Jim Brophy is taking a well-deserved break from his seemingly endless Bus Stop Classics series, which is one of the best things to happen at CC. We know have what I consider the most comprehensive collection of bus articles on any single web site; please do check it out.
Eugene is a magnet for folks wandering in their old converted buses. One of the nicest ones in recent times is this fine old Crown, certainly a former school bus thanks to the special outside mirror; most likely from California, where they were made and used so widely. They are considered the best built school bus ever, and there are some remarkably old ones still at work down there. This one flew the coop, though.
These buses most typically had underfloor Cummins diesels laying on their sides, and the exhaust (sound and smoke) was a memorable experience for anyone who lived where these were used. LA Unified School District must have had hundreds of them, and I’d see groups of three, four, and five on the freeway on my morning commute, laying down a smoke screen.
What made the Crown so legendary was that it was built to an extremely high standard, with 90,000 psi ultra-high tensile steel covered with aluminum exterior panels. Ultra strong, so that 30 years or more of the daily grind didn’t faze its structural integrity. And then they invariably went on to have second lives, either south of the border or in the hands of folks like this.
I would have like to be there when this one started up and pulled out, for an intense nostalgia trip.
Jim’s excellent in-depth post on the history of Crown buses is here.
I’ve ridden on quite a few of these for Junior High and High School field trips in the LAUSD but (thankfully) never had a regular school bus commute. At the time they were unremarkable to me but like Paul, now they are nostalgia trips for me. They certainly were (are?) ubiquitous around there!
I did commute to Junior High in one of these, owned by the South Bay Union High School District in Redondo Beach. Bus drivers were also district mechanics. I do remember the deep rumble below the floor from the diesel.
I would see these Crowns a lot when I happened to travel out to the west coast. I don’t think they strayed too far from their home state, or east of rockies for that matter. Beautiful styling on these old haulers.
The Vintage Everyday site has some pics of some cool old school buses right now: https://www.vintag.es/2018/11/school-buses-1950s-and-1960s.html. Here’s a 54 or 55 Chevy from deep in the heart of TX.
Oh, hey, what a trove! Wow. The 5th photo down stokes up my wish that someone would put together a history of the evolution of the Blue Bird All American. These in the picture are the body variant used through the ’74 model year; for ’75 the rearmost side window and surrounding roofline were changed. There was another such change made around ’80 or ’81. And that’s just the rough details I know about; I’d surely like to know more, but there doesn’t seem to be a book or a site or anything, and the Blue Bird company have no apparent interest in their history.
The visible front end in that pic is a ’69-’71 Dodge—interesting that the bus has quad (2 red + 2 amber) warning lights; that was not yet common at that time, and there are still North American jurisdictions where they’re not used. And since I’m on that topic, the lead photo at that page, the one you’ve posted here, has a setup I haven’t previously encountered: one amber and one red.
I’ve never seen any of these in Ontario. Most school boards used Thomas or Blue Bird buses, with the odd Wayne as well. Our board used mostly gas Internationals and some Fords. In my last few years of high school in the early ‘80’s, they were starting to switch over to diesel buses, and at this point every school bus I see is diesel powered.
That looks to be a mid 70’s or later model by the tailight styling. I work on school buses for a living and have been dealing with the Crown Coach for more than 30 years. You will not find a better bus body out there period. The frame is doubled up for its entire length and tripled at the high stress points. The floor is welded to the frame and the body built on that. All of the others assemble a body and use cheesy little clips to attach it to the frame. Blue Bird and the current IH stuff out there now is flimsy poorly assembled crap. We had to take a 1976 Crown 2 axle 6-71 detroit NA off the road when CA outlawed all pre ’77 buses. It had 400,000 miles on it and was still in daily service. The body was still solid enough that it did not leak in the rain. Current IH and Bird bodies start leaking within 3 years. The Cummins was used in many, but LAUSD had mainly Detroit diesels with a 5 speed Fuller behind. We had several DD Crowns in the fleet, the NA powered ones had better driveability than the turbo version. The turbos would have done better with an automatic behind. 2 left but not for long due to CA emission laws. 1 is a 3 axle 90 passenger with a 300/350 Cummins and a huge Allison HT 745 behind, the other is an oddball 2 axle rear engine with a little Allison MT series behind. We inherited the 3 axle twin screw 18 years ago when our district unified. It has not come back once on the hook in those 18 years. Crowns just drive better because they normally put the motor on its side under the floor in the middle. Better balance and lower center of gravity. They also used bigger brakes and larger brake chambers than anyone else in the industry. The electrics are better also. A wiring issue is unheard of with these. Truly a million mile vehicle with the proper care and maintainence.
Thanks for this mechanics insight. I like hearing from the guys who work on stuff as they know where all the bodies are buried and can name names.
Our district has been forced to pull the Crowns as well because of recent Calif smog laws. Only a few of the newer ones left. Nothing sounds as good as a Crown roaring down the road. It’s one of those memorable and classic sounds that you don’t forget, like hearing a P-51 flyby or a 300 Ford inline.
As a kid my school bought it’s first Crown in ’76 and we were excited. Everything else was ancient Dodge or Chevy buses, stuff from the 50s and early 60s, and the Crown felt like the future.
My indie school I’m at now has newer Blue Birds with diesels. They have good AC, I’ll say that for them. Otherwise they are constantly breaking down and need continual repairs.
Plus they are ugly. Crowns still look good.
Good looking bus. Being in the Midwest, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Crown in person.
The paint scheme looks a lot like my old Dart, wonder if the bus was done with Rustoleum as well?
I’d like to see a history of the Ward body. Our school district had Superior, Blue Bird, Thomas, Wayne, Carpenter and Ward bodies. Chevies Fords GMCs and Internationals. We had a large school district. As early as first grade, I developed an interest in our school buses. During the mid to late 60’s into the early 80’s, we had a lot of Ward bodied buses. The earliest bus I rode to school was a ‘65-‘66 Chevy/Ward bus. … #24. They had a bunch of them with the big 6 and 4speed. I rode #24 all through elementary school to 8th grade. When I was a senior in ‘81, they still had a couple of those old 60’s Chevys that they used for back up.
Ward ended up being purchased by IH as they wanted to be more than just a chassis supplier in the bus industry. The conventional style was ok but the transits, well not so much.
That’s a beauty and glad someone is giving it a second or maybe third life. You’re right, fire it up and the whole neighborhood would know.
And thank you for the very kind comments Paul – have another Bus Stop Classics coming up 24 Nov – and many more to go… Jim.
No, Mr Brophy, PN’s comment isn’t just kind, it’s accurate. It really has been a great series, and glad to hear there’ll be more.
Beautiful bus and photos. Love reading about the history of school buses.
Perhaps the most unique school bus I ever had was the Superior bodied (Sheller Globe) Chevrolet bus I rode for several years in grade school during the late 70s. It had a raised roof for additional headroom (but no added luggage storage up there). It also had regular fully vinyl covered seating, only the seat backs were at least a foot higher than regular bus seats.
This pic shows the Superior body with this raised roof. My bus had a black hood and additional black body side strips, as was common on Superior buses at the time.
The Chevy buses were odd in that the flat-cowl chassis kept the ’67-72 front through the mid ’80s before they finally updated it to the already-old (but still current) ’73-89 style. Dash and gauge cluster still looked like something from the ’60s, though.
For those wondering why California would have banned school buses made before [probably 1 April of] 1977 as mentioned above by Erik, or guessing it must’ve been something to do with exhaust emissions, read this.
The pre 77 buses were banned because of the Kentucky crash. FMVSS 77 brought us much improved fuel tank protection, improved seating, split or dual system for the air brakes along with mandated shorter stopping distances with rudimentary anti lock systems, stronger bodies especially in the roof for rollover. The Crown Coach Co. did not have to modify much to meet the new standards as they were so well designed from the start. The other manufacturers had to do a major redesign to comply.
cue all of the old guys whining “we rode buses without all that crap and we were fine!”
yeah, except for all the kids who died back then.
Amen. »clink«