The Checker Series E were transit buses sold by Checker Cab Manufacturing Corporation from 1951 to 1953, using a body built by the Union City Body Company (UCBC) of Union City, Indiana, on a chassis built by Checker in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
The Checker Series E were transit buses sold by Checker Cab Manufacturing Corporation from 1951 to 1953, using a body built by the Union City Body Company (UCBC) of Union City, Indiana, on a chassis built by Checker in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
The Series E bus was designed by Transit Buses, Inc. in 1948. Transit Buses had been formed as a joint venture between Ford Motor Company and UCBC in the 1930s; buses were assembled by UCBC by fitting their body to a Ford chassis, engine, and transmission. In 1947, Ford withdrew from the transit bus market and stopped supplying chassis and powertrains to Transit Buses; Transit Buses designed a new bus using the Continental I6 "Red Seal" engine and contracted Checker to build the chassis starting in 1948, with UCBC still responsible for final assembly in Union City. Checker acquired Transit Buses in 1950 and began marketing the bus as the Checker Series E in 1951. However, sales of the contemporaneous General Motors "Old Look" buses, originally designed by Yellow Coach, were much stronger and Checker withdrew the Series E in 1953. [1]
The Blue Bird Corporation is an American bus manufacturer headquartered in Fort Valley, Georgia. Best known for its production of school buses, the company has also manufactured a wide variety of other bus types, including transit buses, motorhomes, and specialty vehicles such as mobile libraries and mobile police command centers. Currently, Blue Bird concentrates its product lineup on school buses, school pupil activity buses, and specialty vehicle derivatives.
The Flxible Co. was an American manufacturer of motorcycle sidecars, funeral cars, ambulances, intercity coaches and transit buses, based in the U.S. state of Ohio. It was founded in 1913 and closed in 1996. The company's production transitioned from highway coaches and other products to transit buses over the period 1953–1970, and during the years that followed, Flxible was one of the largest transit-bus manufacturers in North America.
The Ford Transit is a family of light commercial vehicles manufactured by the Ford Motor Company since 1965, primarily as a cargo van, but also available in other configurations including a large passenger van, cutaway van chassis, and a pickup truck. The vehicle is also known as the Ford T-Series, a nomenclature shared with Ford's other light commercial vehicles, the Ford F-Series trucks, and the Ford E-Series chassis. As of 2015, 8 million Transit vans have been sold, making it the third best-selling van of all time and has been produced across four basic platform generations, with various "facelift" versions of each.
A school bus is any type of bus owned, leased, contracted to, or operated by a school or school district. It is regularly used to transport students to and from school or school-related activities, but not including a charter bus or transit bus. Various configurations of school buses are used worldwide; the most iconic examples are the yellow school buses of the United States which are also found in other parts of the world.
The Ford E-Series is a range of full-size vans manufactured and marketed by the Ford Motor Company. Introduced for 1961 as the replacement of the Ford F-Series panel van, four generations of the model line have been produced. Marketed for both cargo and passenger transport configurations, the E-Series has been designed with multiple design variations for both retail and commercial sale, including vans, and commercial-grade cutaway van chassis and stripped chassis.
Checker Motors Corporation was a vehicle manufacturer, and later an automotive subcontractor, based in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The company was established by Morris Markin in 1922, created by a merger of the firms Commonwealth Motors and Markin Automobile Body, and was initially named the Checker Cab Manufacturing Company. The manufacturer was originally based in Chicago, before moving to Kalamazoo in 1923. The company was renamed Checker Motors in 1958.
Thomas Built Buses, Inc. is an American bus manufacturer. Best known for its production of the first ever rear engine Type C school bus. Thomas produces other bus designs for a variety of usages. Currently, its production is concentrated on school buses and activity buses, along with their commercial derivatives.
Carpenter Body Works is a defunct American bus manufacturer. Founded in 1918 in Mitchell, Indiana, the company produced a variety of vehicles, with the majority of production consisting of yellow school buses for the United States and Canada.
The Yellow Coach Manufacturing Company was an early manufacturer of passenger buses in the United States. Between 1923 and 1943, Yellow Coach built transit buses, electric-powered trolley buses, and parlor coaches.
Superior Coach was a coachbuilder in the American automotive industry. Founded in 1909 as the Garford Motor Truck Company, Superior is best known for constructing bodies for professional cars (hearses) and school buses. Following major downturns in both segments in the late 1970s, Superior was liquidated by its parent company in 1980. From 1925 to 1980, the company was based in Lima, Ohio.
The Crown Coach Corporation is a defunct American bus manufacturer. Founded in 1904, the company was best known for its Supercoach range of yellow school buses and motorcoaches; the former vehicles were marketed throughout the West Coast of the United States. Competing alongside Gillig Corporation and similar its Gillig Transit Coach, the two companies supplied California with school buses nearly exclusively into the 1980s. Crown also was the manufacturer of custom-built vehicles derived from its buses, including the Firecoach line of fire apparatus.
Duple Coachbuilders was a coach and bus bodybuilder in England from 1919 until 1989.
Bedford Vehicles, usually shortened to just Bedford, was a brand of vehicle manufactured by Vauxhall Motors, then a subsidiary of multinational corporation General Motors. Established in April 1931, Bedford Vehicles was set up to build commercial vehicles. The company was a leading international lorry brand, with substantial export sales of light, medium, and heavy lorries throughout the world.
The Eagle was a make of motor coach with a long and interesting history. During a period of over four decades, some 8,000 Eagle coaches were built in four countries on two continents. The coaches were a common sight on American highways and were strongly associated with Continental Trailways for over three decades.
The Bristol VR was a rear-engined double-decker bus chassis which was manufactured by Bristol Commercial Vehicles as a competitor to the Leyland Atlantean and Daimler Fleetline.
The GM "old-look" transit bus was a transit bus that was introduced in 1940 by Yellow Coach beginning with the production of the model TG-3201 bus. Yellow Coach was an early bus builder that was partially owned by General Motors (GM) before being purchased outright in 1943 and folded into the GM Truck Division to form the GM Truck & Coach Division. The Yellow Coach badge gave way to the GM nameplate in 1944. Production of most "old-look" models was stopped upon the release of the GM New-Look bus in 1959, however some smaller "old-look" models continued to be built until 1969. Approximately 38,000 "old-look" buses were built during the 29-year production run. The "old-look" name is an unofficial retronym applied to this series of GM buses after the release of the GM New-Look series.
A multi-stop truck is a type of commercial vehicle designed to make multiple deliveries or stops, with easy access to the transported cargo held in the rear. They first appeared in the United States in the 1920s. They are usually vans or trucks designed to be used as fleet vehicles by businesses within local areas.
The ThomasMinotour is a bus body manufactured by Thomas Built Buses since 1980. The smallest vehicle sold by the company, the Minotour is a bus body designed for cutaway van chassis. Primarily sold for school bus usage, the Minotour is also produced as a MFSAB or in specialized configurations specified by the customer.
The Ford B series is a bus chassis that was manufactured by the Ford Motor Company. Produced across six generations from 1948 to 1998, the B series was a variant of the medium-duty Ford F series. As a cowled-chassis design, the B series was a bare chassis aft of the firewall, intended for bodywork from a second-stage manufacturer. While primarily used for school bus applications in the United States and Canada, the chassis was exported worldwide to manufacturers to construct bus bodies for various uses.
The Ford Transit Bus was a medium-duty transit bus produced by Ford from 1936 to 1947. The engine was originally placed at the front, but a rear-engine version replaced the original design in 1939. Ford constructed the chassis, which were then fitted with bodies constructed by the Union City Body Company of Union City, Indiana. Canadian versions were built from chassis fabricated in Windsor and bodies produced by Brantford Coach & Body, from 1941 to 1943.