Thomas Built Buses

1920s: Streetcars

Perley A. Thomas 900-Series streetcar in New Orleans (built 1923-1924)

In 1921, the company received its largest order ever, as NOPSI (New Orleans Public Service, Inc.) placed an order for 150 streetcars, to be delivered from 1921 to 1924. As Thomas was unable to fill the order on its own, the company shared a portion of the order with J. G. Brill, based in Philadelphia.^[2] In September 1922, after 25 streetcars were delivered, the High Point factory was destroyed by fire.

To keep Thomas Car Works afloat, Perley Thomas secured $100,000 from NOPSI, allowing him to secure parts to build 55 more streetcars, allowing the factory to be rebuilt. By 1928, a third batch of 25 streetcars was delivered, bringing the total produced by the company to 105.^[2] While best known from their use in New Orleans, Perley Thomas streetcars would also be utilized by communities across the United States, including Charlotte, NC; Chicago, IL; Detroit, MI; Miami, FL; Mobile, AL; New York City; Philadelphia, PA; Washington, DC, and exported as well, with Havana, Cuba as a user.^[2]

In the United States following World War II, the role of streetcars was largely superseded by transit buses. In New Orleans, over 90 years after the construction of the first Perley Thomas 900-series street cars, 35 remain in service (as of 2016) in active daily use in public transportation (on the St. Charles line, the oldest streetcar line in the world).

1930s: Transition to bus construction

In 1930, Thomas Car Works would receive its final order for streetcars, producing 4 for Mobile, Alabama.^[2] Although rail-based streetcars offered higher passenger capacity, automotive-based transit buses became more popular as they offered a greater degree of flexibility in route design. In the early 1930s, the company struggled, with most of its business consisting of automotive refinishing and construction of bus and truck bodies.^[2] The recession of the time had hit Thomas Car Works hard, with the company decreased in size from 125 employees to nearly 10 (including Perley Thomas and his three children).^[2] Eventually, a company creditor would file for receivership, with its survival largely based on the lack of potential buyers.^[2]

As the decade progressed, to better secure its future, Thomas Car Works transitioned mass-transit production away from streetcars. In 1933, the company produced its first trolley bus.^[2] While still electric-powered from overhead wires, a trolley bus was bodied the same as a standard automotive-design bus. Moving further away from streetcars, Thomas Car Works produced 10 transit buses for Duke Power of South Carolina.^[2]

In 1936, Thomas produced its first school bus. As part of an order for North Carolina, the company produced 200 wood-bodied school buses for $195-$225 (depending on size^[2]), beginning a long tradition with that state that continues to the present day.^[1] In 1938, Thomas made a major change to its design as it introduced its first bus body made completely of steel.^[2] Although not the first manfucturer to construct an all-steel body, an innovation of the company would later become adopted by all school bus manufacturers. Thomas used roof bows stamped from a single piece of metal (rather than several pieces welded to one another); essentially, the design of the bus allowed the roof to be supported by several internal roll bars welded to each side of the floor.^[2] In practice, while the design has been updated for added strength, single-piece roof bows are in use in all school buses manufactured in North America today.

In April 1939, the design of the school bus changed forever as an industry conference led to the adoption of 44 industry-wide safety standards; most of the standards concerned aisle width and seating, but the most notable result of the conference would be the development of school bus yellow as a universal color for school buses in the United States.

1940s: Wartime production

In 1940, day-to-day operation of Thomas Car Works was turned over from Perley Thomas (who remained company president) to his three children. John W. Thomas managed company operations along with sales, along with James Thomas handling the High Point factory.^[2] Following the outbreak of World War II, as with its competitors, Thomas bus production was shifted towards the armed forces. In a contract shared with Ward Body Works, Thomas also produced various bodies for the GMC CCKW truck.^[2]

While the war had brought school bus production to a halt, the High Point factory remained utilized in civilian capacity. To supplement its armed forces production, Thomas Car Works was put to use by refurbishing streetcars. As rationing had led to increased demands on public transportation, the upkeep of existing equipment was considered a priority.^[2]

Following World War II, with a rise in student populations, Thomas Car Works began to expand its sales market beyond the South, opening dealerships across the eastern half of the United States.^[2] To better weatherproof its entry door, the company developed a reinforced rubber-covered door hinge; the rubber also covered the gap between the two door panels as they closed.^[2]

After World War II, a third generation of the family joined the company, with John W. Thomas, Jr. and Perley (Pat) Thomas II, with the former becoming director of sales and the latter taking over control of government contracts.^[2]

1950s: First Saf-T-Liner

During the mid-1950s, Thomas Car Works introduced the Thomas Saf-T-Liner name as it developed a new windshield design for its bus bodies.^[2] During the decade, Thomas would become an internationally based company, establishing manufacturing facilities in Ecuador and Peru; Thomas would ship bodies from North Carolina in CKD form to be constructed on locally sourced chassis.^[2]

In 1958, company founder Perley Thomas died at the age of 84, with sons John W. Thomas and James Thomas continuing the operations of the company.

1960s: A move towards safety

1961 Thomas school bus on an International Harvester chassis.

In 1962, Thomas Car Works officially expanded its production beyond High Point as it established a factory in Woodstock, Ontario.^[2] At the time, the company became the third-largest producer of school buses in the United States.^[2]

In what would be a demonstration repeated several times, to demonstrate the strength of its roof bows, in 1964, Thomas stacked a full-size school bus on the roof of another using a crane.^[2]

For 1967, to reduce blind spots in front of the bus, Thomas developed a convex blind-spot mirror that became mandated in North Carolina.^[2] Allowing a 150-degree field of vision directly in front of the bus, the feature became adopted by 16 other states in only two years.^[2] In various forms, blind-spot mirrors are currently required on all school buses in North America.

1970s: Thomas Built Buses

In the early 1970s, Thomas underwent a number of major transitions in company leadership and market positioning. In 1972, company president John W. Thomas died, giving leadership to his brother James Thomas, who retired within a year. As the company had moved away from construction of streetcars following World War II, in 1972, company leaders chose a new name for the company tied closer to its current product lines: Perley A. Thomas Car Works became Thomas Built Buses, Inc (a name used in its emblems since the 1950s).^[1][2] A third generation of the Thomas family assumed control of the company leadership, with John Thomas, Jr. (President) and Perley Thomas II (VP, international operations).^[2]

In the 1970s, Thomas Built Buses began to expand its product lineup beyond the Saf-T-Liner cowled-chassis bus. As an alternative to the Blue Bird All American, Thomas developed the Thomas Saf-T-Liner ER (Engine Rear). As with a number of other manufacturers (Carpenter, Superior, Ward, Wayne), Thomas was dependent on a chassis supplied by another manufacturer for its transit-style school bus (using Ford, Dodge, GMC, International Harvester and Volvo). In 1978, as part of an update to the Saf-T-Liner ER, Thomas made a major change to its design: the introduction of a company-sourced chassis for the ER as well as a front-engine EF (Engine Front) counterpart. Thomas would become the first school bus manufacturer to source chassis for both front and rear-engine models, ahead of Blue Bird by a decade (California manufacturers Crown Coach and Gillig Corporation did not manufacture a front-engine model that competed with Thomas).

1980s: Product diversification

Late 1980s Thomas/Ford in Quebec

The late 1970s and early 1980s was a period of struggle for all 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 the late 1970s, Thomas created its first small bus with the development of the Mighty Mite, a bus paired with the Chevrolet/GMC P30 stripped chassis. Designed as a competitor for the Carpenter Cadet and Blue Bird Mini Bird, the Mighty Mite name was first used as a narrow-body variant of the Saf-T-Liner conventional. In 1980, the Thomas Minotour was introduced. A cutaway-chassis bus, the Minotour was produced on both Ford and General Motors chassis.^[2]

The 1980s saw an expansion of the Saf-T-Liner model line, as Thomas introduced the WestCoastER, a heavy-duty variant marketed against Crown and Gillig school buses; in addition to heavier-duty driveline and suspension components, the WestCoastER was also available with tandem rear axles on certain versions. In the late 1980s, the Saf-T-Liner product line adopted the MVP suffix (which stood for Maneuverability, Visibility, and Protection).

In 1989, the Thomas Vista was introduced, adding a second conventional to the Thomas model line. In contrast to the standard Saf-T-Liner conventional, the design of the Vista featured a number of modifications to optimize forward sightlines for drivers. As with a front-engine transit-style bus, the engine was placed next to the driver instead of in front of the driver, shortening the hood length and repositioning the driver seat forward.

Alongside its product changes, during the late 1980s, the corporate structure of the company saw change as well. In order to better compete with other manufacturers, Thomas Built Buses sought to reorganize its management in order to raise capital without having to form partnerships with its own competitors. To do so, the board of directors brought in an investment group (the Odyssey Group) to buy out several shareholders as well as provide the needed capital.^[2]

1990s: Acquisition

Mid-1990s Thomas/International 3800 in Maine

Thomas TL960

In 1991, the Saf-T-Liner transit-style buses saw their first redesign since 1978. The ER and WestCoastER were given a much larger windshield, redesigned drivers' compartment, and saw the introduction of several new diesel engines. To better compete with the Blue Bird TC/2000 and Ward Senator (which became the AmTran Genesis), Thomas replaced the Saf-T-Liner EF with the All Star, using an Oshkosh-produced chassis. The Thomas Vista continued production, shifting chassis in 1991 from General Motors to a variant of Navistar chassis shared with the Saf-T-Liner Conventional.

In 1992, the fourth generation of the Thomas family took over daily operations of the company (becoming the first family-owned school bus company to do so).^[2]

During the mid-1990s, the company began development of environmentally cleaner buses, with compressed natural gas (CNG) school buses entering production in 1993; several battery-electric school buses were produced in 1994 as prototype vehicles.^[2]

By 1996, Thomas had become the largest school bus manufacturer in the United States (by market share).^[2] To keep up with added demand, the company opened a third factory in Monterrey, Mexico. To modernize its transit bus product range, the Chartour and CL960/Citiliner were joined by the TL960. A transit bus derived from the Saf-T-Liner/Transit Liner ER, the TL960 was a two-door bus that offered an integrated wheelchair ramp as an option.^[2]

During the later 1990s, Thomas Built Buses would undergo a number of significant changes, with some that have changed the future of school bus manufacturing. For the 1997 model year, Freightliner introduced the Freightliner FS-65 school bus chassis.^[3][4] Derived from the Freightliner FL60/FL70 medium-duty trucks introduced in 1995, the FS-65 chassis was paired with the Saf-T-Liner Conventional body, after several modifications (distinguished by the addition of a 4-piece windshield).

During the 1990s, Freightliner was expanding production into segments outside of highway trucks, with medium-duty trucks and school bus chassis among them. The FS-65 was the first completely new school bus chassis since 1980, with Freightliner as the first new chassis manufacturer since 1977. Other diversifications included the acquisition of American LaFrance, the chassis products of Oshkosh Corporation, and the rights to the heavy-truck range of Ford Motor Company (continued as Sterling Trucks). In October 1998, less than 18 months after the unveiling of the FS-65 chassis prototype, Freightliner acquired the entirety of Thomas Built Buses from the Thomas family and the Odyssey Group.^[2] Along with AmTran (in 1991) and Carpenter (also in 1998), Thomas was a school bus manufacturer acquired by a major supplier, with Thomas as the last major school bus manufacturer operating under family control.

Following the acquisition, several changes were made to the Thomas model line. At the end of the 1998 model year, Navistar ended its production of chassis of the Vista, ending its model run. Though Freightliner did not purchase the Ford medium-duty truck range or the school bus chassis derived from it, Ford ended full-size school bus chassis production after 1998, limiting production to Navistar or Freightliner (the last General Motors chassis for a Thomas bus was produced in 1991).

For 1999, Thomas entered the low-floor transit bus market, debuting the Thomas Dennis SLF200. In a joint venture with British bus manufacturer Dennis, the Dennis Dart SLF was imported (in CKD form) and final assembly was completed by Thomas in North Carolina; final distribution was undertaken by Canadian bus manufacturer Orion Bus (another Daimler subsidiary).^[2]

2000s: New-generation buses

Thomas Saf-T-Liner C2 school bus in Mississippi

In the school bus manufacturing segment, the beginning of the 2000s marked a period of uncertainty. While the purchase by Freightliner brought financial stability to Thomas (not afforded to Blue Bird Corporation), in 2001, Carpenter would close its doors forever and AmTran would rebrand itself (twice, in less than two years). From 1991 to the end of 2001, the number of manufacturers assembling full-size school buses in the United States had declined from seven to three (Blue Bird, IC, and Thomas). In 2002, Daimler (the parent company of Freightliner) reorganized its bus manufacturing operations, shifting Thomas from the acquisitions of Freightliner to DaimlerChrysler Commercial Buses North America, grouping the company with Orion and Setra, along with Sprinter.

In spite of previous efforts to move beyond school bus production, during the early 2000s, Thomas began to wind down its presence in the transit bus segment. In 2000, the TL960 (derived from the Transit Liner ER) replaced the aging Chartour/CL960 (from the early 1980s). The TL960 was only produced through 2002, as Thomas chose to concentrate on school bus derivatives (the Transit Liner EF/ER). 2002 also marked the end of the Thomas SLF200; as DaimlerChrysler acquired Orion, the Thomas Dennis joint venture was reorganized, replacing Thomas with Orion (through the latter, continued through 2007).

In contrast to its effective exit from the transit segment, during the early 2000s, Thomas made extensive updates to its school bus range. For 2001, the Saf-T-Liner HD (combining the Saf-T-Liner ER, WestCoastER, and the MVP ER) adapted many components from Freightliner, distinguished by its large mirror housings, which integrated sideview, convex, and cross-view mirrors into a single assembly. For 2003, all Saf-T-Liner Conventionals became Saf-T-Liner FS-65s, as Freightliner became the sole chassis available for the Thomas body.

In 2001, Freightliner replaced the FL-series Business Class with the Freightliner Business Class M2, leading Freightliner and Thomas to commence work on a new-generation school bus. In 2004, the Thomas Saf-T-Liner C2 made its debut, marking the first completely new school bus body from Thomas since 1972. In a shift from industry precedent, both the Thomas body and Freightliner chassis were designed together as a common unit, which allowed the use of the donor chassis dashboard in its entirety.

In 2004, company founder Perley Thomas became one of the first inductees (posthumously) of the North Carolina Transportation Hall of Fame in Raleigh, North Carolina.

On December 13, 2006, the final Saf-T-Liner FS-65 was produced, marking nearly 35 years of production of the Saf-T-Liner Conventional body; 62,764 examples were produced on the Freightliner chassis from 1997-2006.^[5]

For 2009, Thomas launched a second model line of small buses, named the Thomas MyBus. Geared towards the MFSAB (activity bus) segment^[6], the MyBus model line uses a modified version of the Minotour body.^[7]

2010s: Second century

Thomas Saf-T-Liner HDX CNG

In 2011, Thomas marked the introduction of the 2012 Saf-T-Liner EFX, its first all-new front-engine bus since 1994. Using similar design features as the Saf-T-Liner HDX (its windshield and upper bodywork), the EFX also utilized a center-mounted Freightliner instrument panel.

During the early 2010s, Thomas would expand its environmentally friendly product line. Introduced in 2007, the Saf-T-Liner C2e hybrid diesel-electric school bus met with little success and was discontinued in 2013. Having introduced compressed natural gas (CNG) in the 1993 Saf-T-Liner ER, Thomas retained alternative-fuel powertrains through the 1990s and 2000s, with the Saf-T-Liner C2 gaining propane and CNG powertrains (in 2014 and 2016, respectively). Depending on chassis specification, propane and CNG-fuel variants of the Minotour are also available.

In 2012, as Daimler ended its bus division in North America (closing Orion and MCI adapting distribution of Setra for North America), within Daimler, Thomas shifted to Daimler Trucks North America, home to Freightliner and Western Star.^[2]

In the production of its vehicles, during the 2000s and 2010s, Thomas has cleaned the environment, with the company achieving Zero-Waste-to-Landfill status in 2011. For 2012, Thomas was designated a North Carolina Environmental Steward because of its superior environmental performance, commitment to continued reduction of its environmental impact, and demonstrated commitment to exceed compliance regulations.

In 2016, Thomas Built Buses marked 100 years since the founding of Thomas Car Works, becoming the first current bus body manufacturer to reach 100 years of production in North America.

In late 2017, in line with each major school bus manufacturer, Thomas unveiled a fully electric school bus. Named "Jouley" (derived from the unit of energy), the prototype is based upon the Thomas Saf-T-Liner C2; a production version is predicted to reach production for 2019.

School Buses

Current Product Line
Model Name	Thomas Minotour	Thomas Saf-T-Liner C2	Thomas Saf-T-Liner (EFX, HDX)
Photo
Year Introduced	Minotour: 1980 MyBus: 2009	2004	EFX: 2012 HDX: 2001 (as Saf-T-Liner HD)
Assembly	High Point, North Carolina
Configuration	Type A (cutaway van) Minotour: single rear wheel, dual rear wheel MyBus: single rear wheel, dual rear wheel	Type C (conventional)	Type D (transit-style) (front engine, rear engine)
Chassis Manufacturer	Ford Motor Company Ford E-Series (E-350/E-450) Ford Transit 350/350HD General Motors Chevrolet Express/GMC Savana	Daimler Trucks North America LLC Freightliner C2 (Freightliner M2 106)	Thomas Built Buses Front-engine Type D chassis Rear-engine Type D chassis
Fuel Type(s)	Minotour Gasoline Diesel Propane Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) MyBus Gasoline	Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Diesel Propane Electric	EFX Diesel Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) HDX Diesel Compressed Natural Gas (CNG)
Passenger Capacity	14-30	up to 81	up to 90
Other Notes	Minotour Produced as school bus and MFSAB MyBus Based on Minotour, produced only as MFSAB on Chevrolet/GMC chassis Produced as school bus, commercial bus, and MFSAB/activity bus	Uses Freightliner C2 chassis, derived from Freightliner M2 106 Business Class medium-duty truck Replaces both Saf-T-Liner Conventional and Saf-T-Liner FS-65 Produced as diesel-electric hybrid (C2e) from 2007 to 2013 Propane version released in 2013 CNG Version released in 2016 Electric prototype called the "Jouley" shown in 2017; intended for 2019 production	EFX Produced as school bus, commercial bus, and MFSAB/activity bus Replaced Thomas Saf-T-Liner EF in 2011 Shares some front bodywork and windshield with HDX. HDX Produced as school bus, commercial bus, and MFSAB/activity bus Introduced in 2001 as the Saf-T-Liner HD; replaced the Saf-T-Liner ER and Saf-T-Liner MVP ER. Distinguished by large front mirror units, which mount the side-view, wide-angle, and cross-view mirrors into a single unit.

Other Buses

Thomas sold commercial derivatives of the Minotour, Conventional, Vista, along with the following:^[8]

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^[9]
• Chartour- rear-engine transit bus
• CL960 - rear-engine transit bus
• SLF200 (Super Low Floor) series - badge engineered transit bus built under license from Dennis Specialist Vehicles, based on the Alexander ALX200. It had a Dennis Dart SLF chassis.