1941 Marmon Herrington Bus
 

This keeps popping up on FB Market Place every so often. It would be really cool restored and displayed at Veteran's Day events. Unfortunately it will probably end up as scrap unless someone with unlimited money and talents comes to its rescue.


1941 Marmon Herrington front wheel Dr ‘Ma Bell ‘ telephone co . There were two of these as they were used for service men to make telephone calls


https://www.facebook.com/marketplace...type=top_picks

Re: 1941 Marmon Herrington Bus
 

https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/attac...8&d=1765468904

https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/attac...9&d=1765468904

Re: 1941 Marmon Herrington Bus
 

Should be in Henry Ford Museum. Even unrestored it should be in their hands for safe-keeping. Would even work in a military vehicle collection.

Re: 1941 Marmon Herrington Bus
 

Love the "telephone bell" shape of the front grille!

Hope someone can come to it's aide. It would be very expensive to restore back to it's original configuration but it looks like it has a solid body. Big trucks and buses aren't easy to restore and can be so big, indoor storage and workspace are limitations too.

Re: 1941 Marmon Herrington Bus
 

Dave


YOU forgot "transporting" them......would love to have it BUT think about showing up with that to a National Meet and what that would entail. IF my "budgetary" constraints were different, I'd be on it!!!

Re: 1941 Marmon Herrington Bus
 

I passed on a '40 MH dump truck cause it was tooo much to haul. Darn Newc

Re: 1941 Marmon Herrington Bus
 

This sounds like a project that someone like Rob Ida could take on. He's doing a GM Dreamliner resto right now. The work he's done on it is nothing short of incredible.

Re: 1941 Marmon Herrington Bus
 

Yeah, I just sent him a link and said the GM Streamliner needs to have a partner bus from back in the day! Maybe his client will want the pair of them!

Re: 1941 Marmon Herrington Bus
 

Not a big truck guy at all but that is quite interesting. And I agree, The Henry Ford would be a great depository for it as it aligns with their collection focus. However, many museums these days are not interested in projects of this magnitude. It needs a wealthy philanthropic donor to acquire, fund the restoration and then make the donation. Just need to find one of those soldiers who used it and then made it big and get them interested.

Re: 1941 Marmon Herrington Bus
 

These guys could handle the restoration without a doubt but they are in New Zealand. Unfortunately there are probably not any of the "Greatest Generation" who made calls from the bus who are still alive. And today's service members with cell phones and the internet have no idea what it was like to stand in line at a pay phone to make a collect call home from wherever they were stationed.
https://texacotankerproject.com/

Re: 1941 Marmon Herrington Bus
 

Agree that it needs to be saved, a neighbor to my brother had a multi 4x4 tonner jail bar with a humongous snowplow attached that sat in his back yard for decades & always assumed it would be there due to the difficulty retrieving it from tight quarters, lost track of its where abouts

Re: 1941 Marmon Herrington Bus
 

Thanks for bring this to light it's interesting to learn that such a thing existed. It must have meant a lot to a lot of people. Mart.

Re: 1941 Marmon Herrington Bus
 

I can speak for postwar troops overseas on that subject. My outfit had a ham radio set, several volunteer (off duty) ham operators present most anytime, appointments advised. Yes, it was a big deal to talk with family half a world away.

Re: 1941 Marmon Herrington Bus
 

Sometimes a long wait with the overseas operator

Re: 1941 Marmon Herrington Bus
 

As you said, I’ve seen that advertised before. I’m pretty sure it’s front wheel drive…..what a camper that thing would make !!!…..thankfully it’s about as far from me as it can get !!…but,…GB…is close…you could put a lot of hit & miss engines in that to take to the show and still have room for a sleeping cot Gary..….just saying……..Mark

Re: 1941 Marmon Herrington Bus
 

Robert,

You bring it, we will judge it.

Ken

Re: 1941 Marmon Herrington Bus
 

What a great piece of history, I hope someone saves it.

Re: 1941 Marmon Herrington Bus
 

How they setup:

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https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/attac...9&d=1765871250

Re: 1941 Marmon Herrington Bus
 

Ken


Ability to "pay" is my ONLY obstacle. I love the Flathead "sort of" obscure and different, stuff you don't see at car shows at all, IF any. Sort of like this truck that I wanted SO bad years ago, I actually think our one Tony Price used to take car of this one at one time???

Re: 1941 Marmon Herrington Bus
 

That UPS truck is totally cool . . . what style!

Re: 1941 Marmon Herrington Bus
 

Re: 1941 Marmon Herrington Bus
 

I was a mechanic for the phone company for 30-years, so something like this bus is an important piece of history to me. It's pretty neat. Even in the late 1970s we still had Marmon Herrington 4X4 specialized trucks. Anything that was a 4X4 Marmon Herrington part was extremely expensive on our converted Ford trucks and took months to get it through the Ford dealer. Ford had a problem locating the part numbers, even when the trucks were just a few years old.

This bus is not too far from where I live, probably less than an hour away. I keep hauling old Fords home that I will never live long enough to compete or I'd probably haul this one home to. It would make somebody a neat motorhome. It's a very specialized vehicle that probably was only lightly used. I bet its drivetrain is in good condition. If it's like the trucks we had it would have started off as a two-wheel drive chassis like a Ford F-650 chassis and then Marmon Herrington added the transmission and the front 4X4 axle. I hope somebody saves it.

My guess is that this was a truck setup for emergency use; it let people make calls from inside of it during big emergencies. Like when a whole neighborhood's phone services was wiped out. We had a trailer that had a bank of phones setup for emergency use. It set around for years until there was a big fire and then we had to quickly bring it into the shop and go through it and send it out to the site. I only saw it used one time n 30-years. If this is what this bus was used for, I'm guessing it does not have that many miles on it.

Re: 1941 Marmon Herrington Bus
 

I do not believe the MH buses were based on Ford products at all, same with their little package vans.

Re: 1941 Marmon Herrington Bus
 

Back in the my day at the bus co.that Marmon bus became the Ford bus in late 1940s 239 V8 3 speed a real shoe box then the Marmon Herrington retuned when i don.t remember but we had a 1959 & 1960 powered by the 332 Y block still 3 speed went like a rocket till the governor kicked in around 40 mph which they were city busses only.
I do remember Ford bus was 8RT first used in 48 truck & bus. dig up photo first pic. MH pic 2 Ford And Ford was in parnership with MH