Crown Coach Corporation

1904-1920: Wagons to school buses

At the beginning of the 20th century, Don M. Brockway found himself working at the first hardware store in Los Angeles, California. To supplement its income, the hardware store sold parts for wagons and carriages. In 1904, Brockway founded his own company, as Crown Carriage Company began life producing horse-drawn carriages. While the first vehicles were built in a wooden shed, the company moved to a brick factory in 1910.

After 1910, as carriages gradually became "horseless", Crown experimented with building truck bodies. In 1916, the company built its first bus body for transit use; it was an open-air design heavily influenced by wagon design. After World War I, Crown built its first body for school bus use.

1921-1949: Metal bodies and Supercoaches

In 1921, a major shift in company production occurred as Murillo M. ("Brock") Brockway, the son of the company founder, was put in charge of school bus production. Viewing school buses as a growth market in the suburbs of southern California, Brockway discontinued all wagon production in favor of bus and truck body production. To expand production and improve shipping of its vehicles, a much larger factory in Los Angeles was opened in 1923.

In pursuit of developing heavier-duty and higher-capacity school buses, Crown introduced the first school bus with dual rear wheels in 1927 (on a Reo chassis). In 1930, it produced its first all-metal school bus body (on a Mack chassis), with a 43-passenger capacity.

1932 would mark several major changes for the company. As part of his taking over day-to-day operations of Crown from his father, MM Brockway introduced a ground-breaking school bus body; elements of its design would change school bus design forever. To improve forward visibility, the new bus was a cab-forward design, with the driver sitting next to the engine and radiator. To improve safety, the bus was designed with an integral chassis; the windows were mesh-reinforced safety glass. Alongside the standard braking system, the bus also was equipped with two backup braking systems.

In 1935, the cab-forward school bus was updated and dubbed the Crown Supercoach.

For 1937, to increase seating capacity to 79 passengers, Crown produced its first mid-engine Supercoach; the bus came with a Hall-Scott gasoline engine. In 1939, Crown acquired Moreland Motor Truck Company; as part of the acquisition, Crown moved to a larger factory in Los Angeles. Additionally, the Supercoach was changed from a mid-engine to a rear-engine configuration for 1940.

During World War II, the production of Crown Coach was diverted towards military use; most bodies produced by the company were fire engine bodies for four-wheel drive truck chassis. Following the war, the company returned to bus production,.beginning design work on the 1948 Supercoach. As a side project, engineers at the company designed an all-new cabover fire engine, using the mid-engine chassis of the Supercoach bus. The first Crown Firecoach prototype was completed in 1951, after two years of design work. Alongside the initial pumper design, Crown developed several configurations of the Firecoach, including water tenders, tiller and ladder trucks, and quints (TeleSquirts).

In the United States during the years immediately following World War II, population growth of suburbs expanded, fueled by the post-war baby boom. As that segment of the population entered school, demand for new schools (and school buses to transport their student) rapidly rose. In 1946, Crown began development on a new mid-engine Supercoach. Heavily influenced by motorcoach design, Crown intended it primarily for school bus use. Introduced in 1949, the all-new Supercoach used unit-body construction with high-strength steel in place of a separate chassis; to combat corrosion, all body panels were aluminum.

To prove the durability of the Supercoach to potential customers, Crown offered the Supercoach with a 20-year/100,000 mile warranty for the body.

1950-1980: Mid-engine school buses

During the mid-1950s, several changes were made to the Supercoach. In 1954, the Cummins NHH diesel engine was added as an option, becoming the first diesel-powered Supercoach. A year later, the tandem-rear axle Supercoach made its debut; the largest school bus of its time, it seated as many as 91 passengers.

From the 1950s to the 1970s, the Crown Supercoach and the similar Gillig Transit Coach became two of the most common school buses on the West Coast of the United States. Although conventional-type school buses remained in demand, the development costs did not justify starting an all-new model line. To supplement its income, Crown served as the West Coast distributor for other manufacturers, including Wayne, Blue Bird, and Thomas Built Buses; Crown also marketed Prevost motorcoaches alongside its own coach buses.

The Firecoach was produced through the 1960s and 1970s with relatively few changes. While sold primarily across the West Coast, the Crown Firecoach would become purchased by fire departments across the United States. In 1965, a roof was made standard for all Firecoaches, in the interest of firefighter safety.

1980-1991: Decline

In 1979, the Brockway family sold Crown Coach Corporation to a local truck distributor; this began a sequence of ownership changes. By 1982, sales of the aging Firecoach had largely collapsed, leading to a temporary hiatus of its production. After 34 years of production and slightly over 1800 examples produced, Crown Coach ended Firecoach production completely in 1985. Fi

During 1984, Crown moved from Los Angeles to Chino, California in San Bernardino County. To diversify beyond the Supercoach-based product line, Crown entered into a joint venture with the Hungarian firm Ikarus to produce articulated mass-transit buses. The Crown-Ikarus 286 was bodied in Hungary, with final assembly by Crown in California, with the fitments of American-sourced powertrains and interiors. In 1986, the partnership ended, with 243 buses produced.

By the end of the 1980s, the Supercoach had been in production with only minor changes for nearly 40 years. As Crown prepared the Supercoach to use a methanol-fueled version of the Detroit Diesel 6V92, major changes to the bodyshell were necessitated. The rear-mounted engine required new rear bodywork, which forced a complete change to front body. Although not an all-new design, the Series II, as it was named, was the first major update to the Supercoach since 1948.

After its acquisition, operation ceased in 1991. Crown's difficulty in competing with manufacturers of smaller, less durable but cheaper school buses was cited by company president Bruce Freeman in October 1990 as a primary factor in GE's decision to leave the school bus market.