coming Friday--come with a sweatshirt! Saturday is to be dry, sunny and warmer.

The tables are set up and the chairs put out. Signs are out--flags and banners are out....place is looking very good. We had a lot of helpers today--so a BIG thanks to everyone who showed up. Thanks to the fellows who weed-wacked the weeds in the yard, too.

Thanks also to Dan Lehman and Carry the Light Minstries for donating the food he is cooking tomorrow and Saturday and to Dino Mandros for donating the meatballs and rolls.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Today we are setting up tables and doing final prep work for the Spring Fling. We will be at the Annex from approximately 9 am until 3 pm (or until we are finished).

Dan will be making final preparations for the food. Oliver Ogden, Sharon Ogden, Tom Mozer, Tom Collins, and Harold Sauter will be setting up the tables. If you can come to help, please email either Sharon Ogden (seojogden2@a0l.com) or Dan Lehman (icarrythelight4god@msn.com) just so we know you will be coming....even if you have just an hour or two to help.

See you on Friday and Saturday!

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

We've had an extraordinary amount of hits this week--so though I'd post the Spring Fling info for anyone looking to come to the Fling and checking for quick info:

Friday and Saturday (June 5 and 6, 2009) - 9 am to 3 pm each day
Museum of Bus Tranportation - 161 Museum Drive, Hershey, PA 17033

Free shuttle service to/from the Museum with ample parking at the Museum.

Food is available all day. Many buses on display at the Memorial Annex and the Museum that belong to us and to private owners....this is the country's largest bus memorabilia flea market--so don't miss out.

Admission is a mere $2.00 per person. Bus Museum members who show their membership card can get into the Museum for free and receive a 10% discount at the Gift Shop at the Museum. There will be a Museum Store table at the Spring Fling. Author Ken Springirth will be there on Friday, signing his books. Non-members who pay the $2.00 fee to get into the Spring Fling, can use that ticket and get $2.00 off the admission price to the Museum--so it is a win-win situation.

We have 19 tables filled for Friday and 34 for Saturday. Weather permitting on Saturday we will have two fellows demonstrating how to clean up and paint the wheels on a vintage bus--they will be working on the Williamsburg Bus.

Thank you to our sponsors this year are: American Bus Association, ABC Companies, APTA (American Public Transportation Association), SETRA Coach; UMA (United Motorcoach Association); Lancer Insurance; Prevost; Michaud Buses for Sale, MCI (Motor Coach Industries), and Vernon and Maz, Inc. And thank you also to Wolf Bus Lines and Conestoga Tours for the shuttle buses and drivers.

Don't forget to stop at the Museum's Gift Shop table and tell me you read the BLOG!

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Work continues for the Spring Fling. Before the Board Meeting tonight I hope to put up a few of the banners we have recently gotten--for Dan's food area, as a greeting for those coming to the fling, reminding people about the blog. Each year we are able to spruce the place up just a little more and it is looking GREAT!

Are you ready for the Spring Fling? Have you got your walking shoes on? Did you remember to pack a hat so that the elements outside (whether they be rain or shine) won't bother you???

See you on Friday and/or Saturday---please be sure to stop by the Gift Shop table and say "hi"!

Monday, June 1, 2009

The first of the month and only 4 days until our SPRING FLING. I can hardly believe it is just around the corner. Weather still going to be iffy....perhaps not all day rain on Friday but there will be thunderstorms in the area. Saturday is possibly rainy in the morning and then sunshine in the afternoon.

Tuesday night at the Board meeting, which is being held at the Memorial Annex, we will be finalizing our plans for the Fling.

Don't forget we will have food available both days. We will have a silent auction and 50/50 raffle. So please come prepared to participate. This is your Museum's big fund raiser--please help it to be successful! AND, come and have fun!