Thomas Built Buses

Thomas Built Buses

Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Bus manufacturing
Predecessor(s)	Perley A. Thomas Car Works (1916)
Founded	1972 (as Thomas Built Buses, Inc.)
Headquarters	1408 Courtesy Road High Point, North Carolina, 27260 United States
Area served	North America
Key people	Kelley Platt President and CEO
Products	School buses Commercial buses Specialty Vehicles
Production output	15,000 vehicles/ year
Employees	1,600+
Parent	Daimler Trucks North America, LLC Portland, Oregon
Divisions	Thomas Dennis Company LLC (defunct)
Website	Welcome Thomas Built Buses

Thomas Built Buses, Inc. is a bus manufacturer based in High Point, North Carolina, United States and a subsidiary of the German Daimler AG. Thomas produces school buses, activity buses/MFSAB (Multi-Function School Activity Buses), and commercial buses; both small and full-size buses are produced.

Thomas traces its roots to 1916, when it was incorporated as the Perley A. Thomas Car Works in High Point, North Carolina. The company specialized in the manufacture of electric streetcars; as buses superseded them in the middle of the 20th century, Thomas switched to bus production (primarily school buses). By the 1970s, Thomas Car Works had become one of the dominant school bus manufacturers in North America. In 1972, the company reorganized, adopting its current name, Thomas Built Buses.

History

Perley A. Thomas: streetcar and bus pioneer

Perley A. Thomas (1874–1958) was a native of Canada and a millwright (specifically in woodworking), by trade. He worked for a subsidiary of the famous streetcar manufacturer J. G. Brill and Company, in Cleveland, Ohio, early in the 20th century, and attended night school courses in structural engineering at Case Institute of Technology then moved south to work for another streetcar builder at its High Point, N.C., location in 1910. Thomas became chief engineer, draftsman and designer for the company, using both his mechanical skills and his experience as a skilled woodworker. When the streetcar industry began to turn from wooden to steel construction, Thomas was able to make the switch, but his employer, Southern Car Company went out of business in 1916.

Perley A. Thomas Car Works

Further information: Perley A. Thomas Car Works, Inc.

Perley A. Thomas streetcar

Thomas founded Perley A. Thomas Car Works, Inc. in 1916 as his own streetcar building company, using the former facilities and many employees of the Southern Car Company. During the next 20 years, Perley A. Thomas streetcars were built and delivered to communities all across the United States, including New Orleans, where they operated on the Desire line made famous by Tennessee Williams' 1947 Broadway play and later film of the same name, A Streetcar Named Desire. New Orleans is one of the only cities where Perley A. Thomas streetcars can still be found in active service as public transportation vehicles (as opposed to museum pieces and novelty rides).

A transition to buses: the 1930s

The national trend in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s was toward use of personal automobiles rather than riding public transportation. As streetcar ridership decreased, less costly buses were often used in substitution by the companies operating the service. Orders for new streetcars and renovations began falling off.

Just as he had made the transition from wooden to steel streetcar building, Thomas and his workers at High Point also made the transition to building buses successfully. In 1934, Duke Power of South Carolina had Thomas build 10 transit buses. In 1936, Thomas ceased production of streetcars and launched a new product: the school bus. The same year, the company built 200 wooden-bodied school buses for the state of North Carolina, beginning a long tradition with that state which continues to the present day.

In the early days of the school bus, Perley Thomas and his company's reputation for design innovation and quality manufacturing helped transform the industry. In the United States, many school buses in the 1930s were nothing more than flatbed truck chassis with wooden sides and a canvas roof, and had few or no safety devices.

In 1938, the company introduced the first welded all-steel bus body. In 1939, Dr. Frank W. Cyr of New York, who became known as "The Father of the Yellow School Bus", hosted a 7 day long national conference of industry and school leaders which established 44 important safety standards and the yellow color for school buses all across the United States.

1961 Thomas school bus on an International Harvester chassis.

The company became a major school bus body builder in the post-World War II period. By 1980, it was one of the big six school bus body companies in the United States, competing with Blue Bird Body Company, Carpenter Body Works, Superior Coach Company, Ward Body Works, and Wayne Corporation.

1972-1998: Thomas as an independent company

Thomas Built Buses, Inc. was incorporated in 1972 as the successor to Perley A. Thomas Car Works. In 1988, Thomas introduced its first company-designed bus chassis for its popular Saf-T-Liner transit-style bus; the Saf-T-Liner was sold for both for school and commercial use. In the past, Thomas was previously dependent upon truck chassis made by other companies for its transit-style school bus bodies (particularly Ford, Dodge, GMC, International Harvester and even Volvo), much like the majority of other school bus manufacturers. Thomas was the first school bus manufacturer to design its own chassis for both its front and rear-engine models, beating competitor Blue Bird by a decade (California manufacturers Crown Coach and Gillig Corporation did not manufacture a front-engine model that competed with Thomas).

The late 1970s and early 1980s was a period of struggle for school bus manufacturers. Coupled with the slow economy, manufacturers could no longer count on the factor that had driven school bus sales for the past two decades: the entirety of the baby-boom generation had finished school; it would be years before student populations would create sufficient demand again. During this time, a number of manufacturers either encountered financial difficulty or closed their doors altogether. Thomas diversified its product lineup, entering the small school bus market, creating unique products, and redesigning its transit-style buses to compete with newly-introduced competitors.

In 1980, the company began to manufacture a smaller school bus on a cutaway van chassis, the Thomas Minotour, which is still in production (as of 2010). Also in the 1980s, the company entered the commercial public transit bus market. In 1989, Thomas introduced the Thomas Vista school bus, a modified conventional design providing improved front-end visibility for drivers. Early in the 1990s, Thomas introduced the MVP (which stood for Maneuverability, Visibility, and Protection);^{[citation needed]} a transit-style school bus, available in front and rear-engine models, the MVP was a lower-cost version of the standard Saf-T-Liner intended to boost sales. The front-engine MVP was still sold in 2010 as the Saf-T-Liner EF.

By the end of the 20th century, Thomas (along with Blue Bird and Ward successor AmTran) was one of only three principal builders of large school buses in the United States. It is still based in High Point, and in 1998, was acquired by the Freightliner Group of Daimler AG. Currently, Thomas employs over 1,600 people worldwide.

1998–present: division of Freightliner

2005 Freightliner FS-65

In the 1990s, the school bus industry was changed by a number of acquisitions and mergers. Several of the acquiring firms were either truck manufacturers or custom chassis builders. In the case of Thomas, they were acquired in 1998 by the Freightliner division of Daimler AG (then DaimlerChrysler).

The purchase of Thomas came soon after Freightliner's entry into school bus chassis production. In 1997, Freightliner had launched the FS-65 conventional school bus chassis based on its FL-Series medium duty truck; Freightliner was the first new chassis producer since Chrysler stopped production of Dodge school bus chassis in 1977. The purchase of Thomas allowed Freightliner to offer the FS-65 through a single body manufacturer, and the gamble worked. Throughout its production run, the FS-65 was used throughout many districts around the US. The last FS-65 was produced and delivered on December 13, 2006, to O'Brien Bus Service, Inc. of Maryland.

From 2001 to 2011, the Thomas full-size bus lineup underwent a series of revisions. In 2001, the Saf-T-Liner HD (later the HDX) was introduced to replace both the Saf-T-Liner and MVP ER models. While distinguished by its large mirrors (integrating side-view, convex, and cross-view into a single unit), the HD also showed the increased use of Freightliner components on Thomas buses (headlights and instrument panel). In 2003, all Thomas Conventionals became based on the FS-65 chassis. A much larger change came in 2004 with the introduction of the Saf-T-Liner C2. Intended as the replacement for the FS-65 Conventional, the C2 was based on the Freightliner M2 Business Class. Wearing an all-new body, the C2 differs from previous buses in its body construction; it also uses the M2 dashboard in its entirety. In 2009, Thomas launched a new Type A design called the MyBus; while not a replacement for the Minotour, the MyBus is geared specifically towards the activity bus market. It is available in three sizes on a GM chassis. In 2011, the Saf-T-Liner EFX was introduced to replace the Saf-T-Liner EF; featuring the windshield from the HDX, the EFX is the first new front-engine Thomas bus since 1991.

In 2004, Perley A. Thomas, founder of the Thomas streetcar and bus building companies, who died in 1958, was among the first inductees into the Raleigh-based North Carolina Transportation Hall of Fame.

Products

In addition to school buses, Thomas also offers activity buses and child-care buses derived from the Minotour, Mybus, C2, EFX, and HDX lines. For custom-built applications (such as bloodmobiles and mobile command centers), Thomas collaborates with Matthews Specialty Vehicles, Inc.

Current production models

Current Models

Thomas Minotour

Thomas Saf-T-Liner C2

Thomas Saf-T-Liner EFX

Thomas Saf-T-Liner HDX

Type A Buses (Cutaway vans)

Thomas Minotour (introduced 1980)

• Ford or General Motors chassis
• single or dual rear wheels
• school bus or MFSAB

Thomas MyBus (introduced 2009)

• General Motors chassis
• single or dual rear wheels
• School Bus or MFSAB

Type C Buses (Conventionals)

Thomas Saf-T-Liner C2 (introduced 2004)

• Freightliner C2 chassis
• School bus/activity/MFSAB bus

Type D Buses (Transit-style)

Main article: Thomas Saf-T-Liner

Thomas Saf-T-Liner EFX (new version introduced 2011 as Saf-T-Liner EFX) Replacing Thomas Saf-T-Liner EF

• Thomas Built Buses chassis
• School bus/activity/MFSAB bus
  • Also available as custom-built vehicle.

Thomas Saf-T-Liner HDX (introduced in 2001 as Saf-T-Liner HD)

• Thomas Built Buses chassis
• School bus/activity/MFSAB bus
  • Also available as custom-built vehicle.

Former models

Discontinued Models

Thomas Mighty Mite

Thomas Vista

Thomas Conventional

Thomas Saf-T-Liner MVP ER

Type B (integrated)

Mighty Mite (mid-1980s-early 1990s)

• General Motors P30 chassis
• Also the name of the lowest-capacity versions of Thomas Conventionals before the 1970s.
• Also used for base for para-transit buses in Toronto

Type C (conventionals)

Thomas Conventional & Thomas/Freightliner FS-65 (1962–2007)

• Introduced in 1962 by Perley A. Thomas Car Works school bus division.

• Versions with Freightliner chassis called Thomas/Freightliner FS-65.

• Available on chassis provided from several different manufacturers.
  • Chevrolet/GMC B-Series (1966–1991)
  • Dodge D-300 (to 1977)
  • Ford B600/B700/B7000/B800 (1966–1998)
  • Freightliner Freightliner FS-65 (1997–2007)
  • International Harvester International Harvester Loadstar (1962–1978)
  • International Harvester S-Series "Schoolmaster" (1979–1989)
  • Navistar International 3700/3800 (1989–2002)

Thomas Vista (1989–1998)

• Built on General Motors chassis (1989–1990) and International 3600 chassis (1991–1998).
• Semi-forward control conventional combined design elements of conventional and transit-style buses.

Type D (transit-style)

Thomas All Star EF (1991–1994)

• Built on Oshkosh chassis.
• Competed with Blue Bird TC/2000; replaced with MVP series.

Thomas Saf-T-Liner EF/ER (to 2003)

• Produced on Thomas Built Buses chassis from 1978–2003
  • Prior to 1978, chassis production was outsourced.

• Heavy-duty WestCoastER designed with tandem rear axles (6x2 configuration) and heavy-duty components for West Coast sales.
• ER version replaced by HDX.
• EF replaced by MVP EF, which takes the Saf-T-Liner EF name.
• Saf-t-Liner EF Replaced By Saf-t-Liner EFX

Thomas Saf-T-Liner MVP ER (1994–2003)

• Built on Thomas Built Buses chassis
• Replaced by Saf-T-Liner HDX.

Commercial Buses

Thomas sold commercial derivatives of the Minotour, Conventional, Vista, along with the following:

Thomas/Dennis SLF200

• Transit Liner MVP EF/ER- commercial derivative of Saf-T-Liner MVP school bus

• TL960 - rear-engine transit bus derived from Saf-T-Liner ER
• Chartour- rear-engine transit bus
• CL960 - rear-engine transit bus
• SLF200 (Super Low Floor) series - transit bus jointly developed with Dennis Specialist Vehicles, based on Dennis Dart SLF

Thomas Built Buses, Inc. Timeline

Bus Type

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

'72

'73

'74

'75

'76

'77

'78

'79

'80

'81

'82

'83

'84

'85

'86

'87

'88

'89

'90

'91

'92

'93

'94

'95

'96

'97

'98

'99

'00

'01

'02

'03

'04

'05

'06

'07

'08

'09

'10

'11

'12

Type A

Minotour

MyBus

Type B

Mighty Mite

Type C

Conventional

Thomas/Freightliner FS-65

Saf-T-Liner C2

Vista

Vista

Type D

Saf-T-Liner EF/ER

Saf-T-Liner ER

Saf-T-Liner MVP EF/Saf-T-Liner EF

Saf-T-Liner EFX

Saf-T-Liner MVP ER

Saf-T-Liner HD

Saf-T-Liner HDX

All Star EF

Images

Thomas Saf-T-Liner C2  Thomas Saf-T-Liner (transit bus)  Canadian-market Thomas Conventional (Ford chassis)  Thomas Conventional (Navistar chassis)

See also

• Thomas Dennis Company LLC, a joint venture between Dennis and Thomas Built Buses (1999–2003)

External links

• Thomas Built Buses company website
• Matthews Specialty Vehicles, Inc. - converter of Thomas buses to specialty vehicles