Greyhound Bus Museum

While on vacation we visited the Greyhound Bus Museum in Hibbing, Minn. It is very well organized and has excellent visitor displays. I was quite impressed with the overall experience, even for someone who's not particularly interested in buses. It's located in Hibbing because that's where Greyhound got its start.

Restoration of the buses and artifacts is entirely done by volunteers. I spoke to Gene, who is in charge of the mechanical side; he said they have between 20 and 30 active volunteers who do the restoration and maintenance work. There are about 20 buses, most of which are operable, although they don't run very often and do not provide rides for visitors.

The main display hall has cases with uniforms, various memorabilia, and hundreds of bus models of all types.

The displays are generally very well labeled.

In the larger part of the main building, there are eight fully-restored buses on display, arranged in chronological order. They are open for people to walk into and sit in. The earliest model dates to 1927.

As usual, photography inside a barn like this is challenging. The collection includes a Scenicruiser.

(That (R) is a greyhound mannikin holding up a donation box. There are several of these scattered around.)

You can have the driver's seat.

Interior restorations look great.

Almost all of these had to be completely restored with new upholstery, etc. Here's a sign showing what this particular bus looked like when acquired.

Outside there are 10 or 12 buses in various conditions; most have been at least partly restored. Many Greyhound buses were turned into motor homes after regular service, and some of these are still in that configuration, because it's hard to find the right seats and so forth.

This, by the way, is the only skeleton.

These two are ACF-Brills, which I thought was interesting, of course.

It's a whole lot easier when you don't have to lay track, and can just park a bus wherever you want!

Then there are a couple of replica bus stations....

displaying more models and artifacts. And some models of large city bus stations.

This visit was quite instructive in terms of providing a pleasant and carefully arranged visitor experience.