Queen Elizabus & Christmas Capitol of North Dakota
Garrison is home of the Authentic Queen Elizabus Double Decker English Bus. Take a ride on the Queen at our annual Dickens Village Festival. Garrison earned the title "Christmas Capitol of North Dakota" because of the highly popular annual Dickens Village Festival.
A few facts about the Queen...
1. Top speed 40 miles per hour
2. She's a 1961 Bristol Lodekka (FLF Model) built in England through a contract with the English government and was first run as part of an English doubledecker bus fleet. FLF stands for Flat bottom floor, long body and front entrance. Only 1, 867 FLF models were built between 1959 and 1968. It is unknown how many are still operational.
3. 6 cyclinder Bristol diesel engine
4. 13' 6 inches high, 30 feet long and 8 feet wide
5. 70 passenger capacity
6. 24 volt electrical system
7. 4 speed manual transmission (constant mesh)
8. Steering wheel is on the right side of the bus with no power steering and gear shift is on the left side of the driver.
9. Originally painted green in England because it was a non-London bus; only the double deckers in London were painted the typical red.
10. Brought to the US in 1980 by a Denver, CO company. It was then sold to a company in Georgia and then a company in Iowa and finally to the Dickens Village Festival for $5,000 in 2005.
11. In England, smoking and pets were only allowed on the top deck. Almost all travel was done on the doubledeckers in England, including traveling to school and work, grocery shopping, vacation travel. Cost was two English cents to ride the bus to school. Buses were noisy, smelly and cold in winter and hot in summer.