Gillig Totally Explained

Everything about Gillig totally explained

Gillig Corporation, formerly Gillig Bros., is a manufacturer of heavy-duty transit buses located in Hayward, CA. Prior to 1993, Gillig had also been a manufacturer of school buses.

History

In 1890, Jacob Gillig opened a carriage and wagon shop in San Francisco, CA, and was joined by his son Leo in 1896. The original shop was destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, but reopened as the Leo Gillig Automobile Works manufacturing automobile, hearse, truck, and bus bodies.
   In 1920, Leo's brother Chester Gillig joined the company and introduced and patented the "California Top" roof construction style consisting of a hard-top roof and sliding windows. The company's name was changed at this time as well to Gillig Bros. In the late 1920s, Gillig starting producing pleasure boats and heavy trucks, and produced their first school bus in 1932. In 1937, Gillig introduced their first transit-style (flat front) school bus, and in 1938 the company moved to Hayward, CA. In 1957, Gillig purchased Pacific Bus division of Kenworth Truck Company, and by that time the company was devoted almost entirely to the production of school buses. In 1959, Gillig pioneered the diesel-powered rear-engined transit style school bus with the release of the C-series Transit Coach, and within five years the C-Series accounted for three-quarters of all of Gillig sales figures. In 1967, Gillig produced the highest capacity school bus ever produced, the 855-D, which had a passenger capacity of 97 pupils.
   In 1969, Herrick-Pacific Steel purchased the company and changed the name to the Gillig Corporation. During the time they built school buses, Gillig earned a reputation for being one of the "safest" buses ever built due to the near total absence of recalls. The only recall for a Gillig-built school bus was in 1979 for rear-end axle separation issues.
   In 1977, Gillig decided to branch out into the manufacture of transit buses and teamed up with Neoplan to build a series of European-styled transit buses that had the option of propane fueled engines. However, the partnership with Neoplan lasted only until 1979, and in 1980 Gillig introduced the Phantom, a heavy-duty transit bus based slightly upon their previous round-body school bus platform. A State of California tax-free subsidy helped early sales, and sales were later buoyed by low-bidding on contracts and specializing in serving smaller transit agencies. This strategy has proven to be successful, as the Phantom has become one of the longest-lasting transit models in existence, and is still in production. Production of the Transit Coach School Bus ceased in 1982, but a school bus variation of the Phantom was offered beginning in 1986, but production stopped in 1993 when Gillig exited the school bus market altogether.
   The Spirit, a late-1980s attempt at a medium-duty bus, didn't sell well and was discontinued after a few years. In 1997, Gillig entered the low-floor bus market with the Advantage (originally called "H2000LF", and is currently called the "Low Floor"). Like the Phantom, the Low Floor was first purchased largely by rental car companies for use at their airport facilities, but transit sales increased as the model matured.
   Currently, Gillig produces around 1,200 to 1,300 buses a year.

Alternative fuels

In 1992, Gillig began producing an LNG fueled version of the Phantom in an attempt to produce a low-emissions transit bus, but this was later discontinued. The only LNG Phantoms in existence currently operate shuttle service at Los Angeles International Airport and Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.
   In 1996, Gillig introduced a diesel-electric hybrid powered Phantom, which they produced until 2006. The Low Floor bus is now offered in a hybrid powered version as the company continues to focus its efforts on "clean diesel" technology.
   Currently, Gillig doesn't offer buses with alternative fuel engines as they've decided that the "clean diesel" pathway was more cost effective and required fewer changes to their products. However, some transit districts have converted Gillig buses to run on CNG or LNG.
   In 2001, Gillig partnered with Alstom and produced the "Trolley" for Seattle's King County Metro Transit. These coaches took the propulsion packages from the old fleet of AM General trolley coaches (G.E. Traction Motor, Randtronics Chopper Control, and electronic card cage), and Alstom refurbished and installed them into new Gillig Phantom bodies with KIEPE pneumatically operated fiberglass trolleypoles.

Products

Current

Model	Length (ft)	Introduced	Notes
Phantom	40, 35, 30	1980	Standard high floor bus
Low Floor ("Advantage")	40, 35, 29	1996
Low Floor BRT	41, 37, 31		Also available with hybrid drivetrain.
Trolley Replica	35, 30		Low Floor variant produced in collaboration with Cable Car Classics of Healdsburg, CA.

Discontinued

Model	Length (ft)	Introduced	Ended	Notes
Phantom Hybrid Bus	40, 35, 30	2001	2006	Diesel-electric hybrid version of the Phantom.
Phantom School Bus	37, 40	1986	1993	School Bus version of the Phantom
Spirit	28	mid-1980s	late-1980s	A 28-foot medium-duty bus offered as lower-cost alternative to the 30-foot long Phantom.
Gillig-Neoplan	35, 30	1977	1979	A rear-engined transit bus built as a joint venture with Neoplan, a German bus manufacturer. Available with either diesel or propane engines.
Transit Coach School Bus		1940	1982	A long-running lineup of transit-style school buses offered by Gillig prior to the production of the Phantom.

Preservation of historic Gillig school buses

Having been a major builder of school buses for over 75 years, interest in the history and preservation of Gillig school buses has grown in recent years, particularly along the west coast where Gillig school buses were most commonly found. The Gillig Transit Coach / Pacific SchoolCoach Online Museum

, a website focusing on preserving Gillig's line of earlier-built school buses, was founded by the former owner of a Gillig school bus in 2001, with the aim of increasing general awareness of the older Gillig school buses.
In 2006, efforts began to create an historical society dedicated to the preservation of older Gillig school buses under the "Transit Coach" name, and on August 12, 2006 the official dedication of the Gillig Coach Historical Society occurred at the American Truck Historical Society's

11th Annual Truck Show at the Mason County Fairgrounds in Shelton, WA.

Further Information

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