{"id":2650,"date":"2005-08-17T02:01:00","date_gmt":"2005-08-17T06:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/2005\/08\/wayward-bus\/"},"modified":"2010-12-30T12:02:05","modified_gmt":"2010-12-30T17:02:05","slug":"wayward-bus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/2005\/08\/wayward-bus\/","title":{"rendered":"The Wayward Bus"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Aerocoach<\/a><\/p>\n

John Steinbeck was a car guy. We know that from his novels – how else would he have been able to make automobiles such realistic characters? His word pictures of Lincoln-Zephyr, Hudson and Dodge touring car in The Grapes of Wrath<\/i><\/a>, and the Model T Fords in Cannery Row<\/i><\/a> and East of Eden<\/i><\/a> demonstrate that he knew whereof he wrote. Thus it comes as a bit of disappointment that the title character of The Wayward Bus<\/i><\/a> (1947, a film version<\/a> starring Joan Collins and Jayne Mansfield was made in 1957) serves merely as a vehicle for keeping his characters in conflict with one another.<\/p>\n

This could almost have been Steinbeck’s wayward bus. It’s an Aerocoach
\nMastercraft P372<\/a>, a type built from 1948 to 1952. The Mastercraft was Aerocoach’s intercity bus;
\nother Aerocoach models<\/a> were a transit bus and the Astraview sightseeing model with a glass roof. Aerocoach was made by the
\nGeneral American Transportation Corporation<\/a> of East Chicago, Illinois. Not to be confused with AM General LLC<\/a>, one-time bus builder and now manfucturer of HMMWVs and Hummers<\/a>, General American took over the bus business of Gar Wood<\/a> Industries in 1939. The Aerocoaches were an entirely new design with tubular body frame, introduced late in 1940. Much rarer than the familiar GM\/Greyhound “Silversides,”<\/a> or even the long-gone ACF Brills<\/a>, fewer than 3,100 Aerocoaches were built before General American ceased operations. Most Aerocoaches were powered by International engines, some of them diesels. This one has been repowered with a
\nGM engine<\/a>, the ubiquitous
\n6-71 diesel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bruce Fullerton discovered this Aerocoach in Austin, Texas, recently. It’s presently stored at Burnet Road Self Storage<\/a>, but the owner, who apparently used it as a band bus, is behind on his rent. It’s in decent shape, resplendent in
\nacres of stainless steel<\/a> and has those
\nfunky arrow turn signals<\/a>. Imagine your friends seeing it
\ndrive down the street<\/a> with you in the
\npilot house<\/a>, your name on the
\nmarquee<\/a>. Just think how the groupies will
\nfollow you<\/a>.<\/p>\n

By the time you read this, it may not be a wayward bus, but it could well be a homeless bus, or even a dismembered bus. It’s currently under threat of eviction – if you think you might be able to rescue it call Kathy at Burnet Road Storage, 512-453-6302. If it has departed the premises, you will have to contact the Austin Police Department<\/a>, where Kimberly or Tammy in the Abandoned Vehicle Section, 512-280-0075, may be able to help you. An Aerocoach this rare deserves another flight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Steinbeck was a car guy. We know that from his novels – how else would he have been able to make automobiles such realistic characters? His word pictures of Lincoln-Zephyr, Hudson and Dodge touring car in The Grapes of Wrath, and the Model T Fords in Cannery Row and East of Eden demonstrate that….<\/span>
Read full article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2650"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3424,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2650\/revisions\/3424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}