By François Biber

Old buses attracting tourists to Saskatoon

Sep 13, 2014 | 8:47 AM

While some may question the City of Saskatoon’s move to purchase 20-year-old buses, there’s a rare breed of tourists salivating over the city’s acquisition.

“Unlike most tourists I don’t go to a place to go check out the sights; I’m a think-outside-the-box kind of guy,” Elton McFall, 38, from Montreal said.

“I’m just amused to be in a place and watch the kind of traffic. I came to Saskatoon to check all that out and I was aware that because of the dry climate, vehicles don’t rust so there are a lot of old buses. ”

Last year, McFall spent his holidays riding the Motor Coach Industries (MCI) Classic buses of his childhood and recording his experience.

“I took those buses my whole like and here in Montreal they’re all gone – it’s like a feeling of security. It’s like the end of an era everything has gone to low floor buses,” McFall said, adding the newer low-floor buses simply aren’t the same.

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In Saskatoon the transit fleet has 32 MCI Classics and 27 low-floor classics making up about one-third of the fleet. In light of the recent transit disruptions, the city bought 20 buses from the City of Calgary, adding more Classics to the fleet.

The purchase was music to McFall’s ears.

“The models built before 1995 were almost all powered by Detroit diesel motors and those are loud motors and we love them because of all the motors made, they have this growl and they don’t make those anymore and we love that the sound; that made in North America sound,” McFall said.

With over 1,000 videos on YouTube under the username Retroolschool, McFall said his goal is to preserve the past.

“I’m always trying to find the old stuff. One day I’d love to live out west somewhere where there are more of these vehicles because of the climate and they don’t rust as easily. ”

Speaking with engineers and other gear-heads, McFall has found buses built after 1995 don’t matchup to the solid engineering of the Classics.

“Riding in those buses it’s like riding in a Cadillac or an old (Mercury) Capris compared to a low floor bus,” McFall said.  

panews@rawlco.com

On Twitter: @princealbertnow