Crown Coach Corporation (founded as the Crown Carriage Company) was an 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. 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; at the time, the company was struggling against declining demand for school buses.
History
1904–1920: Wagons to school buses
At the beginning of the 20th century, Don M. Brockway found himself working at the first hardware store in Los Angeles, California. In 1904, Brockway founded Crown Carriage Company, beginning life producing horse-drawn carriages. While the first vehicles were built in a wooden shed, the company moved to a brick factory in 1910. Following the war, the company returned to bus production, beginning design work on an all-new Supercoach for 1948. As a side project, engineers at the company designed an all-new cabover fire engine, using the mid-engine chassis of the Supercoach bus. the key reason behind the closure cited was Crown's difficulty competing with lower-capacity buses produced at a lower price. From 1996 to 1999, Carpenter branded itself as Crown by Carpenter, using a brand emblem introduced by Crown Coach shortly before its closure.
Products
thumb|1980s Crown Supercoach motorcoach
thumb|1977-1991 36' Crown Supercoach
thumb|1982 [[Crown-Ikarus 286 articulated bus]]
thumb|Crown Supercoach II
Buses
{| class="wikitable"
! colspan="4" |Crown Coach buses
|-
!Vehicle
!Production Dates
!Chassis
!Notes
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|Crown School Buses