Background info: The first school bus. (Courtesy of the “Seeking Alpha” investment website and the Henry Ford Museum.)
If you have ever ridden on a yellow bus to school here is the guy to blame. The origin of the yellow school bus can be traced back to a man named, Albert Luce (1888-1962). Upon returning from World War I, where Luce had served in France, he came back with plans for returning to work in the growing automobile industry. Luce opted not to return to his former California area where he had a distributorship for the Maxwell automobile (forerunner of Chrysler). Instead he moved to a small farming community in central Georgia, where the major source of revenue came from growing and harvesting peaches. It was there where he had obtained a franchise from the Ford Motor Company. This was in 1919.
His franchise was located in Fort Valley, Georgia, where today the population is still less than 10,000 residents. A few years later he obtained his second dealership in nearby Perry, Georgia. In 1925 Luce received an order from a local cement company wanting a vehicle that would allow the transporting of workers to and from job sites. Luce orders a wooden frame from North Carolina, where he bolted it onto a Model T Ford chassis. Almost immediately, Luce recognized the potential of driving such a vehicle over unpaved or poorly paved Georgia roads would render the bus as being unusable before the owner had finished paying for it. With this concern, Luce opted to work with a local blacksmith, there in Perry. The goal was to construct a bus body made primarily of steel that would fit on a steel chassis. The first bus was built in 1927, where it had the steel components complimented with a wood roof and roll-up canvas curtains that served as the ‘windows’. This bus was sold to a school bus driver in nearby Marshallville, Georgia. Luce built his second bus in 1929.
Albert Luce Sr sometime after WWII
Albert Luce Jr visiting his fathers creation after donating it to the Henry Ford museum.
Specifications
Make & Model: 1927 Blue Bird school bus
Body maker: Albert L. Luce, Sr., Fort Valley, Georgia
Chassis maker: Ford Motor Company, Highland Park, Michigan (1927 TT truck)
Engine: inline-4, L-head valves, 177 cubic inches
Transmission: 2-speed manual
Height: 102 inches
Wheelbase: 123.5 inches
Width: 66.5 inches
Overall length: 194 inches
Horsepower: 20 at 1600 revolutions per minutes
Weight: 3140 pounds
Pounds per horsepower: 157
Many websites erroneously list the chassis for the bus as a Model T. It is in fact a TT but with single rear wheels.
