In a strange twist of the CC effect after seeing this post earlier today I went out and about and ran across this WIDE Whitewall wearing, retired School Bus.
The best I can tell it is one of the last of the buses to carry the Kenworth name. Pacific Car and Foundry, who had purchased Kenworth in 1944 from the Kent and Worthington families, sold the tooling and rights to this bus line to the Gillig Bros sometime in 1957 which has been covered here. It would have been powered by the famous IH RD450 gasoline 6cyl (Red Diamond 450 ci for those of you that aren’t IH nuts like me).
This bus and it’s Gillig successors were quite popular in the Pacific NW and many had long lives. This one appears to have been in use as a School Bus as recently as 2000 by the Washington State Patrol inspection sticker on the front window. In WA vehicles used to transport students must have their annual DOT inspection done by the State Patrol rather than the district or a private business. Based on the fading, it’s current livery was likely applied shortly after its retirement. I found it sitting in the parking lot of the Triple XXX Drive-in in Issaquah WA. It is filled with automotive and 50’s Rock & Roll Memorabilia and the site of a themed car show every weekend from April to September and quite a few in the other months.
Wow it would have been something if that was the real bus that took the rest of the band members who did not board the ill-fated aircraft on that fateful night Feb. 3, 1959.
Apparently the owner of the drive-in owns this bus which explains its presence there:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Buddy_Holly_1958_bus.jpg
According to pics I have seen, the bus should have an equally adorned Airstream Papoose with it. Some have speculated that the bus that Holley used was actually a GM commercial bus:
http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2009/01/buddy-holly-the-missing-take
My father was a huge fan of music during this time and especially a fan of Buddy who was one of the first artists to use an electric guitar.
Its hard to overstate the influence that he had on the music scene then even at the age of 22 when he died. Had he lived, he would have only been 76 today and it would have been interesting to see how his reputation would have fared.
Yes the bus appears to be owned by the restaurant but it certainly is not the actual bus or it wouldn’t have a string of WSP inspection stickers across the front window, and School Bus Yellow paint showing in places, from when it was still in service as a school bus.
I actually saw this in person in Issaquah. What a small world it is.
Never seen a Kenworth bus in recent history. And it certainly is obvious where Gillig got their updated bus from!
I was shocked to see the Kenworth badge as I initially thought it was a Gillig. Looking back at your post on Gillig it appears that the bus in this photo is actually carrying both badges.
I didnt know KW were in the bus business ye learn something every day.
I didn’t know it either, and I used to work there as an engineer for almost three years!
One inside story I got while working there was that they well-hid one of the first T600 prototypes inside the now-closed Seattle assembly plant for years, so that upper management wouldn’t demand that it be destroyed (as is typical for prototypes and test mules). It’s in a museum now I believe:
http://www.layover.com/news/article/kenworths-t600–the-truck-that-pioneered-aerodynam-8673.html
Here’s the museum mentioned which is right along Paul’s normal route to Portland (hint hint), which I never even knew of until just now:
http://www.pacificnwtruckmuseum.org/
[GRRRR – does anybody else have the problem where you completely lose your reply and the screen says ‘invalid data – please try again’? It happens to me both at home and from the work computer as well, on a fairly regular basis. I try to remember to copy my reply onto the clipboard before I hit the ‘Post’ button.]
I’ve been to the pacific NW truck museum, it’s on the grounds of http://www.antiquepowerland.com/ where the annual Binder Bee is held. I highly recommend visiting they have a working blacksmith shop and old school saw mill there too.
Also on site are the Willow Creek Railroad, Northwest Vintage Car & Motorcycle, and Oregon Electric Railway Society Museums.
And yes the T-600 prototype is there or at least it was the last time I visited.
You mean where they hold the Steam Up? Great truck museum and great event: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/automotive-histories/porsche-lamborghini-and-field-marshall-cc-does-powerland-steam-up/
Yes, the Steam Up is another one of the events held there.
I didn’t either and I used to work there!
Paul – can you check the spam file for my longer reply with the two web links in it? It keeps getting deleted.
And I keep getting this message (both on home and work computers) about 50% of the time whenever I try to post a reply: ‘Invalid Data: Please go back and try again.’
Sorry; too may links in one comment, likely.
You too I thought that problem was mine alone Im surrounded by dieing computers and uploading fotos is becoming hard work, My friend has a very rare 47 Fergy I wanted to show you its one of the first made after the break with Ford
In a really strange twist to the CC effect, this evening my wife brought home some of the donations to our Robotics Team’s annual fund raising auction, since she is the one that runs it. One of them was from the Triple XXX which included a schedule of the shows for 2013 and look what is featured in the top left.
Totally digging this bus. You all have some mighty weird (and therefore cool) school buses out there in the West. Out here in the Midwest we had endless streams of Carpenters, Waynes, and Blue Birds, at least through the 1990s – with Ford or IH front ends. I think most of those companies are defunct now.
I wish I had always carried a camera because I used to drive by an abandoned bar with a bus in front. All the paint on the bus indicated it was used by Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. It was parked just north of Houston and I have no idea if it was legit or not. Wish some of you guys could have critiqued it.