To allow for large-scale production of school buses among body manufacturers, adoption of these standards allowed for greater consistency among body manufacturers. To reduce the complexity of school bus production and increase safety, a set of 44 standards were agreed upon and adopted by the attendees (such as interior and exterior dimensions and the forward-facing seating configuration). Cyr invited transportation officials, representatives from body and chassis manufacturers, and paint companies. Cyr organized a week-long conference at Teachers College, Columbia University that forever changed the design and production of school buses. Although school bus design had moved away from the wagon-style kid hacks of the generation before, there was not yet a recognized set of industry-wide standards for school buses. The custom-built nature of school buses created an inherent obstacle to their profitable mass production on a large scale. In 1940, the first mid-engined transit school bus was produced by Gillig in California. Īs the 1930s progressed, flat-front school buses began to follow motorcoach design in styling as well as engineering, gradually adopting the term "transit-style" for their appearance. Introduced in 1932, the Crown Supercoach seated up to 76 passengers, the highest-capacity school bus of the time. In an effort to gain extra seating capacity and visibility, Crown Coach built its own cabover school bus design from the ground up. In 1930, both Superior and Wayne introduced all-steel school buses the latter introduced safety glass windows for its bus body.Īs school bus design paralleled the design of light to medium-duty commercial trucks of the time, the advent of forward-control trucks would have their own influence on school bus design. The rear entry door of the kid hacks were re-purposed (as an emergency exit).įollowing the introduction of the steel-paneled 1927 Luce bus, school bus manufacturing began to transition towards all-steel construction. To better adapt automotive chassis design, school bus entry doors were moved from the rear to the front curbside, becoming a door operated by the driver (to ease loading passengers and improve forward visibility). Late 1930s school busĭuring the 1930s, school buses saw advances in their design and production that remain in use to this day. Its orange color predates the adoption of school bus yellow. 1930s A 1939 school bus seen in a museum display. While fitted with a roof, the primary weather protection of the Luce bus design included roll-up canvas side curtains. The forerunner of the first Blue Bird school buses, steel was used to panel and frame the bus body wood was relegated to a secondary material. Luce produced a bus body for a 1927 Ford Model T. In 1919, the usage of school buses became funded in all 48 U.S. In 1915, International Harvester constructed its first school bus today, its successor company Navistar still produces school bus cowled chassis. Weather protection remained minimal some designs adopted a tarpaulin stretched above the passenger seating. While transitioning into purpose-built designs, a number of features from wagons were retained, including wood construction, perimeter bench seating, and rear entry doors. As vehicles evolved from horse-drawn to "horseless" propulsion on a wider basis, the wagon bodies of kid hacks and school cars were adapted to truck frames. It is based on a 1927 Ford Model T chassis.įollowing the first decade of the 20th century, several developments would affect the design of the school bus and student transport. In 1869, Massachusetts became the first state to add transportation to public education by 1900, 16 other states would transport students to school. As a horse-drawn wagon, the school car was fitted with a rear entrance door (intended to avoid startling the horses while loading or unloading passengers) over a century later, the design remains in use (as an emergency exit). In 1892, Indiana-based Wayne Works (later Wayne Corporation) produced its first "school car" A purpose-built design, the school car was constructed with perimeter-mounted wooden bench seats and a roof (the sides remained open). Essentially re-purposed farm wagons, kid hacks were open to the elements, with little to no weather protection. For those students who lived beyond practical walking distance from school, transportation was facilitated in the form of the kid hack at the time, " hack" was a term referring to certain types of horse-drawn carriages. In the second half of the 19th century, many rural areas of the United States and Canada were served by one-room schools. Main article: Kid hack One-horse kid hack (1910-1915) A 1912 Studebaker truck with a school bus body
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