Highway Products, Inc., based in Kent, Ohio, was formed by Joseph Thomas 'Joe' Myers in 1960 to manufacture truck bodies for specialty markets such as mobile post offices. In addition to mail trucks and mobile post offices the company also manufactured small boats for both military and commercial use, missile launchers and engines. The company diversified into small transit buses and motorhomes in the late 1960s and early 1970s and was sold to Alco Standard Corporation in 1970; the Highway Products division of Alco Standard declared bankruptcy in 1975, ending production.
The Twin Coach company, based in Kent and founded in 1927 by the brothers William B. and Frank R. Fageol, sold its bus manufacturing operation to Flxible in 1953, [1] and Twin Coach would go on to sell its marine engine division in 1958 after Louis J. Fageol (son of Frank) retired. Twin Coach consolidated its remaining aircraft fuselage and wing manufacturing in Cheektowaga, New York, [2] and Joe Myers initially leased a portion of the original Twin Coach factory in Kent to produce products for his new company, producing small and medium vehicles primarily on government contracts, then purchased a portion of the factory in 1962. [2]
In 1968 Highway Products introduced a 25-passenger bus and sold it under the Twin Coach name as the TC-25. A 29-passenger TC-29 joined the lineup in 1969; [2] the two models were sized identically, but the TC-29 had an extra row of seats instead of a rear door. The buses were powered by the Chrysler 440. [3] Joe Myers sold the company to Alco-Standard in 1970. Approximately 900 buses were built under the Twin Coach name before production stopped in October 1975, due to bankruptcy. [3]
Alco Standard's subsidiary Kent Industries bought the Cortez Motor Home line of products from Clark Forklift Company in 1970 and manufactured the motor homes in the Kent production facilities of Highway Products. [4]
Joe Myers also served as the President of the Davey Tree Expert Company [2] and was married to John Davey's granddaughter, Marilyn Davey.
AM General is an American heavy vehicle and contract automotive manufacturer based in South Bend, Indiana. It is best known for the civilian Hummer and the military Humvee that are assembled in Mishawaka, Indiana. For a relatively brief period, 1974–1979, the company also manufactured transit buses, making more than 5,400.
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.
Motor Coach Industries (MCI) is an American multinational bus manufacturer, specializing in production of motorcoaches. Best known for coaches produced for intercity transit and commuter buses, MCI produces coaches for a variety of applications, ranging from tour buses to prison buses.
Forest River Inc. is an American manufacturer of recreational vehicles, cargo trailers, utility trailers, pontoon boats, and buses.
A motorhome is a type of self-propelled recreational vehicle (RV) which offers mobile living accommodation.
The Wayne Corporation was an American manufacturer of buses and other vehicles under the "Wayne" marque. The corporate headquarters were in Richmond, Indiana, in Wayne County, Indiana. During the middle 20th century, Wayne served as a leading producer of school buses in North America.
The GMC Motorhome was manufactured by the GMC Truck & Coach Division of General Motors for model years 1973–1978 in Pontiac, Michigan, USA — as the only complete motorhome built by a major auto/truck manufacturer. Manufactured in 23 and 26 ft lengths, the design was noted for its front-wheel drive and its low profile, fully integrated body.
Fageol Motors was a United States manufacturer of buses, trucks and farm tractors.
Twin Coach was an American vehicle manufacturing company from 1927 to 1955, located in Kent, Ohio, and a maker of marine engines and airplane parts until the 1960s. It was formed by brothers Frank and William Fageol when they left the Fageol Motor Company in 1927. They established the company in Kent to manufacture and sell buses with a new concept design. The body structure of this new bus was unique in that the body also became the frame and two engines – "twin" engines – were used to allow for larger passenger loads. This concept was patented by William B. Fageol.
NJ Transit Bus Operations and companies leasing buses from NJ Transit use various models of buses between 25 and 60 feet in length to provide service within the state of New Jersey. The lists and rosters below list current and past buses purchased new or inherited by NJ Transit for heavy duty fixed-route service.
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 Rapid Transit Series (RTS) city bus is a long-running series of transit buses that was originally manufactured by GMC Truck and Coach Division during 1977, in Pontiac, Michigan. First produced in 1977, the RTS was GMC's offering of an Advanced Design Bus design and is the descendant of GMC's prototype for the U.S. Department of Transportation's Transbus project. The RTS is notable for its then-futuristic styling featuring automobile-like curved body and window panels; the Advanced Design Buses were meant to be an interim solution between the high-floor transit buses that preceded them, such as the GMC New Look, and modern low-floor buses that would facilitate passenger boarding and accessibility. Most current buses are now made by specialized coach manufacturers with flat sides and windows.
The GMC PD-4501 Scenicruiser, manufactured by General Motors (GM) for Greyhound Lines, Inc., was a three-axle monocoque two-level coach that Greyhound used from July 1954 into the mid-70s. 1001 were made between 1954 and 1956.
The Orion I was a line of rigid high-floor transit buses available in 30', 35', and 40' lengths manufactured by Ontario Bus & Truck between 1976 and 1993 for the Canadian and United States mass transportation markets. The Orion I was the first bus offered by OBI and was available in transit (2-door) and coach/suburban (1-door) models. It was replaced by the rigid Orion V and low-floor Orion VI.
The Helms Bakery on the border of Los Angeles and Culver City, California was a notable industrial bakery of Southern California that operated from 1931 to 1969. The buildings have now been adapted for reuse as retail shops, restaurants and the interior design trade showrooms and the complex is part of what is now called the Helms Bakery District.
The Flxible New Look bus was a very popular transit bus introduced in 1959 by The Flxible Company, and produced from 1960 until 1978, when the New Look was replaced by the "870" Advanced Design Bus. Over its 17-year production run 13,121 Flxible New Look buses were manufactured.
Cortez Motorhome was a Class-A motor coach made in the United States between 1963 and 1979, with 3,211 units built.
The Blue Bird All American is a series of buses produced by American bus manufacturer Blue Bird Corporation since 1948. Originally developed as a yellow school bus, versions of the All American have been designed for a wide variety of applications, ranging from the Blue Bird Wanderlodge luxury motorhome to buses for law enforcement use.
The Flyer 700/800/900 series was a group of bus model series built by Western Flyer and its successors Flyer Industries and New Flyer, of Canada, between 1967 and 1987. They were three generations within a model grouping and, except for brief overlap during transition from one generation to the next, were not in production concurrently. All individual model designations included a prefix of either D, for diesel propulsion, or E, for electrically powered trolleybuses. The introductory model was the D700, originally released in 1967 for the Canadian transit market, and the last series group to be produced, D900, was discontinued in 1987. Flyer had become New Flyer only the year before, in 1986.
Transbus was announced in December 1970 as an United States Urban Mass Transportation Administration (UMTA) program to develop improvements to existing transit bus design; at the time, the US bus market was dominated by the GM New Look and Flxible New Look buses, and bus ridership was declining. The improvements had been suggested earlier by the National Academy of Sciences in 1968 to improve operating costs, reduce pollution, and stimulate ridership, and included innovations such as a low floor for easier entry and seats cantilevered from the wall to expand passenger space.