HERSHEY, Pa. It has been a good summer at the Museum of Bus Transportation.

Attendance is up -- but perhaps more importantly to the volunteers who staff and support the museum is that it is displaying, for the first time, the vintage bus it has coveted above all others a former Greyhound Lines Scenicruiser.

The 1956 Scenicruiser (PD4501-932) is on loan to the museum from ABC Companies, which owns it and restored it seven years ago at the company facility in Faribault, Minn., and keeps it at its headquarters complex in Winter Garden, Fla.

Many bus industry old-timers consider the Greyhound Scenicruiser to be the most-attractive bus ever to roll along an American highway. In the pantheon of American icons, the Scenicruiser is to bus aficionados as the 57 Chevy is to car buffs.

However, the addition of the Scenicruiser isnt the only piece of good fortune to drive the museums way.

Betsy II on the way

Jim Lehrer, the retired anchor of the PBS NewsHour, famed presidential debate moderator, and perhaps Americas best-known bus nut, announced he is donating his 1946 Flxible Clipper to the museum.

Lehrer and his wife Kate acquired the bus, which they named Betsy II, just over 25 years ago. When they purchased it in late July 1989, they sent out birth-like announcements to friends and colleagues. The announcement noted that "no gifts" were to be sent to mark the family addition.

The 23-seat Flxible has been restored and painted to replicate a 1938 Flxible Clipper that Lehrers father, a bus station manager, operated when he owned Kansas Central Lines, a short-lived scheduled carrier running between Emporia, Hillsboro, McPherson and Wichita, Kan., in the late 1940s.

Jim Lehrer was born in Wichita and when he was 12, that most-impressionable age for boys, his father started Kansas Central Lines on a shoestring. The company lasted 13 months, becoming undone by a trio of buses that were barely serviceable (constantly breaking down at the wrong time) because of the heavy usage they endured during the years of World War II.

But his fathers bus industry career and short-lived company left a lifetime imprint on young Jim.

Never got over buses

Lehrer, who turned 80 earlier this year, stepped down as lead anchor on the NewsHour in June 2011. Despite his 50-plus-year career in journalism, Lehrer maintained his love of buses, filling his office with bus memorabilia and writing bus-themed books. He and his older brother Fred have been longtime supporters of the Museum of Bus Transportation here.

Lehrer stored his Flxible on his farm in West Virginia and occasionally took friends for rides in the countryside. The blue-and-yellow livery on the bus was designed to match his fathers 38 Flxible (the first Betsy). It is having minor body work done before it joins the museum fleet after the first of the year.

"Most likely, due to its prior ownership, we will want to place it on the museum floor as soon as it arrives," says museum President Tom Collins.

Sceni creates stir

Meanwhile, the Scenicruiser is capturing lots of attention at the museum.

"It seems like every visitor can relate to it" notes Collins.

"Attendance at the museum is up this summer, and we think that is in great part due to the public's interest in this iconic motorcoach."

Collins observed that over the years, "ABC Companies has provided great support to the museum.

"(ABC founder) Clancy Cornell has served several terms on the board. He, (current ABC Chairman) Dane Cornell, and everyone at ABC have been instrumental in the restoration of four of our most popular historic coaches.

"That work was done by ABCs dedicated workforce at their Camden (N.J.) facility, and they took personal pride in each project," said Collins.

When ABC offered to loan the Scenicruiser to the museum, the plan was to drive it from Winter Garden to Hershey.

However, Ed Harmon, ABC national director of operations, decided the coach was such a rare and valuable asset that it made sense to minimize risk by flat-bedding it to the museum.

Permanent addition?

The Scenicruiser will be on display for at least the remainder of the summer, along with the museums other historic buses. It seems possible the coach could become part of the museums permanent collection.

The Museum of Bus Transportation (www.busmuseum.org) shares a facility with the Antique Automobile Club of America, providing "one-stop shopping" for anyone interested in historic vehicles.

A pair of the buses in the museum collection of 34 coaches appeared in popular movies. The 1959 GM suburban coach was used in "Forest Gump," and a 1940 White appeared in the famous 1944 Bing Crosby film "Going My Way," the first movie to win Oscars for best motion picture and best song, "Swinging on a Star."

The museums annual meeting will be at 8:30 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 25, at the museum facility in Hershey. Dale Krapf of Krapf Coaches in West Chester, Pa., and a member of the board of the United Motorcoach Association, will be guest speaker, and MCI will be the guest manufacturer. For information, call (717) 566-7100 Ext. 119.