Gillig Transit Coach

The Gillig Transit Coach was a transit-style school bus built by Gillig from 1940 to 1982, sold mainly to operators in California, Washington State and Oregon, where it competed almost only with the Crown Supercoach. It was the first school bus with a mid-engine layout, using a Hall-Scott gasoline engine on a Fabco chassis at launch, and a rear-engine version followed in 1948. The first diesel Transit Coach arrived in 1959. The tandem-axle DT-16 of 1967 seated 97 students, the largest school bus ever mass produced, a figure cut to 90 after the 1977 federal safety standards. The same design also served as the basis of motorcoaches and other commercial vehicles. Gillig ended the line in 1982 to concentrate on the Phantom transit bus.