Glacier Red Busses

 In 1876 the White Sewing Machine Company was incorporated in Cleveland, Ohio. By 1900, Rollin White, the son of the founder, was more interested in automobiles than in sewing machines.  He perfected an automobile steam engine and began to manufacture steam automobiles. 

By World War I, White had converted to internal combustion and was supplying trucks for military use.  White Trucks continued to grow and develop after the War and its successors still operate today.

In early years of National Park tourism in the West, most visitors arrived by train and then traveled by stagecoach to and through the parks.  In 1933, a contest was held at Yellowstone National Park inviting manufacturers to submit potential bus models to replace the stagecoaches. White Truck Company model 706 was selected as the winner.

Between 1936 and 1939 the White Truck Company manufactured 500 of these busses for a half dozen western Parks.  Thirty five of them came to Glacier National Park where the Going to the Sun Road, too difficult for stagecoaches, had been completed in 1933, and few private cars attempted the drive.

The original busses had a 94 horsepower flathead engine, mechanical brakes that made downshifting the main form of downhill speed control, and a non-synchromeshed transmission.  The drivers hired for the summer driving jobs has to be college age men who were either pre-law or pre-med students as these were considered to be “smart.” (Today’s drivers cover a wide age-span and are both men and women.)

The drivers became known as “gear jammers” from the sounds made by double-clutching the manual transmissions on the steep road.  

As time passed and private automobiles became the choice for travelers instead of the train, other parks gradually discontinued the use of the busses. But, the Going to the Sun Road route kept the Glacier bus demands alive. 

By the 1980’s the busses were mechanically out of date and besides had each logged more than 600,000 miles. A plan was made with Ford Motor Company to refurbish 33 of the Park’s 35 busses. (One was kept museum-original and one had been destroyed in an accident.)

The refurbished busses came back with V-8 engines, automatic transmission, modern brakes, larger wheels, power-steering, complete drive-train replacement, and other mechanical features as well as safety and cosmetic upgrades. 

With a total cost of nearly ten million dollars for the thirty-three busses, Ford made a deal to donate the project to the Park Service if they could put the word “Ford” on hubcaps, the steering wheel and below the original “White” emblem on the grille.  There is also a small acknowledgement of  “Refurbished by Ford.” These small notes were worth more than ten million in advertising.

With its rolled-back top, we could see everything and even stand and take photos when the bus stopped.  The driver knew much more about what to show us than we would have known on our own, and we did not have to either drive or search for scarce parking.

We would both recommend this trip to others and we would take it again ourselves. In fact, we have another such tour planned later on this trip in Yellowstone where the refurbished busses are yellow!