Greyhound Buses 1914-2000 Photo Archive [ILLUSTRATED] (Paperback)

by William A. Luke (Author) "Carl Eric Wickman, the bus pioneer who went on to build the Greyhound empire and was its first president, operated this Hupmobile touring car as..." (more)
Key Phrases: Greyhound Lines, General Motors, Motor Coach Industries (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

When Americans think of buses, the name Greyhound inevitably comes to mind. Avid bus enthusiast and historian, William A. Luke compiles ten dozen fascinating photographs depicting the great variety of buses the company has used from its beginning in 1914 to present. In addition to standard models from the Big Gray Dog's fleet there are examples of experimental models, unusual types operated at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair and the 1940 New York World's Fair, and timetables and sales brochures.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Iconografix, Inc.; illustrated edition edition (September 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1583880275
• ISBN-13: 978-1583880272
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 8.5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,807,532 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Pictural overview of 85 years of greyhound buses, August 30, 2001

By	W. Van Der Brugghen (Gorinchem Netherlands) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The title of the book describes the content of this book very well. It is a photo archive of greyhound buses. Each (large) photo has a short description. All photos are of a good quality. They deserve however a better quality of paper. Do not expect a detailed history of the Greyhound in this book. What I missed in this book was a fleetlist.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fan's essential photo archive., October 28, 2001

By	Robin Benson - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I'm a big fan of Greyhound having travelled around the State in the sixties and I love their buses, especially the Scenicruiser (drat, only six photos!) so this book is a good addition to my very small Greyhound library. There are over a hundred large photos starting with the first Greyhound in 1914 and every other Greyhound bus up to 2000. The captions are full of interesting detail and they provide the only text.

A thing that troubles me about the book is the very bland presentation, so typical of this kind of fan orientated publishing. Some of the photos could have bled of the page, others could have gone across the gutter, some of the pages could have been black with white captions, anything to give the pages a lift and make the publication sparkle. Still a bland book of Greyhound photos is better than no book at all.

5.0 out of 5 stars Book review from a devoted American Bus fan, May 3, 2008

By	B.X.L. (Los Angeles, CA, USA) - See all my reviews

I have every single bus book written by Bill Luke. We American bus fans owe him a great debt of gratitude for starting the American bus book series w/ Iconografix. Before Bill Luke, there was literally no bus books devoted to American buses. In fact, the few written were often by British authors! Bill started this bus book series and now it appears other bus fans are starting to write books of their own.

As for this book, it is a great pictorial history of Greyhound, from its infancy to its heydays in the 40s and 50s to the present day (2000) era. Greyhound is a skeleton of its former self now, w/ mostly low income, elderly, and students riding their buses. But, if you read the book, you will see that buses in their heyday was every bit as glamarous as train or air travel. Bill carefully presents Greyhound buses from each decade with very useful captions. All the famous buses of their days, including the Yellow Zs, Mack BK, GM 4104 Highway Traveler, Scenicruiser, MCI series of buses, etc, are represented. Any bus fan, especially Greyhound fans, would find this book indispensible. There's some criticism by others that there's not enough caption or that the pages are black and white. But, as mentioned in the title, this is a "photo archive". Its a pictorial history. I'm sure the printing cost of color was the reason its black and white.

I cannot believe this book is worth 4-5 times what it was when I bought it new in 2000. I buy every American bus book as soon as it comes out. I am proud to say I have every Bill Luke book and every bus book produced by Iconografix. My bus library now numbers over 50 books and I only started accumulating them since about 1998.