As famous as Kenworth is for making large Class 8 over-the-road trucks, it’s easy to overlook the firm’s fairly extensive bus manufacturing history. Buses were part of its portfolio from its beginning as the Gerlinger Motors Co. in 1912, and at one point were its most profitable product line. Let’s look at the last bus to emerge from K/W’s factories – the Model T 126/216 school bus; the bus with the bifocal face.
One could easily make the claim that during the post WW II-era, the three best school buses in the world were all manufactured on the West Coast of the USA; Crown in LA, Gillig in Hayward, and Kenworth in Seattle/Renton. We’ve already highlighted two of this scholastic triumvirate, now let’s give the last one its due.
The Model T was built from 1949 to 1957. Similar to Gillig and Crown, and quite distinct from less robust school buses built in other areas of the US, the Model T used a strong steel-girder, interlaced monocoque body that was welded to large, thick frame rails – no separate body and chassis to bolt together – and loosen over time.
Lengths were 35 and 40 feet. The engine was the sturdy International-Harvester “Red Diamond” – a 450 cu. in. version for the 35 footer and a 503 cu. in. one for the longer model, both mounted longitudinally in the back. This gas inline six had a well-established reputation for reliability. Shifting was through a Spicer 5-speed manual. While smaller and less powerful than the Hall-Scott 590 and 779 cu. in. engines used in Crown school buses, they were no doubt more fuel efficient. As these buses lasted decades, many were re-powered with GM or Cummins diesels and Allison automatics. Some were still in use into the mid-1980s.
Quoting from a Kenworth brochure at the time, the small lower front windows were called “Safety Vision Windshields” and were designed to give the driver an expanded lower view – the brochure boasted that the road was fully visible to the driver 30 inches in front of the bumper. It certainly made it easier to spot all those high school kids congregating and hanging around your bus.
As was mentioned in Paul’s Gillig post, Kenworth sold off its bus tooling to Gillig in 1957 – which was surprising in that the buses were continuing to sell well. Those around at the time have said that the company decided that manufacturing school buses just carried too much liability risk, and as the truck side of the house was booming, they elected to divest it. Many of the Kenworth’s features were incorporated and used by Gillig in their school bus line, which remained in production until 1982 (though a later version of the Phantom was also offered as a school coach).
Though I never took a school bus while growing up in central Ohio, if I did, it likely would have been a typical conventional, front-engined Wayne, Carpenter or Blue Bird – which rode hard, creaked and rattled, and were drafty. In contrast, the school kids on the west coast were given “royal” treatment. I imagine it’s kind’a like being chauffeured to school in a Cadillac versus a Chevette.
Fun Fact: The Kenworth Model T was the first school bus manufactured with a roof emergency escape hatch. This design is now a federal safety requirement for all modern school buses.
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1951 Kenworth “Bruck” – Custom Shuttle Bus by GW
Kenworth Pacific School Coach by EV
Mount Hood’s Fabulous Flying Buses by PN
I never had to ride a school bus daily but did take them on field trips and the like in middle and high school. While my SoCal schooling meant Crowns and sometimes a Gillig, let me divest you right here of the notion that they were in any way comparable to riding in a Cadillac – Even when compared to the Chevette that is the “cheap” school buses. 🙂 They were transportation, nothing more, and apparently very durable but otherwise not something to look forward to – cramped, loud, and hot in the summer.
Good post, I don’t know that I knew about Kenworth school buses, it’s really interesting how many manufacturers there were, I wonder what the total market size was and if it was larger or smaller than regular transit buses.
How rattly were they? That’s the thing I hated most about school buses back east – every metal part rattled against every other metal part. The kids practically had to yell to be heard over it when talking to one another.
I know I’ve done plenty of stupid things to my hearing – loud cars, loud concerts, loud EDM events – but I already had some trouble picking out conversation from background noise by the time I went to college, and I wonder how much of it was partially due to the cacophonic school bus environment I rode twice a day for more than half an hour each way, from age 6 to 16.
Would be fun to say you ride to school on a Kenworth!
This bus appears to have an outside luggage compartment below the floor, a normal feature on longer-distance coaches but not something I’ve seen on a school bus. Or is that just for access to mechanical bits? (I’m assuming the engine is in the rear). I did ride a school bus with overhead cargo bins one year, complete with A/C ducts; even that was a rarity.
I don’t have any clear memories of these but I’m sure I must have seen them in CA back in the ’70s.
Not this, but I still saw a Crown run by the Garden Grove, CA school district as late as 2019.
If I had the space, I’d consider building a skoolie from a Crown.
This is the “iconic” school bus shape/design from my youth in the 1960s, even though by then the truck-based buses with engines in the front were equally common. It was this style of bus that we were modeling when we created bus models out of milk cartons with the wheels being round circles of cardboard attached with those brass paper-fasteners. (flat top milk cartons were a thing back then too) And then painted the whole thing yellow using that smelly tempera paint that is a staple of elementary school art classes. Big fun.
Those bifocal windows were there for a reason. Keeping an eye on high school kids wasn’t anywhere near as important as the driver being able to see passengers under 3′ tall as they ran in front of the bus to get on. Those flat front buses were considerably safer in that regard than their long-hood equivalents which sadly are responsible for some pretty terrible accidents involving kids getting run over and killed by their own school buses (we’ve had several of those in the Boston in the past couple of years).
They’re STILL having those runover accidents? I’d figure the arm on the front would have helped with that. Still, I’d think we are at the point where front facing cameras and sensors are commodified enough that these buses ought to be required to have some form of autostop like a lot of new cars do.
Speaking of school bus, I saw these old video of school buses in a scrap yard filmed a decade ago at Sainte-Julie, not far from Longueuil and Montreal on the South Shore.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhw9RcfVHoM
Did not know Kenworth was in the bus business. Did they make transit buses or highway coaches as well?
Growing up in the 90s all the buses were Blue Birds with flat noses. Noisy ass diesel engine up by the driver, automatic. We had a few OLD gas powered flat front blue birds as backup buses. They reeked of gas fumes, the diesel buses didnt really stink. The fun part was our bus driver struggled with the manual on the backup buses, grinding gears, missing a gear, coming to a stop to start over, lots of fun
They made both intercity and urban transit buses Aaron – mostly in the pre-war period. Here are a few of their intercity models.
Interesting, growing up in PA in the 80s and 90s, I don’t recall any buses still having a manual transmission. I’m guessing our quite steep streets in many of the small towns had them going automatic earlier than some other places. They were all trash Blue Bird rattletraps, mostly with a conventional (not flat) nose until the mid-90s. The ones I can truly remember well – from about 1990 on – were all diesel, but maybe we had some gas ones when I was smaller. Then again, I loved the smell of pre-ethanol gasoline and I feel like if I’d smelled that, I’d remember it.
My first bus riding started in the late 50’s on a Crown school bus. I remember it had a gas engine (maybe a Hall-Scott) and manual transmission. Mr. Young was our driver and at maybe 8 years old, I thought he had the coolest job ever. He was my bud.
We had other buses in our small district including, an old Kenworth, and 2 brand new GMC conventionals with Toro Flow diesels. Whoa.
Mr. Young had a lifetime effect on me. When I thought retirement in my 50’s would be good, I changed my mind and drove buses for my kid’s schools. They were Internationals, Blue Birds, and Thomas’s. Fun years.