Crown Coach Corporation
The Crown Coach Corporation (founded as the Crown Carriage Company) is a defunct American bus manufacturer. Founded in 1904, the company was best known for its Supercoach range of yellow school buses and motorcoaches; the former vehicles were marketed throughout the West Coast of the United States. Competing alongside Gillig Corporation and similar its Gillig Transit Coach, the two companies supplied California with school buses nearly exclusively into the 1980s.
1978 Crown Supercoach school bus, Model 2A-426-11 | |
| Industry | Transportation |
|---|---|
| Founded | Los Angeles, California (1904) |
| Founder | Don Brockway |
| Defunct | March 1991 |
| Fate | Dissolved |
| Headquarters | |
Area served | West Coast, United States |
| Products | School Buses Fire Apparatus |
Number of employees | 270 (1991) |
| Parent | GE Railcar (1987-1991) |
Crown also was the manufacturer of custom-built vehicles derived from its buses, including the Firecoach line of fire apparatus.
For 80 years, Crown was headquartered in Los Angeles, California; in 1984, the company relocated its headquarters and manufacturing to Chino, California, where it operated until its closure. In March 1991, Crown Coach (then a subsidiary of GE Railcar) ended operations as a result of declining demand for school buses at the time.