# Dirty Dogs Getting Retired



## Swadian Hardcore (Aug 16, 2014)

Greyhound Canada is currently retiring their G4500 "Dirty Dogs" in large numbers. Their replacements are older 102DL3's that were rebuilt and transferred from the US.

In this photo, four retired G4500's sit in Agassiz, BC, not far east of Vancouver in the Fraser Valley: https://www.flickr.com/photos/translinkfan/9443694757/sizes/l.

G4500's were supposed to be modern fiberglass buses to modernize the Greyhound fleet starting 2001. But the plan backfired when the type starting falling apart and catching on fire. They were known for being dirty and heavily-damaged after constant breakdowns.

Greyhound and subsidiaries ordered a total of 446 G4500's, 64 of which were assigned to Greyhound Canada, ~302 to Greyhound US, and ~80 to subsidiaries. Most were built in Sahagun, Mexico. According to Greyhound's latest website update in May 2014, there are 175 G4500's remaining in the US fleet, while everything else is either retired or slated for retirement as soon as possible.

The 175 US G4500's not slated for retirement are the ones to be rebuilt and heavily modified. All these rebuilt units have the "3BMX" VIN prefix, meaning originally Sahagun-built G4500's, the few Winnipeg-built units would have VIN prefix "2M9X", all of which are retired or to be retired.

Here is a rebuilt Greyhound US G4500: https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/14677947167/.

Joining the retired G4500's in Agassiz were 2006 D4505 #1265, 1998 102DL3 #1027, and 2000 102DL3 #1132. #1265 had apparently been involved in an accident, #1027 was retired for unknown reasons, and #1132 had glanced off a moose then plunged into a pond, the moose had walked onto the highway on its own volition.

Here is the retired #1265: https://www.flickr.com/photos/translinkfan/9542369694/.

And here is the retired #1027: https://www.flickr.com/photos/translinkfan/9542340600/.

The four retired G4500's were 2001 #1184, 2002 #1201, 2002 #1210, and 2003 #1234.

#1234 had lost the bottom half of its entrance door, presumably due to defects or scrapping.

The Greyhound Canada G4500's are being quickly replaced by rebuilt 102DL3's, which are actually older buses, like this 1998 example, #6043 seen in Vancouver: https://www.flickr.com/photos/translinkfan/14713989852/.

Photos courtesy of Translink fan/flickr, linked with permission.


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## Swadian Hardcore (Aug 16, 2014)

The #7216 photo is actually my own, everything else is from Translink fan/flickr.


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## Swadian Hardcore (Aug 16, 2014)

From Barraclou, we find the dashboard and interior of #1199, one of the Greyhound Canada G4500's. The example was built in 2001 at Sahagun, and would also have VIN prefix "3BMX".

http://www.barraclou.com/bus/greyhound/greyhound1199_driver.jpg.

http://www.barraclou.com/bus/greyhound/greyhound1199_front.jpg.


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## railiner (Aug 16, 2014)

Good riddance!


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## Swadian Hardcore (Aug 17, 2014)

Too bad they are all Greyhound Canada, no Greyhound US in there.


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## rickycourtney (Aug 17, 2014)

Swadian Hardcore said:


> Too bad they are all Greyhound Canada, no Greyhound US in there.


What do you mean?

Greyhound US has retired 207 G4500 and restored most of the 175 that remain.


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## Swadian Hardcore (Aug 17, 2014)

rickycourtney said:


> Swadian Hardcore said:
> 
> 
> > Too bad they are all Greyhound Canada, no Greyhound US in there.
> ...


They're probably going to restore all 175 that remain. But I don't know what happened to those 207. I don't even know for sure if Greyhound US had 382, remember, they had about 302 (#7000-7301), and then 80 would've been for subsidiaries. But the fleet page never listed more than 295 because by the time G4500 orders were done for, a few had already burned or crashed. I know some were retired and sold, and are running for Turimex Internacional.

I've never seen a Greyhound US G4500 getting scrapped so that would be a different situation. Bus noob goes into the market, buys a modern-looking G4500, pays like $50,000 or more, ends up getting a POS that was already retired by Greyhound.


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## rickycourtney (Aug 17, 2014)

I join railiner in saying good riddance to these dirty dogs. All the truly horrible Greyhound buses I have seen out on the roads... have been G4500's.


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## Green Maned Lion (Aug 17, 2014)

Yeah, Greyhound is supposed to charitably prevent bus noobs from buying crappy buses from them.


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## Swadian Hardcore (Aug 17, 2014)

I looked though Greyhound's own bus sales. Only a MC-12 and three 102D3's are listed for sale. So they are not selling broken G4500's to bus noobs. I think they will be kept in the reserve fleet for a while and used primarily for charters. Greyhound generally doesn't publicize spare buses, for example, they have some 102D3's in their fleet restricted to charters and extra sections but that are no 102D3's listed on the official website. Greyhound has a tradition of sending bad buses to charter service.


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