While digging around in the depths of my digital photo albums for CC worthy oddities, I rediscovered this custom commissioned 1951 Kenworth I found on display outside of the Whitefish, Montana Amtrak station. I can’t add much beyond rephrasing what is known about this machine from the historical marker, which you can read in full here.
The curious “Bruck” name is less mysterious when you realize it is the words “bus” and “truck” smooshed together. It was used between 1951 and 1972 by the Great Northern Railway to replace a defunct short line railway connecting the small town of Whitefish to the larger town of Kalispell, Montana. After national passenger service was federalized under Amtrak, the Bruck was retired and soon found itself in long term outdoor storage at a train scrapyard.
A digitized copy of an article from the November 6th, 2000 edition of the Daily Inter Lake newspaper did contain this photo of the truck before its restoration. That source is how we know it had a 10 speed transmission hooked up to a 220 horsepower engine of unknown displacement. That would have made this 39 foot long vehicle reasonably quick for a commercial vehicle in 1951. Surely not as quick as the former train line, but probably more profitable to operate.
That brings us back to the Bruck in the present day. Clearly, cargo was given more importance in this distinctive compromise-mobile. It wouldn’t be too long before many less traveled passenger train lines themselves took on a similar arrangement, with passengers relegated to a few cars at the back of a freight train before being discontinued entirely.
We know it was in the process of restoration circa 2000. It looks a bit rough on closer inspection, having spent nearly as long sitting outdoors since then as it spent abandoned after being decommissioned. Still, the restoration has held up well. Presumably, someone from the historical society comes by every now and again to clean it.
For all of the elaborate one-off commercial vehicles we have admired here at CC, the reality is that such ornamentation costs money. Railways aren’t known for their extravagance, so the only intentional aesthetic elaboration the Bruck received were these four chrome strips. Everything else was simple, cheaply painted metal.
The adjacent Whitefish Station does embody some of the glitz and glamor of the golden age of rail travel. Built in 1921, it channels some of the adventurous spirit of the famous Lake McDonald Lodge in Glacier Park, Montana, where doubtless many passengers who disembarked here later traveled to. The famous 1935-1939 Red Jammer busses that still service Glacier are as beautifully detailed as you would have expected from such surroundings, in stark contrast to our featured bus.
Back to the wonderfully utilitarian Bruck, I couldn’t leave things off without mentioning the Ford Model A parked next to it. The Hertz connection is as mysterious to me as it is to you.
What do you think of this brick of a bus doubling as a truck?
Here’s an example of a half-baggage half-passenger railroad car, on a sort of interurban service that continued into the ’50s.
https://www.facebook.com/Enidpostcards/posts/pfbid029EKtza9Tq3e3XdQNm19uJvYdBFBus4hWmL4onZe5bcf9MFUGNGqV8VuRVvk6RH8Kl
I’ve enjoyed two visits to Whitefish in the last decade but didn’t see the Bruck. In fact I don’t remember the train station. Oh well, a good reason to return to this beautiful small town with its wonderful trail system and lakes.
Greyhound converted a good number of aging Scenicruisers to brucks, with the upper section partitioned to haul freight, as Greyhound had a substantial package freight business at the time. I used to see them come through Iowa City; some had a bigger freight section than others. These were the only Scenicruisers still on the roster; a somewhat ignoble end to them.
Is the term “brick” widely used? I had never come across it before.
About as widely as brucks were built and used, meaning not exactly often but it is the accepted term for a half-bus half-truck.
Here’s a vintage image of the bruck at work back in the day!
Great picture! I love the color scheme of the Great Northern.
The NP’s two-tone green from Lowey’s office and the Milwaukee Road’s orange and maroon were pretty good too. Montana was well served in terms of railroad liveries!
Wow – very neat! I’ve never heard of this before.
In doing a bit of digging about this vehicle, it seems the cargo was prioritized because it was mostly for mail. The rear compartment measured 875 cu. ft.
This vehicle also had to jump through a few bureaucratic hoops before being put into service. The Interstate Commerce Commission had to issue a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity in order to allow the railroad to operate it, and even then, its tasks were restricted to what had formerly been undertaken by the train service that the Bruck had replaced.
The cargo compartment being part of a mail contract makes a lot of sense. The train companies already held mail contracts, so extending the business overland wouldn’t have been a stretch, especially when they already had a facility at one end (the station(.
Mail tended to be what made passenger service to many smaller stations profitable or at least financially viable. When the USPS started switching to Truck and air carriers to move mail in the 60’s it really made a lot of passenger service even less profitable which was why they were so happy to dump services to Amtrak.
Interesting the ‘Bruck’ has both ‘Pacific’ and ‘Kenworth’ emblems. Pacific buses were made by Pacific Car And Foundry, the company that eventually became the owner of Kenworth in 1945. I believe Pacific often used Kenworth chassis even before they owned the truck manufacturer. Pacific eventually sold their bus manufacturing operation to Gillig in 1957 to focus on trucks, and purchased Peterbilt in 1958.
Noticed the badges these would predate the merger, Pacifics came here to do logging on bush roads where weights dont matter, and mermaids to check them dont exist.
I saw this one back in 2013. The Model A was not there.
Provided passenger and mail service between White Fish and the train station in Kalispell, MT from 1951 to 1972. It is the same height as a train to offer easy loading/unloading at the station. Freight, mail and luggage goes in the rear compartment and there is room for 21 passengers in the front.
A bonus photo of the other side of it.
Thanks for the supplementary photo. I had never even read CC when I took these, so thorough documentation wasn’t on my mind. Great lighting in your photos!
Where did you find the seat count? Including the driver’s seat?
I think it was written on a plaque.
NZR, the govt rail service ran freight busses as a regular part of their fleet the govt mandated rail be used for long haul freight so these buses drove routes where rail didnt go which is most of the country.
They did the parcel work courier companies now do, overnight delivery anywhere was still a pipedream unlike now when its expected.
Great article, and wonderful photos.
I’ve never heard of a “Bruck” before, but the concept makes perfect sense in a low population area such as Montana where multitasking would make good economic sense.
No doubt the Ford Model A calls the nearby (between Kalispell and Missoula) Flathead Reservation home.
Okay, that’s pretty good. 🙂
I appreciate the feature as we’re planning to do a road trip down to Kalispell next summer.
The area is very scenic and there is a lot to see in the area. I’d take Highway to the Sun but I hear from people that the roadway has become very popular and is now very busy during the summer. I’ve also heard they charge a toll to use the highway.
I’ll certainly check out the railway station and take a look at the “Bruck.”
The amazing Miracle of America Museum is a must see. It makes a great halfway point in Polson if you want to drive around all of Flathead Lake. It’s a breathtaking drive.
Also, Going-To-The-Sun-Road. It’s a winding mountain pass that’s absolutely stunning.
The word “bruck” comes from the same thought process as the VW Vanagon and Honda Civic Wagovan. Or brunch, motel, smog. Though I’d never heard bruck before. The merging of two words is called a portmanteau.
As portmanteaus go – and on a bruck, I guess they can go in the luggage bit – “bruck” is a bit of a fugly one.
It’s like a road going combine car. FWIW the Great Northern survives as the N in BNSF, along with the orange and green livery. The first merger was in 1970 as the Burlington Northern and then in 1996 they merged with the Santa Fe as BNSF.
For the computer gamers, Microsoft Train Simulator had a route taking freight trains through Kalispell
I commented, and posted a pic, but it all disappeared.
I’m sorry but I think I probably lost it inadvertently. I saw two identical ones from you in the Trash folder (quite brainy), and I thought I approved one and then emptied the trash. The one I approved must have got stuck with the trash.
I can’t figure out why your comments so often are caught by the filter and get sent to prison.
Prison? They’re probably felonious (they’re usually erroneous, or perhaps just unharmonious by being the groaniest), but I don’t know-any-of-this.
Such buses are found all over the world. These in Scandinavia are called “kombibuss”, which means “combined truck and bus”, these had been most popular in thinly populated regions where freight and passengers could be transported in shared vehicles. There were many such buses in North America, they were just very quickly forgotten.