A vintage ride Burgettstown company provides the buses for a run down memory lane
Alex Demczak is the owner of Antique Coach Excursions, which uses vintage charter buses for group tours or weddings in the tri-state area. Demczak started his business three years ago.
Alex Demczak restored a 1969 GMC Coach Model S8M5303A that was originally used for years by the Gray Lines tour bus chain in Los Angeles. He also owns a 1957 GMC transit bus used in ACE tours.
Alex Demczak doesn’t mind a busman’s holiday.
In fact, Demczak, 59, of Burgettstown, looks forward to getting behind the wheel at his business, Antique Coach Excursions, to escort people to weddings, birthdays or casino trips in his vintage 1957 GMC transit coach or 1969 GMC tour coach, both of which are restored. Some have used the buses to celebrate milestone birthdays with a trip to the places in the area where they grew up.
“It’s my full-time, part-time enterprise. It’s actually my retirement job,” said Demczak, who runs another business related to his longtime career in banking.
Demczak’s father, also named Alex, was employed as a bus driver for the former Oriole Motor Coach, Montour Lines and retired from Pittsburgh’s Port Authority Transit. The son grew up fascinated by buses.
He recalled that as a 5-year-old, he would accompany his mother to pick up his father at the Oriole terminal in Green Tree where he was befriended by a mechanic who showed him around the shop and explained everything that went into operating the buses.
The lifelong love of buses has enabled Demczak to create a business that focuses on fun, especially for customers who are celebrating life events.
“We’re not a party bus,” he said. “The goal is to provide good old-fashioned family togetherness fun.”
While weddings have been the biggest profit generator since he started ACE, Demczak said more recently, he’s been hosting historical tours and is seeing an increase in demand from others celebrating life events, such as wedding anniversaries.
When he isn’t providing that kind of fun, he’s sometimes sitting behind the wheel of one of his buses when they’re used as props in movies and television series that are being made in the Pittsburgh area.
The 1969 GMC has been used in scenes of Netflix’s “Mindhunter” series, which is set in the early 1970s. It’s being shot in numerous locations in the region, including Washington County.
Thanks to Hollywood magic and some stick-on colors and logos, Demczak has seen the bus appear as an Atlanta MARTA bus and will soon be made up as a Harrisburg bus in some “Mindhunter” scenes.
The 1957 GMC was used during the shooting of the film “American Pastoral” in Pittsburgh.
While he enjoys being a part of those productions, Demczak acknowledges that there often is “a lot of sitting around and waiting” for the action to begin. “You could be on the set for eight hours, and then for 30 times you’re moving the bus back and forth up the same block.”
His real joy is driving in his period-correct driver’s uniform for people who like the experience of riding in a vintage bus and maybe taking a ride down memory lane at the same time.
He’s done “milestone” birthday trips taking people to where they “grew up, went to school and worked” and wedding anniversary trips “where the kids surprise mom and dad with a “this is your life” theme.
“Weddings are hugely popular,” he said, because the buses can shuttle guests from the hotel to the church to the reception and back to the hotel, a feature that appeals to out-of-towners who may not know their way around the area.
“We have weddings booked into 2018,” Demczak said, adding that his tour footprint is the tri-state area, running up to Erie in Western Pennsylvania.
Demczak’s interest in vintage buses carried him into adulthood, where his banking career eventually intersected with the vehicles. He held positions in operations for several banks, including running the collections center in the former Integra Bank branch on West Beau Street, which today is a branch of KeyBank.
At around that time, he was invited to attend a meeting of the Antique Motor Coach Association of Pennsylvania in Pittsburgh.
“Before I knew it, I was a member, and before I knew it, I was the president,” he said, adding that he was able to use his experience in banking to help with the financial aspect of the organization.
At the same time, he became interested in how antique buses were restored and “how you got these things on the road.”
When he married his wife, Mary Ann, he used a vintage bus to carry their guests to the various sites of the celebration. A friend who attended the wedding told him a vintage bus would be perfect for a business built around similar uses.
In June 2013, Demczak learned that a 1969 GMC tour bus was for sale in Los Angeles.
“It was one of three purchased by Gray Lines charter in April 1969” for its Los Angeles market, he said, adding that the bus has unique curved roof windows and carried groups of people on tours to Disneyland, Knotts Berry Farm and other Southern California attractions and also made charter trips to Tijuana, Mexico, over its long career.
He later purchased a Gray Lines brochure from the early 1970s on e-Bay with a cover photo that depicts the bus parked in front of Disneyland.
“I cut a deal to purchase it sight-unseen and contacted people in Los Angeles to do a restoration of the paint and mechanical work,” Demczak said. “Then I went to L.A. to drive it back here, after I spent three weeks out there prepping it for the run.”
Demczak said the bus, which has more than 3 million miles on it, makes him think about its work history.
“It was the ultimate sightseeing bus, and I wonder how many people would have been on this thing over the years,” he said, adding that the 53-seat, 8-cylinder model has the original floor, seat frames and sides. The biggest restoration challenge was the seat covers, “which were turning to dust,” a problem that was solved when he hired some local upholsterers who found material that closely resembled the original.
Demczak formed ACE in October 2013, and the company had its first revenue run in July 2014.
Not long after the 1969 GMC tour bus restoration was completed, Demczak learned that a 1957 GMC transit bus, which he said is similar to the ones operated by the former 88 Transit Lines in Southwestern Pennsylvania as well as those operated by Port Authority Transit, was being offered for sale by Southern California’s Pacific Bus Museum.
The 1957 model included advertising placards in the passenger compartment.
“It was built rock-solid, but I wanted to have it as a back-up” to the vintage tour bus, he said.
Both models operated by ACE have windows that open, have public address systems and are operated by Demczak and other drivers wearing period-correct uniforms and offering a helping hand to each passenger at the door. ACE is a member of the Pennsylvania Bus Association and visitPittsburgh.
The build of both buses is something that continues to impress Demczak.
He noted that the transit bus was designed so that scheduled maintenance could be completed with the engine remaining in the vehicle, but even when it came time for a complete replacement, the old motor could be pulled out and the new one installed within an 8-hour shift.
“They wanted to keep these things on the road,” he said.
Antique Coach Excursions is located at 1199 Eldersville Road, Burgettstown. For more information, including reservations, contact Antique Coach Excursions at 724-947-9000, or info@antiquecoachexcursions.com.