A few weeks back we looked at Motor Coach Industries’ (MCI) Courier bus – MCI’s first mass-produced model and the forerunner for its later success in the market. Today we’ll review a companion Canadian coach that was produced by the other bus manufacturer with roots in Manitoba – the Western Flyer Canuck.
Similar to MCI, Western Flyer was a small volume manufacturer of mostly front-engined buses beginning in the mid-1930’s. Their T40 model, produced from 1949 to 1958, was typical – 40 passengers, 35 feet long, with an International Harvester Red Diamond gas engine next to the driver.
In 1955, jumping on the Scienicruiser bandwagon, they also made a “deck and a half” stepped bi-level model, the T36 2L, though only four were built.
With the GM PD 4104 being introduced in 1953, and closer to home, the MCI Courier 95 series in 1954, Western knew it had to “up it’s game” and get a more modern, rear-engined model into its lineup to remain competitive in the market.
In turn, in 1955 they introduced the P37 Canuck. The P37 (37 passenger) was 32 feet long and 96 inches wide. Similar to the MCI Courier, power was from an International Harvester Red Diamond 450 cu in gas six cylinder, with the option of a Cummins 401 cu in JT6B diesel. Transmission was a Fuller five speed.
In 1958, a longer 35 feet version seating 41 (P41) was made – and became the standard Canuck model. As this was after the US government won it’s antitrust case against GM, requiring it to share its proprietary drivetrain components, the GM 6-71 and newly introduced 6V-71 diesel engines were popular powerplants.
With the competition moving forward Western was again forced to play catch-up, and in 1964 the Canuck 500, with more modern styling, and the more powerful GM 8V-71 engine became available.
The last Canuck model produced was the 600 in 1967 – unique in that it was lengthened to 38 feet and could carry up to 45 passengers.
Early 1970’s Flyer D-700 Transit Coach
Though well-built, these Canucks never achieved the popularity of GM’s or MCI’s coaches – mostly because they lagged these market leaders in introducing new models by a good five years. As a result, in 1968, the company exited the intercity market to focus solely on transit buses.
Unfortunately, those were even less successful, and in 1971 the company was purchased by the Manitoba government and renamed Flyer Industries Inc. Low volume transit bus production continued until 1986, when Jan den Oudsten, a family member of Den Oudsten Bussen BV, a leading Dutch coach builder, purchased the company and named it New Flyer Industries. He ran the company separate from the Dutch business. Den Oudsten, though leaving the company in 2003, was a visionary and well-respected leader credited with driving New Flyer to its place today as the leading maker of transit and intercity buses in North America, and with a small touch of schadenfreude, the current owner of MCI (purchased in 2015).
Additional Information:
http://www.explorenorth.com/library/bus/western_flyer.html
https://cptdb.ca/wiki/index.php/Western_Flyer_Coach
In the early ’70s my older brother was the drummer for Winnipeg based Franklin Records recording artists Sugar and Spice.
I swear the second picture down (the blue one ) is the exact same model that was the first Sugar & Spice tour bus. Similar color even, and the one in the pic is even from Manitoba. I’m sure now it was a hand-me-down from this very company. This one got wrecked in South (maybe North) Dakota when sideswiped by a habitual drunk driver in a pickup truck. My brother still recounts that story to this day, how after the crash they followed a trail of debris back to a bisected-lengthwise truck with the driver still behind the wheel, babbling drunkenly away oblivious to what had just occurred.
The Highway Patrol informed them that they were very familiar with the pickup driver,
who had a half-dozen prior DUI offences and had even killed his own wife in a crash.
It was replaced by a somewhat newer slanted window rear-engine diesel model , the make I don’t know, it may have been an MCI Courier.
I’m old enough to remember Sugar and Spice! They got shafted.
Well done biography Jim, thank you. As a kid, I rode in Western Flyer T40s in the 1970s, as they were still used as the general transport for the Canadian Armed Forces. Our public school on my dad’s military base always used them for field trips. They felt very solid, though they were already well over a decade old.
I also remember riding the Flyer transit buses a bit later. The original Flyer transit buses seemed well built, but not especially modern looking with their upright, overly square design. Where the GM fishbowl buses were the default city bus at the time, our transit had a small number of Flyers in their fleet. As a kid, you know when you are riding a bus that is not stylish, rather ‘nerdy’ in fact. The Flyers had great visibility with their huge passengers windows. But they seemed unnecessarily tall, making passengers appear (and feel) dwarfed, and exposed to the sun, without AC. They lacked the charms, and style, of the GM New Look buses. Western Flyer exemplified functionality over form.
Hard to believe how far this company has come.
In 1974, Edmonton Transit ordered both Diesel and Electric trolley versions of the D800 as pictured above. They were ‘nerdy’ in having that rear roof spoiler which was a common early ’70’s trend where even lowly four door sedans had a raised rear spoiler for a ‘go faster’ look.
Thank you, and another empty page filled in my (and CC’s) bus knowledge. The Flyer transit buses made it to the US in more recent years, and I had a vague idea of their earlier history, but was not familiar with the Canuck. I do love the name.
Fascinating! I did not know of this company before this article and as a proud Canadian I should have.
Thanks for bringing this piece of Canadian history alive!
The AM General transit bus was based on the Flyer transit. Pretty much a license-built copy, though AM General used the Detroit Diesel/Allison V-drive transverse engine layout. Great article!
New Flyer is huge in the transit field. They’ve been supplying the majority of busses to Translink (metro Vancouver transit) for years – an order for 106 new busses was placed last fall. They manufacture diesel, electric, and hybrid models, both single and articulated.
New Flyer and Nova Bus (based in Quebec, owned by Volvo) are also each supplying two fast charging (4 – 7 minutes) fully electric busses later this year to Translink for testing.
http://www.vancourier.com/news/translink-trying-out-new-electric-buses-1.23264947
Considering making a (schoolie) out of a 28 pasngr. Western Flyer BUS….WFC MD 28/32…Contract3 063024 vehicle code A-30 man date 9/61…it appears Bus was orogonal sent to RCAF…anyway loking for specs ie: engine/type/displacement etc.