Gillig Corporation

Gillig Corporation

File:Gillg.png
Type	Private
Industry	Transit
Founded	San Francisco, California, 1890 (1890)
Founder	Jacob Gillig
Headquarters	25800 Clawiter Road Hayward, California 94545, United States
Area served	North America
Key people	David H. Dornsife (Chairman)
Products	Heavy-duty low floor transit buses
Parent	Henry Crown & Company
Website	www.gillig.com

The Gillig Corporation, formerly Gillig Bros., is an American manufacturer of heavy-duty low-floor transit buses based in Hayward, California. Prior to 1993, Gillig also made school buses.

History

Gillig headquarters in Hayward

In 1890, Jacob Gillig opened a carriage and wagon shop in San Francisco, California. His son, Leo Gillig, joined him in 1896. The original shop was destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, but reopened as the Leo Gillig Automobile Works to manufacture bodies for automobiles, hearses, trucks, and buses.

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 changed at this time to Gillig Bros. In the late 1920s, Gillig starting producing pleasure boats and heavy trucks and, in 1932, produced their first school bus. In 1937, Gillig introduced their first transit-style (flat front) school bus.

In 1938 the company moved to Hayward, CA. In 1957, Gillig purchased the Pacific Bus division of Kenworth Truck Company. By that time, the company was devoted almost entirely to making school buses. In 1959, Gillig pioneered the diesel-powered rear-engined transit style school bus with the release of the C-series Transit Coach. Within five years, the C-Series accounted for three-quarters of all of Gillig sales. In 1967, Gillig produced the 855-D, which had a passenger capacity of 97, the highest-capacity school bus ever produced.

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 as one of the safest buses, 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 manufacture transit buses. They teamed up with Neoplan to build a series of European-styled transit buses with the option of propane fueled engines. The partnership with Neoplan lasted until 1979. In 1980, Gillig introduced the Phantom, a heavy-duty transit bus based on their previous round-body school bus platform. A State of California tax-free subsidy helped early sales. Later sales were buoyed by low bids on contracts, and by specializing in serving smaller transit agencies. This strategy proved successful, as the Phantom became one of the longest-lasting transit models. Production of the Transit Coach School Bus ceased in 1982, but Gillig offered a school bus version of the Phantom in 1986,. Production stopped in 1993 when Gillig exited the school bus market.

The Spirit, a late-1980s attempt at a medium-duty bus, experienced poor sales 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 airport facilities, but transit sales increased as the model matured.

On August 1, 2008, Gillig became a Henry Crown company under CC Industries, Inc. CC Industries operated Gillig in the same location with the current management team.

Gillig is the second largest transit bus manufacturer by volume, behind New Flyer. As of 2013, Gillig had an approximate 31% market share of the combined US and Canadian heavy-duty transit bus manufacturing industry, based on the number of equivalent unit deliveries.

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 later discontinued it. The only remaining LNG Phantoms 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 efforts on "clean diesel" technology.

In September 2011, Gillig introduced an alternative fuel BRT model with CNG propulsion—their first CNG-powered bus produced and first production natural gas buses since 1998. Long Beach Transit purchased a pilot bus in 2011, and placed an order for 63 more in 2012.

Though Gillig has never built an electric trolley bus (ETB), in 2001-2002 the company supplied 100 body-chassis shells to Seattle's King County Metro Transit for the latter to equip as trolley buses. More than just shells, Gillig shipped these Phantom buses in fairly complete form, including interior fittings such as seats—lacking only propulsion equipment and other ETB-only features such as trolley poles. The Seattle transit agency, Metro, removed the propulsion packages from its old fleet of 1979-built AM General trolley coaches (G.E. traction motor, Randtronics chopper control, and electronic card cage), which the Gillig vehicles were purchased to replace, and shipped them to Alstom (in New York) for refurbishment. After Alstom refurbished the propulsion equipment, Metro installed it in the new Gillig Phantom bodies, along with Vossloh-Kiepe pneumatically operated fiberglass trolley poles.

Products

Gillig Product Lines (Current/Discontinued)
Model Name	Production	Configuration	Length	Notes
Gillig Low Floor	1996–present	Low-floor transit bus	29, 35, 40 ft (8.8, 10.7, 12.2 m)	Originally called H2000LF and Advantage Also available as a hybrid diesel-electric bus (2004–present) Older buses have a flat front windshield and a somewhat larger headsign area (top picture), while newer models feature a larger windshield. Frameless side windows are also an option (bottom picture). Available as tourist-trolley replica Available with a BRT style front end (2008–present) Available in Suburban Version.
Gillig BRT 250px	2004–present	Low-floor transit bus	31, 37, 41 ft (9.4, 11.3, 12.5 m)	Variant of Low Floor with aerodynamic bodywork Also available with hybrid drivetrain (top picture). Side windows are available with either framed or frameless glass.
Gillig Phantom	1980-2013	High-floor transit bus	30, 35, 40 ft (9.1, 10.7, 12.2 m)	Offered in 102" or 96" widths. A hybrid version was also offered from 2001 to 2006. Also produced as a school bus from 1986-1993
Gillig Spirit	mid-late 1980s	High-floor transit bus	28 ft (8.5 m)	A 28-foot (8.5 m) medium-duty bus offered as lower-cost alternative to the 30-foot-long (9.1 m) Phantom.
Gillig-Neoplan	1977-1979	High floor transit bus	30, 35 ft (9.1, 10.7 m)	A rear-engined transit bus built as a joint venture with German bus manufacturer Neoplan. Available with either diesel or propane engines.
Gillig Transit Coach School Bus	1940-1982	School Bus	28–40 ft (8.5–12.2 m)	A long-running lineup of transit-style school buses offered by Gillig prior to the production of the Phantom. Available in mid-engine and rear-engine models with single or tandem rear axles. Along with Crown Supercoach, highest-capacity school bus ever produced. Also produced on conventional truck chassis on a limited basis (discontinued in 1980).
Gillig Phantom School Bus	1986-1993	School Bus (rear-engine)	37, 40 ft (11.3, 12.2 m)	96" wide version of the Phantom redesigned to school bus specifications as a successor to the Transit Coach.

References

• Gillig, LLC, gillig.com, retrieved on 2006-12-25
• Transit Coach / Pacific SchoolCoach Online Museum, gilligcoaches.net, retrieved on 2006-12-25, archived from the original at http://www.gilligcoaches.net/ archive date: 2006-12-30
• Leo Gillig Automobile Works - Gillig Brothers, coachbuilt.com, retrieved on 2006-12-25
• A Brief History of Hall-Scott, northern.edu, retrieved on 2006-12-26
• GM Brings Clean Mass Transit to Environmental Conference, allisontransmission.com, retrieved on 2006-12-25
• Stauss, Ed (1988). The Bus World Encyclopedia of Buses, Woodland Hills, CA: Stauss Publications. ISBN 0-9619830-0-0

External links

• Gillig, LLC