This 1937 Mount Rainier tour bus makes every day like a trip to a national park

The bright red tour busses from the 1930s are icons of America’s national parks in the West. These open-roof beasts of burden have taken countless tourists through our country’s most spectacular scenic wonders. Now, the team at Legacy Classic Trucks has restored a 1937 example.

This Kenworth tour bus plied its trade at Mount Rainier national park, ferrying passengers to and from local hotels. It toted tourists from 1937 until 1962. Legacy Classic Trucks performed a restoration that included mechanical upgrades, rust repair, reupholstering the seats in leather, and restoring the wood floor. Under the hood is a Hercules JXD inline-six mated to the original five-speed manual transmission. Gears one through three are ultra-low creeper gears for negotiating the steep inclines of Mt. Rainier. The bus rolls on 20×6-inch Budd steel wheels with bias-ply tires.

The redone bus can carry 18 passengers, and the canvas top can be rolled back to give everyone a view of nature’s majesty. Legacy had advertised this rolling piece of Americana for $580,000 but now reports it sold. Here’s hoping it doesn’t disappear into a collection, but instead remains out in the world where people can see it.