Is this how a GMC is supposed to look?

[Scott & Heather]

It doesn't look right to me? Unless there were GMC's with sloped windshields??

[belfert]

Someone changed the windshields for sure.  It almost looks like someone took the entire front end from a newer MCI hus like a 96A3 or 102A3 and grafted the whole thing on.

[bkelly1011]

Hi Scott -

Nope, but a lot of folks tend to get rid of the buffalo-ish look as those buses age by doing that type of thing.  I more often see folks putting on an Eagle-10 type sloped cap above the original windshield.  I think it's because the original upper window tends to leak or otherwise get nasty after 30+ years. 

Here's an example of some Audubon Trails buses that got the Eagle upper cap treatment:
http://www.commonwealthcoach.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=107&Itemid=104

I agree, that bus definitely looks like a GM-MCI love child.

Brad

[buswarrior]

Take a look at the finer details of that coach...

Looks like the coach's own destination sign/front roof was put up to match the height of the rear.

Those donor windshields will make the view out front from the interior of the coach a lot better than one of those Frankenstein forehead treatments that the off the shelf caps give a GM buffalo.

The lines of the changes sure do look clean.

Someone did their homework in choosing the pieces and took some care during the execution, to keep the coach looking suitably proportional for such a big face changing job.

Are there any more pics of this coach?

happy coaching!
buswarrior

[bkelly1011]

Can't tell exactly by the angle, but it looks like it also afforded them the ability to place the front A/C unit forward of where it might otherwise have been.

[RJ]

Scott -

Peninsula Charter Lines, based in Palo Alto, CA, refurbished at least one, if not two, 4905s like the one you've posted.  Altho this is not the same coach as the one pictured below, it's still an interesting customization.  Where did you spot it? 

Very well done by Coach Specialties in the Bay Area for Peninsula - they grafted MCI 96A3 windshields onto the front end, yet kept the original GM destination sign and lighting.  Note that CS changed all the side windows in addition to the windshields.  Really modernized the Buffalo, IMHO. 

Here's a pic of PCL's #325:

[Scott & Heather]

Interesting. I actually like the look. No more pics. But it's for sale on Craigslist


Sent from iPhone via Tapatalk

[RJ]

But it's for sale on Craigslist

CL link???

[Jeremy]

There are companies here which produce 'bodykits' to modernise the look of older buses. Mostly transits, but sometimes coaches too. My bus (Plaxton Paramount) is typical of the sort of older bus which an operator would want to make look more attractive to it's customers - the three photos below all show Plaxton Paramounts that have been refurbished by different companies (and a standard Paramount at the bottom for comparison):










Jeremy

[Chaz]

Altho I am with Buswarrior, I still prefer the true Buffalo style. But then, my daily driver car is a '56 Chevy.  I guess I am just the kind of guy that makes antiques happen. But I also like the ones Jeremy posted.
Long live the Buffalo! 
Chaz

[seaton@mta]

The body lines of that Buffalo (we call them decks in the NY/NJ area) look very similar to the proposed design of the RTS-based inter-city coach, which never went into production.  In the later years, GM was a master of using what they had as the 4900 series coaches were a blend of PD4106 and GM fishbowl components.
---- Seaton

[Lee Bradley]

Jeremy,

Looks like you reversed the negative. ;-)
Nice looking buses over there.  I have been watching the Tour de France and I will stop the recording and back up and my wife says "Looking at buses". Busted

[Jeremy]

Some may remember me saying months ago that I'd volunteered to work at the Olympics in London, and by pure chance had been given a job dealing with the bus operations for the media. The media buses have already started running 24-hours a day, and at peak times there will over 200 bus movements per hour apparently. Anyway, I did my first shift down there last Friday and was very impressed with some of the buses I saw - particularly how incredibly quiet they were. And all the passenger TV screens etc, even on the little transit buses. Many of them were obviously brand new - 2012 must have been a good year for British bus builders I reckon.

Jeremy

By the way - NBC's TV broadcast studio is literally twice the size of everyone else's, including the BBC's. In face I think they have two complete full size studios side-by-side. I couldn't figure out why they need that, unless maybe they have lots of affiliates using their facilities to produce their own programming. The TV broadcast building is so big it doesn't have corridors - it has an internal road network, complete with road names and a streetmap.

[Lee Bradley]

NBC needs all that space to not show us the Olympics. First they will delay broadcast it to show it during primetime then to add insult to injury they will have a box in the corner claiming its 'Live'. While you are watching Olympic events if they don't have an US athlete about to win, NBC will be showing us a story about some US athlete's hairdresser's cousin who had cancer. I'm I unhappy with the coverage we get... YES. I just hope I can get Canadian coverage from Vancouver, B.C.   

[belfert]

They delay broadcast because at 8 pm Eastern it is 1 am in London.  What exactly could they show live at 8 pm Eastern?