Yellow Coach Manufacturing Company

John D. Hertz and associates began acquiring smaller Chicago-area companies involved in bus-building in 1922,{{cite book|last1=Roess|first1=Roger P.|last2=Sansone|first2=Gene|title=The Wheels That Drove New York: A History of the New York City Transit System|date=2012|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=9783642304842|page=254|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qfZ0VxuLoc0C&q=%22yellow+coach+manufacturing%22&pg=PA254|access-date=28 March 2018|language=en}} and soon assembled a manufacturing site covering four square blocks.{{cite book|last1=Black|first1=Edwin|title=Internal Combustion: How Corporations and Governments Addicted the World to Oil and Derailed the Alternatives|date=2007|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=9780312359089|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S0DDjjjD5gwC&q=%22yellow+coach+manufacturing%22&pg=PA207|access-date=28 March 2018|language=en}} Yellow Coach Manufacturing Co was formally established in 1923 as a subsidiary of Hertz's Yellow Cab Company,{{cite book|title=Yellow Coach Buses 1923 Through 1943: Photo Archive|isbn=1-58388-054-2|year=2001|page=8|last1=Luke|first1=William|publisher=Enthusiast Books }} and sold 207 buses in its first year.

George J. Rackham, whose career had commenced with the London General Omnibus Company after the First World War, spent the years 1922–1926 in the U.S., and recognised the advantage of low swept chassis frame for bus development while employed by Yellow. It is likely that he was recruited by Hertz to help start up the bus building business. In 1926, he returned to England to join Leyland Motors as Chief Engineer and was responsible for the groundbreaking Titan and Tiger models.{{cite book|last=Townsin|first=Alan A. and Senior John A.|title=The Best of British Buses No.1 Leyland Titans 1927-42|year=1979|publisher=Transport Publishing Company|location=Glossop|isbn=9780903839563|pages=7}}{{cite book|last=Townsin|first=Alan A.|title=Blue Triangle: Alan Townsin Looks at AEC Buses|year=1994|publisher=Venture Publications|location=Glossop|isbn=189843204X|pages=59}}

General Motors purchased a controlling stake in the company in 1925 and changed the name to the Yellow Truck & Coach Manufacturing Company, and relocated production to Pontiac West Assembly in Pontiac, Michigan.{{cite web|url=http://www.coachbuilt.com/bui/y/yellow_cab/yellow_cab.htm|title=Yellow Taxicab...}} Within the transit industry, the company continued to be called simply Yellow Coach.{{cite book|last1=Post|first1=Robert C.|title=Urban Mass Transit: The Life Story of a Technology|date=2007|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=9780313339165|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lZ6Kke0MZWwC&q=Yellow+coach+most+popular+buses+of+the+1930s&pg=PA88|access-date=2 April 2018|language=en}}

In the 1930s, Yellow Coach produced best-selling models for the rapidly expanding urban transit and intercity bus businesses. (In 1935, national intercity bus ridership climbed 50% to 651,999,000 passengers, surpassing the volume of passengers carried by the Class I railroads for the first time.{{cite magazine|title=Transport: Greyhound's Litter|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,762311,00.html|magazine=Time|access-date=11 April 2014|date=10 August 1936|quote=Class I railroads of the U. S. carried 445,995,000 passengers in 1935. Last week, the National Association of Motor Bus Operators announced that non-local bus lines had beaten this mark by carrying 651,999,000 passengers in 1935. An increase of almost 50% over 1934, it was the first time busses had handled more traffic than their biggest rivals.}} ) Yellow Coach played a significant role in the transition from electric streetcars (operating on rails, powered by overhead wires) to transit companys' use of gasoline- or diesel-powered buses operating on rubber wheels (changing from solid wheels to pneumatic tires). For Greyhound Lines, the largest operator of intercity bus service, Yellow Coach developed distinctive streamlined models which introduced a high floor, underfloor luggage storage, a flat front, air conditioning, and a diesel engine, supplying more than 1,250 buses during Greyhounds' years of fastest growth.{{cite magazine|title=Transport: Greyhound's Litter|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,762311,00.html|magazine=Time|access-date=11 April 2014|date=10 August 1936|quote=To keep pace with this new business, the largest U. S. bus line, Greyhound Corp., last week whelped the first 25 of a litter of 305 new busses, completely outmoding present standard equipment.}}

GM purchased the company outright in 1943, merging it into their GM Truck Division to form GM Truck & Coach Division. Although GM continued with the Yellow Coach T-series and P-series product lines, the Yellow Coach badge gave way to the GM Coach or just GM nameplate in 1944. Widespread production of Yellow Coach designs—including certain ZIS buses produced in the Soviet Union—continued until 1959. Limited production of the two remaining small-capacity "Old Look" models (3101/3102 and 3501/3502) would continue until 1969.{{cite web|title=Ohio Museum of Transportation - GM/Yellow Coach Old-Look Transit Production Lists|url=http://www.omot.org/roster/GMOldLookList/index.html|website=www.omot.org|access-date=2 April 2018}} GMC badges did not appear until 1968.

The company owned a subsidiary, known as either Hertz 'Drivurself Corp' or 'Yellow Drive-It-Yourself' which was sold with Yellow Coach to General Motors and eventually purchased back by Hertz in 1953 with The Omnibus Corporation{{cite web|url=http://www.stfrancis.edu/content/ba/ghkickul/stuwebs/bbios/biograph/jhertz.htm|title=John Daniel Hertz}} which was then renamed The Hertz Corporation the following year.{{cite web|url=https://www.hertz.com/rentacar/abouthertz/index.jsp?targetPage=aboutHertzHistoryView.jsp|title=Hertz History|quote=In 1953, the Hertz properties were bought from GMC by the Omnibus Corporation, which divested itself of its bus interests and concentrated solely on car and truck renting and leasing. A year later, a new name was taken—The Hertz Corporation—and it was listed for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange.}}

Yellow started its model designation at the end of the alphabet and worked forward. Initially four types were offered:

• Z type single-deck bus or coach
• Z type double-deck bus
• Y type coach
• X type bus or coach.

All were conventional front-engine design vehicles powered by Yellow Knight I4 sleeve-valve gasoline engines, or a General Electric gas-electric hybrid unless noted otherwise. The Knight engine was connected to the rear wheels by a mechanical drive shaft. In gas-electric models, a gasoline engine in front supplied electric power to two large electric motors mounted on the rear axle.{{cite web|title=Yellow Coach Part 1, Yellow Coach Mfg. Co., Yellow Truck and Coach, Yellow Bus, Greyhound Bus, Silversides, GMC Truck, CCKW, DUKW, General Motors - CoachBuilt.com|url=http://www.coachbuilt.com/bui/y/yellow_coach/yellow_coach.htm|website=www.coachbuilt.com|access-date=28 March 2018|quote=starting in 1925 two additional long-wheelbase Z-series coaches were constructed ...a General-Electric-sourced hybrid gas-electric drive system, where a gasoline engine powered two large electric motors located at the rear of the coach.}}

File:Greyhound Bus Station, Eastern Greyhound Lines (NBY 2186).jpg

File:Greyhound bus LCCN2016873732.tif

File:Fifth Avenue Coach Company Yellow Coach Z-BH-602 1263.jpg]]

File:Model 718 - 41 Passenger - New York City Omnibus Corporation - (3593428904).jpg

File:Greyhound bus (1930s Supercoach) Front View.jpg

In 1931, Yellow Coach introduced its 700 series buses, featuring one of the first bus designs to mount the engine in the rear. Mounting the engine in the rear represented a significant innovation,{{cite web|title=A Century of Transport - Front to Back; A Rear-engined Revolution|url=http://www.wythall.org.uk/transhisa.asp|website=www.wythall.org.uk|publisher=Transport Museum Wythall (UK)|access-date=28 March 2018|language=en}} reducing mechanical losses, noise, and weight of a long drive shaft and exhaust running between a front engine and the rear drive and tailpipe.{{cite web|title=Choosing the best bus body style for your build|url=http://www.buslandia.net/blog/2016/10/11/choosing-a-body-style-length|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170426110318/http://www.buslandia.net/blog/2016/10/11/choosing-a-body-style-length|url-status=usurped|archive-date=April 26, 2017|website=Buslandia|access-date=28 March 2018}} Bus manufacturers in Germany and the United Kingdom would not perfect rear-engine models until the 1950s.{{cite web|title=Buses after the merger: the long road to the rear-mounted engine {{!}} marsMediaSite|url=http://media.daimler.com/marsMediaSite/en/instance/ko/Buses-after-the-merger-the-long-road-to-the-rear-mounted-engine.xhtml?oid=9361530|website=marsMediaSite|publisher=Daimler AG (Germany)|access-date=28 March 2018|language=en-EN}|quote=The first bus with a rear-mounted engine debuts in 1951}} Customers did not always prefer rear-engined designs, noting that front engines were easier to access, and placed engine noise and vibration away from passengers and sometimes outside the coach body. Eventually, the 700 series included both front- and rear-engined models.

In 1934, Dwight Austin, patent-holder on an innovative rear-drive system, was hired by Yellow Coach and soon developed new models in the 700-series with transverse engines and a “V” angle drive. The V-drive and other innovations introduced in the 700 series would become long-lasting standards: air conditioning, diesel engines, a flat front, a high passenger floor (with luggage beneath), and unibody construction. The V-drive would be GM's standard configuration until the 1980s.{{cite web|last1=Rothacker|first1=David|title=Greyhound Buses Through the Years; Part 1|url=http://www.daverothacker.com/files/greyh1-1.pdf|website=Rothacker Reviews|access-date=28 March 2018}}

Notable 700-series versions include models 718 and 728 which were developed for use as urban transit. Model 718 sold 426 units to large transit operators in New York and Los Angeles, becoming the most popular transit bus of the early 1930s. Later model 728 sold 1,189 units to transit operators across 9 variants produced in the late 1930s.{{cite web|title=Yellow Coach Part 2, Yellow Coach Mfg. Co., Yellow Truck and Coach, Yellow Bus, Greyhound Bus, Silversides, GMC Truck, CCKW, DUKW, General Motors - CoachBuilt.com|url=http://www.coachbuilt.com/bui/y/yellow_coach/yellow_coach2.htm|website=www.coachbuilt.com|access-date=22 March 2018|quote=Between 1934 and 1937, 426 Model 718 coaches were produced; 366 to New York for use by Omnibus Corp./Fifth Ave. Coach and its affiliates, and 43 to the west coast for use by the Los Angeles Railway, Los Angeles Motor Coach and Pacific Electric companies....1,256 Yellow Coach Model 743s were constructed through 1939 when it was replaced by the new PD/PG- and PDG/PGG-3701 Silversides.}} Both were exclusively rear-engined.

For Greyhound Lines, an operator of intercity bus service, Yellow Coach developed model 719 in 1936 which introduced the high floor, underfloor luggage storage, a flat front and streamlined styling. In 1937, model 719 was revised to become model 743 and introduced air conditioning and a diesel engine. Models 719 and 743 were both branded as the Super Coach by Greyhound, and sales were effectively limited to Greyhound and its affiliates. Greyhound Lines purchased all 1,256 units of model 743 produced between 1937 and 1939.

All models are {{convert|96|in|m|adj=on}} wide single-deck buses, except as noted.{{cite web |url=http://www.omot.org/.../YC700.htm |title=Yellow Coach 700 series coaches |date=7 January 2002 |work=GM Engineering Standards Coach Descriptions |publisher=The Ohio Museum of Transportation |access-date=13 January 2002}}

The Model 1200 series was launched in 1938 with the re-designation of Model 739 as Model 1203 for Public Service Corporation. The 6-model series name ended when three were given new P-series names, and another was given a T-series name.{{cite web|title=Yellow Coach Part 2, Yellow Coach Mfg. Co., Yellow Truck and Coach, Yellow Bus, Greyhound Bus, Silversides, GMC Truck, CCKW, DUKW, General Motors - CoachBuilt.com|url=http://www.coachbuilt.com/bui/y/yellow_coach/yellow_coach2.htm|website=www.coachbuilt.com|access-date=2 April 2018}}

By 1940, Model 1200 series designs were renamed into either the T- or P-series. The new model designations indicated type, fuel, propulsion (for transit) or customer (for parlor), seating capacity, and version number. (The first was -01, the second, -02, and so on.)

All "T"-series models were urban transit buses. The model designation consisted of two or three letters followed by four numbers. These gave a basic description of the type of bus:

All models were rear-engined except the 21xx and 24xx series.

The "P" indicated that, as parlor coaches, the P-series was primarily designed for the seated comfort of intercity bus passengers. All models are {{convert|96|in|m|adj=on}} wide rear-engine parlor coaches.{{cite web |url=http://www.omot.org/.../P2000.htm |title=2XXX Series Parlor Coaches |date=7 January 2002 |work=GM Engineering Standards Coach Descriptions |publisher=The Ohio Museum of Transportation |access-date=13 January 2002}}{{cite web |url=http://www.omot.org/.../P3000.htm |title=3XXX Series Parlor Coaches |date=7 January 2002 |work=GM Engineering Standards Coach Descriptions |publisher=The Ohio Museum of Transportation |access-date=13 January 2002}}{{cite web |url=http://www.omot.org/.../P4000.htm |title=4XXX Series Parlor Coaches |date=7 January 2002 |work=GM Engineering Standards Coach Descriptions |publisher=The Ohio Museum of Transportation |access-date=13 January 2002}}

In 1944, General Motors completed its acquisition and merger of Yellow Coach. The T-Series and P-Series production and series numbering continued under the GM and GMC bus brands, along with other variants such as B-Series school buses and S-Series suburban buses. Yellow Coach designs would continue to be widely produced until 1959, when GM introduced its New Look models. The last Yellow Coach design ceased production in 1969.

• GM Truck & Coach Division
• GM "old-look" transit bus
• General Motors streetcar conspiracy

{{Reflist}}

• Luke, William A. (2001). Yellow Coach Buses - 1923–1943 Photo Archive, Hudson, WI: Iconografix. {{ISBN|1-58388-054-2}}
• Luke, William A. & Metler, Linda L. (2004). Highway Buses of the 20th Century, Hudson, WI: Iconografix. {{ISBN|1-58388-121-2}}
• Luke, William A. & Metler, Linda L. (2005). City Transit Buses of the 20th Century, Hudson, WI: Iconografix. {{ISBN|1-58388-146-8}}
• McKane, John H. & Squier, Gerald L. (2006). Welcome Aboard the GM New Look Bus, Hudson, WI: Iconografix. {{ISBN|1-58388-167-0}}
• Plachno, Larry (2002). [http://www.busmag.com/PDF/Greyh1.pdf Greyhound Buses Through the Years - Part I], Polo, Il: National Bus Trader Magazine, November, 2002
• Stauss, Ed (1988). The Bus World Encyclopedia of Buses, Woodland Hills, CA: Stauss Publications. {{ISBN|0-9619830-0-0}}

{{Commons category}}

• [http://www.coachbuilt.com/bui/g/gm/gm.htm Yellow Coach - 1923–1943- GMC Truck & Coach Division, General Motors Corp. - 1943–present - Detroit, Michigan]
• [http://www.omot.org/roster/GMOldLookList/index.html List of production figures for Yellow/GM "old-look" buses]
• [http://www.omot.org Ohio Museum of Transportation], omot.org, retrieved on 2006-12-22
• [http://www.coachbuilt.com/bui/y/yellow_coach/yellow_coach.htm Coachbuilt.com - Yellow Coach], coachbuilt.com, retrieved on 2006-12-23
• [https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/collections/photographs-of-general-motors-and-chrysler-car-and-truck-models#/?roots=4:ffa60160-c5ef-012f-2528-58d385a7bc34&tab=navigation4 New York Public Library - General Motors Truck Company. Pontiac, Michigan], nypl.org, retrieved on 2018-03-28
• [https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/collections/photographs-of-general-motors-and-chrysler-car-and-truck-models#/?roots=3:d68aeaf0-c5ef-012f-7f75-58d385a7bc34&tab=navigation New York Public Library - GM Coach Company 1936. Photographs - Specifications], nypl.org, retrieved on 2018-03-28
• [http://www.coachinfo.com/index.html Coach Information Network], coachinfo.com, retrieved on 2006-12-23

{{North American bus builders}}

{{General Motors brands}}

Category:Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1923

Category:Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 1943

Category:Defunct bus manufacturers of the United States

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Category:1923 establishments in Illinois

Category:1943 disestablishments in Michigan

Category:Trolleybus manufacturers