[Rich Niemeyer]

This may not be exactly a building question, but I'm building a school house for my layout and suddenly realized that I don't have any school buses.  Does anyone have knowledge of sources for school bus vehicles?  I would prefer something from the 40's or 50's to coincide with my modeling period.  Thanks for your help.

 

[CJ Allan]

Rich.........
I've seen school buses on e-bay............ I havn't been able to find one in the scale "I" want.............but tere's a few on there........

Hope this helps...

 

[Rich Niemeyer]

Thanks Allen,
I'll look and see what I can find. Anything from 1:24 to 1:20 would work for me.

 

[pimanjc]

Rich,
If you do a search in buildings or figures in the MLS archives, there have been extensive threads about school busses.  The closest to "G" I have seen is an older dyecast [no interior] bus by Hubley.

  The one I have models a '58 chevy chasis.  I got mine on Ebay.  It  is about 3'w x 10'L x 3.5'T.  There is one listed on Ebay now, at :

cgi.ebay.com/HUBLEY-SCHOOL-BUS_W0QQitemZ300184029540QQcmdZViewItem

I paid less for mine than this one is listed for as "Buy it Now."

JimC.

 

[Rich Niemeyer]

Thanks Jim,
I'll check it out.

 

[lathroum]

I found one at the local discount store chain called OLIIE'S here in Maryland...

It had no scale listed... but I imagine its a bit smaller than 1/32 scale...

If I keep it away from other cars it looks ok..,. but all my cars are 1/24th and when you put it next to them it looks tiny...

It was the best  could fnd... 

Seems all the school busses are too small...


Philip

 

[cephius]

Rich

Wouldn't a bus be easier to model than some of the buildings and locomotives I've seen shown at MLS? Could bash any other truck in your scale, right?

Dave

 

[blackburn49]

As near as I can determine there are no realistic-appearing school buses in 1:24 or 1:25, having searched for buses of any type for over a year.

 

[Rich Niemeyer]

Dave,
Your suggestion may be the final solution. I've a number of period trucks that could be modified. That will be in line after I modify several bridges to accommodate the new K-27 and AMS stock. I suspect there really aren't any (school buses) available either. A couple of years ago, I talked to a rep from Danbury Mint and suggested the same. His response was "interesting", but I've not seen anything materialize.

 

[GURU388]

Ok the deal is this a Hong Kong company (name excapes me at the moment ) put out a classic school bus a few years ago and it was sold at Kay Bee toys. It was perfect 1/24 scale. It has since disappeared. I bought a few and sent one to Bob Whipple. We both posted pictures on this site but as I said that was a few years ago. BTW the buses were all metal. Then our pal John of Plain Old Folks ( I believe in New Jersey) had school buses that were plastic but looked like 1/24 at the Queen Mary show and we bought some of those. I leave my stuff out but the plastic ones faded and got very brittle not a problem if you pick them up and only put them out when people are coming. So I use them now and remove them when no company is coming. Sooooo if I were you I would contact John and ask him about them because he was the last dealer I know of that had them. I hope this info helps./DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/wow.gif

Howard

 

[dltrains]

Guru,
    May it not help to paint the Buses even at this late date? Even when they're new.
    Dave

 

[GURU388]

I am terrible at painting..... The new ones I got from John are pristine and only get placed on the layout when guests come. Thanks for the thought anyway. The point of this listing is to get our first poster some buses.

 

[Torby]

In my era, kids walked to school[]

 

[Semper Vaporo]

And it was uphill both ways!

 

[Torby]

hehe

My dad launched into that speech once, barefoot in the winter time through 4ft of snow. Till I said, "Dad, you grew up in Oklahoma."

He smiled and said, "I dilly-dallied the whole while too."

 

[Semper Vaporo]

Hey, it snows in Oklahoma! Especially way back then... global warming ya know.

 

[wmumpower]

Now, if Torby were to say he walked to school barefoot..I'd believe him.  I don't think I've seen him with shoes on../DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/w00t.gif /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/tongue2.gif

 

[San Juan]

Well there's this

Skool Bus

But besides being one of the strangest die-casts I've ever seen, it's clearly not your desired era.  Too bad, as there's not many busses in 1:24 scale from the 40s and 50s. 

I've been looking for any bus for a very long time that would be suitable to repaint as a Rio Grande Trailways bus.  Of course there's been nothing even remotely close so far.  Just have to wait and see I guess.  But you'd think a school bus would be easier to find.  However, even in HO scale, there's nothing really good as far as vintage school busses go.  I'd sure like to get a Crown Coach "Twinkie" bus for my 1950s Santa Fe HO layout, but here too I've struck out so far.

If 1:18 is okay, then this might work:

School Bus

 

[GURU388]

It was sure easier posting the 640 size photos. For posting now these have been resized it tiny size.
The first three pictures are of the old all metal School Bus.

 

[GURU388]

The next three are of the plastic one I got from John of Plain Old Folk.