Bus manufacturers - USA and Canada: books: history

Buses of ACF Photo Archive - Including ACF-Brill and CCF-Brill

American Car and Foundry (ACF), a pioneer transportation manufacturer, came into existence in 1899 as a result of the merger of 13 railroad-manufacturing companies.
After a complicated transaction in the mid-1920s, ACF had control of the Brill Corp., Hall-Scott Motor Co., and Fageol Motors Co. From the beginning, ACF built both intercity and transit buses.

ACF began to capture large orders for intercity buses, especially when the National Trailways Bus System was formed. Sharp black & white photos with in-depth captions combine to capture this important part of bus history.

Crown Coach Corp. - School Buses, Fire Trucks and Custom Coaches

Donald Martin Brockway founded the Crown Carriage Company in 1904, the same year that Henry Ford started Ford. With no engineering department at this time, Brockway would draw the outlines of the vehicles in the dirt on the production floor as they were conceived.
This informative story of Crown's various endeavors from 1900s horse-drawn wagons through early 1990s alternative fueled buses is chronicled here and highlighted with vintage photographs and factory memorabilia including advertising items, coach emblems, and production statistics.

Not to be left out are custom built coaches for such companies like Lockheed as mobile missile tacking station, Art Linkletter mobile video coaches, and the first air conditioned tour coach in Hawaii. The company built one of the largest fleets of fire trucks in the nation for the Los Angeles City and County fire departments and other agencies, and sent high quality custom built vehicles as far away as places like Juneau, Alaska, South America and the Middle East.

Fageol & Twin Coach Buses 1922-1956 - Photo Archive

An innovator in the bus business, Fageol was the first company to build a bus from the ground up, and it was called the Safety Coach. Later, in 1927, the Fageol brothers sold out and began Twin Coach.
They then built the Model 40 Twin Coach - a twin-engine city bus that began the city bus business. This bus operated for up to 20 years in many cities - a rarity at the time. In 1960, Twin Coach was bought by Flxible.

Period photos, with detailed captions, tell the story of these buses. This is a book that bus enthusiasts won't want to miss.

Flxible Intercity Buses 1924-1970 - Photo Archive

Hugo Young founded the Flxible Side Car Company in 1913 in Loudonville, Ohio. In the early 1920s, the mass production of automobiles lowered their cost to the point where sidecar-equipped motorcycles could no longer compete. The Flxible Company used this challenge as an opportunity to enter the bus-building business.

The first Flxible bus was built in 1924, and was among only a few Flxibles built in the 1920s. The real boost in Flxible's bus production came in 1936 with the introduction of the Flxible Airway coach, mounted on a Chevrolet truck chassis.
Read and see photos of the Flxible Airway coaches and other Flxible intercity buses like the Clipper, Visicoach, C-37, Starliner, Vistaliner, Hi-level models, Flxliner, and more.

Flxible Transit Buses 1953-1995 - Photo Archive

Flxible has been manufacturing buses since 1924 and was one of General Motors' top competitors when it came to bus manufacturing. The company even came out with a Flxible New Look Bus that rivaled the ever-popular General Motors New Look Bus.

One of the most renowned and well-known personalities in the bus enthusiast community, John McKane (author of GM New Look Bus), brings you this photographic history of Flxible buses. Bus enthusiasts and history buffs have been waiting for this book. This is the first of its kind!

Buses of Motor Coach Industries 1932-2000 - Photo Archive

This is the first and only book of its kind to cover Motor Coach Industries, one of the largest producers of motor coaches today. The company began manufacturing buses in the mid-1930s, and it has been the primary supplier of buses to Greyhound as well as many intercity bus operators.
Also some were exported to South Africa, Australia, Taiwan and South America.

Buses of Western Flyer and New Flyer Industries - Photo Archive

Western Flyer Auto & Truck Body Works began producing buses in 1930 and after many name-changes continues today as New Flyer Industries. Because the company served Canada and much of North America, the buses were built to stand up to the harsh winter climates they had to operate in.
This revered bus builder has become one of the dominant players in the transit bus manufacturing industry in North America, and a leader in hybrid bus manufacturing in the U.S. and Canada. New Flyer has been named as one of Canada's most earth-friendly employers for 2008.

From breaking new ground with low-floor buses to pioneering cleaner propulsion systems, innovation and excellence have taken New Flyer to the top of the industry.

Large format vintage photographs and concise, informative captions tell the story of this innovative company and the buses it designed and built.
Bus historians and enthusiasts will all find this book both informative and entertaining.