The history of American city buses is complex and multifaceted. There are dozens of companies that have merged and split up, copied others’ products and bought licenses for them, grew up and went bankrupt. And given that they were all private, to understand their boundless diversity is not easy. And the story about them would be endless, so let us dwell on the most important names and events.
General Motors became the main manufacturer of “transits” (as urban beads are traditionally called in the USA) by the 1940s. Before World War II, its most famous product was the bus of the TD/TG range, which later gained the nickname Old Look. It was developed by the company Yellow Coach, which fully joined the concern in 1943. It was an advanced design at that time: car layout, aluminum body, six-cylinder diesel engine of its own production. There were also versions with gasoline six and electric transmission. Later came a hydraulic automatic Allison, air suspension and air conditioning. The bus was available in several lengths from 7.6 to 12.6 m with seating capacity of 28-70 passengers. The width of its body was originally 2.4 m, but since 1948 it could carry up to 2.6 m.
This car set the tone for the bus industry, not only in the USA, but all over the world, including the USSR. Many sources indicate that this particular bus was reproduced in our country under the name ZIS-154.
As often happens, this is true and untrue at the same time. When developing our bus, several American counterparts were purchased – GM-Yellow Coach and its competitor Mack C. They differed first of all by types of transmissions – hydraulic and electromechanical respectively. Engines of each also had their own brand. After numerous tests (including replacement of the Mack diesel with carbureted ZIS-120) the symbiosis of these trucks was born – the “104th”.
All-metal body repeated the solutions of GM, at the same time the transmission was the same as Mack cars: we didn’t have hydraulic automatic yet, but industry had already mastered the elements of electric drive. The result was an advanced 9.5-meter city bus with all-metal body, pneumatic doors and electric transmission. It had a 112 hp two-stroke diesel engine YAZ-204D in the rear overhang, which drove a 50 kW traction generator DK-504A, which powered an electric motor DK-303 with the rear axle drive. But the power was not enough – to accelerate more than 50 km/h was hard for a bus with GVW of about 12 tons. By the way, other countries followed the same way. In particular, Swedish Scania simply bought the license for production of late version Mack Metropol.
In 1958, the Yellow Coach gave way to its successor, the famous Fishbowl. Nicknamed so for the unusual shape of the windshields, this bus featured a new body with even more impetuous forms. In the GM program it was called the New Look, because of which the predecessor was renamed, and became a mass city bus in the U.S. (over 27 years, about 44500 units were made). It was available in four lengths and two widths, with a variety of GM gasoline and diesel engines, manual and manual-hydro transmissions.
It had an unusual configuration with the engine mounted transversely to the rear and the transmission tilted at 45° to the rear axle. The entire engine-transmission-radiator assembly was mounted on a subframe, which facilitated access and allowed the bus to be repaired with minimal delay.
Many American competitors, including the future leader of the New Flyer, the then Canadian manufacturer Western Flyer, bought the license for its production. There is also a mysterious story associated with it: in 1960, a very similar bus of the Flxible brand, Twin Coach, a union of two famous bus companies, appeared on the market. American historians cannot agree on how it happened, but it is known that the then vice-president of GM was at the same time the chairman of the board of the Flxible. Perhaps the 1956 lawsuit, which required GM to sell its components to competitors, including Flxible, also played a role.
The Fishbowl was produced until 1986, and was used much later. It even became famous in the movies: eleven of these buses featured one in the action movie Speed. At the same time, it became GM’s last notable contribution to the bus industry, from which it was displaced by other brands.