The Plumnose

Nova Scotia is Bluenose country, but here is one variation on the theme. "The Plumnose", an International 3600 of unknown vintage, with a Thomas built school bus body (complete with wheelchair lift and ski rack) was spotted on Saturday. The distinctivce plum colour paint job, certainly sets it off.

The short nose chassis with high visibility offside window is also an interesting feature.

.

My what big ears you have-all the better to see you with!

1. Mac Tours comes to Halifax 2011-03-05.

No I don't run a bus line on the side. Mac Tours Inc of Westville, NS does, however, and this is their Unit 500, a Thomas Saf-T Liner.

With coach type seating, and passenger capacity up to 90 on a variety of wheelbases, the Saf-T Liner appears to be a budget model highway coach. Fit and finish is more along the school bus lines. Thomas certainly builds a number of school bus models, and is owned by Daimler.

.

Battle of the School Buses continued

As previously posted, the two big school bus makers are Thomas and Bluebird. Thomas has been owned by Daimler for many years, but Blue Bird remains independent. [See June 2 for more]

Blue Bird will build your bus on any chassis you specify, even the competitor's Freightliner. But just to avoid free advertising, I see they now insert their own badge on the grille - nice moooove!

Photos taken Cap-à-l'Aigle, QC, 2010-08-31.

Going Head to Head for the School Bus Market

Yes there is intense competition in the school bus business, and from this photo it might seem it is between Freightliner and International for bus chassis. But you would only be partly correct. The two biggest players in the bus body business are Thomas, of High Point, NC and Blue Bird of Fort Valley, GA.
Both body builders have been around a long time. Thomas was founded in 1916 and has been building buses since 1936. Blue Bird was founded in 1927. For a long time they were independents and bought chassis to suit their customers needs. However all that has changed.
Thomas is now part of (wait for it) Daimler Trucks North America LLC. So no surprise that Thomas uses Freightliner chassis for its type C (conventional) and D (transit style) school buses. Thomas claims that fully one third of the school buses on the road today are Thomas Built. (They are no longer built in Canada, just in the US.)

Blue Bird, no slouches themselves are part of North American Bus Industries. NABI produces Optima and NABI transit buses, and is owned by the Dutch company Traxis Group BV. Blue Bird will build buses on most chassis presumably, but International seems to have the lead by my casual observation. Blue Bird has two factories, both in Georgia, and no longer builds buses in Canada.

So the next time you see a school bus, be aware that there is more going on than meets the eye.

see: http://www.thomasbus.com/

and http://www.nabusind.com/ from there you can find out more about Blue Bird and the other brands.

Daimler and Traxis also have their own web sites.