| The entire fleet of thirty-three 1936 to 1939 touring coaches, was originally built by the White Motor Company (although painted a ripe mountain ash berry red color, some old timers still refer to the touring coaches as "White buses"). The 25-foot-long touring coaches seat 17 passengers with a unique canvas top, which rolls back. The buses serve as Glacier National Park's transportation and touring system, allowing you to travel from one side of the park to the other along the spectacular Going-to-the-Sun Road and up north to Canada's Waterton Lakes National Park. They also link all of the historic lodges and inns in the park. |
The unique 25-foot-long touring coaches were originally built of oak and covered with a aluminum and metal skin. Safety inspections in 1999 revealed signs of metal fatigue in some of the buses' frames. This forced the withdrawal from service of the carrying coaches that have served as the Park's major transportation system since 1936.
The entire fleet of 33, touring coaches were completely renovated at a cost of $250,000 each in 2002 enabling the reds to continue serving the parks visitors. Glacier's fleet of touring coaches are thought to be the largest and oldest continually operating fleet of remaining White touring coaches. In the 1930s, the White Company built 500 of these buses for Glacier, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Zion , Bryce, Mt Rainier and Rocky Mountain National Parks. That was a fairly large production run of a unique vehicle and most of the buses in other parks were retired from service in the 1950s. |
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