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EAST GLACIER – On a recent morning, Dave Eglsaer opened a door to an old wood barn and daylight crept into every dusty corner. Inside, the light revealed 25 touring buses, built in the late 1930s by the White Motor Company and designated as Model 706 – known in these parts as “Reds.”
With the days getting longer and tourist season approaching, Eglsaer and a small team of mechanics are working to ensure the entire fleet of Glacier National Park “Red Buses” are ready for another summer of touring up and down the legendary Going-to-the-Sun Road. Just like the fleet has done almost every year for the last seven decades.
As transportation manager for Glacier Park, Inc., Eglsaer said his job is to be both a historian and a manager. The management aspect includes making sure the buses are ready for the season and hiring and training new drivers. The historic aspect is to make sure the fleet appears as close to original as possible. For the most part, the untrained eye can’t see many differences between a Red Bus now and when it was built between 1936 and 1939. What’s incredible is that of the 35 tour buses built for use in Glacier National Park, 34 survive and 33 remain in operation. Eglsaer said that during the first half of the 20th century, the touring buses could be found in many national parks in the western United States, but today are only operating in Glacier.
“All of the other national parks either sold them off or wrecked them,” he said. “This is the only place with an intact fleet.”
Keeping the fleet on the road is the job of Steve Taylor, who was a longshoreman and mechanic for nearly 30 years. Once retired, he moved to Montana and soon began working again for Glacier Park, Inc., which operates the buses for the National Park Service. Three years ago he became the shop’s head mechanic. Maintaining the 75-year-old buses is challenging, Taylor said, and his mechanics must be familiar with everything from engine maintenance to woodworking.
“I enjoy working on these buses,” he said. “I respect the buses because, as you know, this is part of our history. It’s a legacy we’re going to pass on to the next generation.”
Every spring, Taylor and his crew head into a large barn where most of the fleet is stored during the offseason. There, they inspect each vehicle and note any repairs that must be made – from scratched paint to a busted air filter. Some even get a fresh coat of the iconic “Glacier Red,” which was based off the color of a mountain berry. Eglsaer said, according to legend, when Great Northern Railway President Louis Hill (the railroad played a huge part in Glacier’s development) was asked by the White Motor Co. what he wanted the buses to be painted, he walked into the woods, grabbed some local berries and shipped the pickings to Cleveland.
When the buses arrived in the late 1930s, the Model 706s replaced two older generations of tour buses and plied the roads of Glacier for 60 years, a fact that is sometimes lost on new employees.
“When new drivers see them, they don’t realize these buses have been here for 75 years and given tours to millions of people over the Going-to-the-Sun Road,” Eglsaer said.
In 1999, the entire fleet was taken off the road and rebuilt by Ford, at a cost of almost $7 million. Since Ford couldn’t make such a large donation to a private company, Glacier Park, Inc., gave the entire fleet to the National Park Service, which owns it today. The tour buses first returned to the road 10 years ago this spring and, over that time, have each racked up about 100,000 miles. Eglsaer said in four or five years, once the fleet hits an average of 150,000 miles, the buses will have to return to the shop for a more complete overhaul, including new engines.
Until that happens, the buses will continue to roam the roads of Glacier. Eglsaer said the key to keeping the buses operational is parts, which is why a backroom at the East Glacier garage is packed with boxes of spares. But in some cases, Taylor and his crew of mechanics have to make their own, since they haven’t been listed in a catalog for decades. Still others are unique to a specific vehicle.
“You can’t take a door from 98 and put it on 97, because it was handmade and it only fits that bus,” Taylor said.
Eglsaer said that every bus has a personality and, even if they are of the same model, each one works just a little bit differently. Having driven them for a few seasons himself, he understands the connection some drivers have with their buses and hopes that the vehicles will survive a few more generations.
“We hope that with the new motors (in a few years) that they’ll last another 75 years,” he said.
The Glacier “Reds” will hit the road for the 2012 season on May 20. For more information visit www.glacierparkinc.com. For more information about the Glacier National Park Fund Red Bus Endowment, which will be used to fund the historic buses’ restoration in a few years, visit www.glacierfund.org.