It all began in 1896, as a man named Jacob Gillig came to San Francisco, California from New York City. His mission was to start a horse-drawn carriage repair business building, repairing, and detailing horse-drawn carriages. Soon afterwards, he built a reputation as being the best in the business, and developed a client list including wealthy individuals, such as San Francisco pioneers Mark Hopkins and James Flood. Nearly ten years had passed, and his shop was now San Francisco’s most popular carriage business. In 1906 that all changed, as San Francisco had experienced the largest earthquake in modern history. Within five hours, much of San Francisco was ablaze, and one of the casualties was Jacob Gillig's shop for which he had spent the last eight years working so hard to make successful. In 1914, more than six years after the original shop had burned down, Jacob's son Leo Gillig opened a new shop on Larkin Street in San Francisco, and named it "Leo Gillig Automotive Works." Following in his father’s footsteps, he soon had a booming business, and had obtained nearly as much success as his father did in the carriage business. He soon became so successful that he hired his brother, Chester Gillig to work as partner. Following that, Leo Gillig Automotive Works then became known as “Gillig Bros. Custom-Built Coach Bodies”

Gillig Bros. – The Early Years

At first, the company strictly built automobiles, hearses, and additionally supplied factory-built modifications to heavy duty trucks such as tow-crane lifts, and even semi-truck trailers. Soon after the change, the company built a new three story operating facility on Post and Franklin Streets. One of the first products offered by the new “Gillig Bros.” was a patented "California Top," invented and patented by Chester. This California-Top design consisted of a vehicle with a hard metal roof with drop-sliding windows. Within the next few years, hundreds of the new California-Top vehicles were sold, and soon became a mainstay of the Gillig lineup. In 1927, a new venture, called "Gillig Marinecraft" was begun in which they manufactured pleasure craft boats. A few hundred Gillig Marinecraft boats were sold in the next few years, and Gillig Bros. had then established itself as a leading company in San Francisco.

In 1928, Gillig began designing and building heavy duty trucks, similar to the trucks offered by Kenworth at the time, and in 1929, they built their very first bus. Three years later, a swift change at Gillig took place, as their very first school bus was built; a conventional built on a White truck chassis. After their first bus was built, Gillig had seen a sharp drop in sales for their other products, so they converted their manufacturing plant over to handle the construction of the school bus line, which almost immediately became Gillig’s number one business. In 1937, the San Francisco plant became obsolete, and the decision was made to move the plant across the bay to the sprawling city of Hayward. After the move, a new, state-of-the-art construction facility was built, and shortly after, Gillig had built their very first “transit-style” school bus. The next year, Gillig bought out the firm of Patchett and Carstensens, based in Newman, California. By 1940, Gillig began experementing with engine locations, and their very first midship engined transit-style bus was born. It was powered by Hall Scott gasoline engines, and was unusual at the time because the engines were placed on their sides, instead of vertically. Fabco provided the chassis for these new buses, with Gillig doing all of the body work.

Gillig Bros. – The War, and becoming an industry leader

With the onset of the U.S. participation in World War II, Gillig became a war casualty, and all of the school bus manufacturing was put on hiatus. The war forced Gillig to go back to making heavy duty trucks, and troop transports, and ambulance vehicles – which were typical Gillig school bus bodies with ambulance fittings.

After the war ended in 1945, Gillig had returned to commercial manufacturing, and the first thing to come back into production were the Hall Scott mid-engine transit style school buses. In 1948, the very first rear engine transits were built, powered by Hall Scott 450s. Not finding initial success with the rear-engine models, Gillig went back to mid-engine transits, and in 1950, the very first Hall Scott 504s and 590s were built. The Hall Scott 590 at the time was the largest inline six cylinder engine ever produced for commercial school bus use, and production at this time was 70 transit style, and 100 conventional bus bodies per year. In 1953, Leo Gillig had passed away, and soon after, Chester had retired from business. Stanley Marx, who started as a salesman, was named as new CEO of a newly formed, yet at the time unofficial “corporation.”

Four years had passed with no noticeable change except for a few slight refinements in exterior design, and in 1957, Gillig purchased all of the assets of the now-defunct Pacific Bus line from Kenworth Truck Company, based in Seattle, Washington. In 1958, some of the designs and manufacturing methods used by Kenworth and their Pacific Bus lineup were introduced into the Gillig Bros. lineup of school buses. The most noticeable change to the Gillig Transit style bus was the incorporation of the general design and shape of the Pacific school bus body, and the high volume radiator vent intake in the left rear corner of the bus' roof on select rear-engine models, which Gillig had reintroduced. Another notable change was an increased size in the driver’s windshield, which was enlarged from 78”x30” to 86”x30”, effectively making it the largest windshield on any school bus at that time (this windshield dimension would remain until 1982). Another pioneering feat that year was the introduction of the C-180 model line. The C-180 marked the first time any school bus builder had attempted a rear-engine transit-style school bus powered by a diesel engine. Shortly after their debut, the C-180 was soon accompanied by the C-170 and C-190, and all three variants rapidly became the leader in rear engine transits. Features of the C-180 and its variants differed slightly, and on Washington and Oregon State-ordered C-Series units, the most prominent feature was a large air cooling intake vent at the back of the bus.

By 1965, Gillig had become a well-established school bus manufacturer, with over 70% of all school bus sales in Northern California and Washington State being Gilligs. The product line had become well established as well, and a noticeable change in the sales pattern of the transits and conventionals were noticed. Now, production was up to 175 transits. Out of those, 90% were diesel powered, and 50% were conventionals. By this time, Gillig had formed a very firm product lineup, consisting of the Ford 500 Series rear-engine models, the Cummins C-Series with the Cummins C-160-170/180/190 rear-engine diesel, and the Caterpillar 1160 V-8 rear-engine diesel which was introduced in 1969 as a joint effort between Gilig, Caterpillar and the Ford Motor Company. The Caterpillar diesel engine quickly became the engine of choice, and made the rear-engine diesel units the most popular rear engine transit on the west coast. In 1967, Gillig returned to market a new lineup of mid-engine transits, and the very first engine for the new mid-engine models was a massive 220HP Cummins engine that had 743 cubic inches of displacement. School districts faced with increasing size requirements, and as more and more school districts were consoliding into larger ones, began ordering Gilligs with an increased ceiling height and overall size, and in 1967, the standard 72” ceiling was lifted to 79”. These larger size requirements also led Gillig to introduce the largest school bus ever built in terms of passenger capacity. These buses were set up on a tandem axle chassis, and had a passenger capacity rating of 97 when fully loaded. The new “743DT-16” stood forty-one feet in length, and boasted an impressive feature list. Unlike most tandem-axle buses, both rear axles were live, both being connected via dual drive shafts to either a standard five-speed manual transmission or the newly available Fuller RoadRanger series ten-speed manual transmissions. Standard on the new tandem-axle lineup was the Cummins NHH220, but the option of the CAT1160 was made available for select rear-engine 636DT-16 models. The product line by this time included the C Series, Ford 600 series, and the 743D and 636D-series.

1968 saw two changes to Gillig Bros. One of the changes were in involved with management of the company. Stan Marx left, leaving after 41 years with the company leaving as Vice President. The next change was in ownership of Gillig Bros. itself. Herrick-Pacific Steel, a large steel manufacturing company located in Hayward, purchased the company. This, in turn, set off a set of smaller changes and one huge one for the company in general. The first change was the name of the company. The name "Bros." was dropped and replaced with “Corp.” and in later years this change was reflected on the company logo. As a result of Herrick-Pacific Steel buying the Gillig Corporation, a brand-new 1.5-million-dollar, 135,000 sq. foot facility was built just off the freeway in Hayward on a new 16-acre site. This facility now had everything under one roof; assembly (of which occupied 117,000 sq. foot), paint, upholstery, and finishing were now housed under a massive new facility. Another change made was to the powerplant lineup. The figures changed too, with transit coach production leading the way at 90 per cent with the remaining percentage going for custom-built and conventional bus bodies. The plant by now is now at the capacity of producing one complete bus per day. In 1971, Gillig added the Detroit 6V53-series diesel engine as an optional powerplant, adding a new 318D-series to the model lineup and broadening the range of available horsepower options. By this time, diesel-powered units were quickly becoming the most popular segment of Gillig’s school bus business. The interior of the buses also received a slight makeover for the 1973-1974 model year. For some 15 or so years prior, the dashboard in the Gillig remained an unchanged, all-metal dashboard with very little features. At the unveiling of the 1973-‘74 lineup, an all-new dashboard design was revealed. Instead of an all-metal dashboard, a fiberglass molded dashboard was in place and it signaled a change in driver ergonomics. For instance, the old switch panels used to be to the left of the steering column, underneath the steering wheel. The new design placed all of the switches on one panel under the driver's side window and all of the gauges were placed so that the driver could easily see them. The dashboard was given a color option too. Buyers could choose between the standard pastel green and an optional gloss black, and the look of the dashboard wrap was to simulate vinyl padding.

Gillig Bros. – Changes, Introducing the Phantom, and the Transit Coach lineup downfall.

The year 1974 marked the last year for a gasoline-powered bus option, as the last left the factory that summer. Additionally, newer California emissions regulations effectively rendered the NHH220 Cummins mid-engine diesel obsolete. To replace the NHH220, Gillig introduced the newer, improved Cummins NHH250. While nearly identical in overall appearance, the new NHH250 was considerably larger, and had special equipment built in to reduce emissions. The engine was also the largest ever offered in a Gillig, with a whopping 855 cubic inches of displacement. and the following year, 1975, saw the addition of the Cummins VTF555 V-8 diesel to its powerplant options. There also was a change to the exterior lighting. As various states passed new transportation laws, the need for a more advanced warning system became apparent. So, to achieve this, Gillig introduced the first coach on the west coast with the eight-flasher system. This meant that the driver could push a button activating a set of amber warning lights placed just inside of the red stop lights. This allowed drivers to also warn following and approaching motorists that the bus was about to stop for pickup or drop-off of students. The first few states to require this kind of lighting were Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. Then, in 1977, the government passed new legislation mandating that all school buses be built safer and with more modern designs. To achieve this, Gillig and Crown Coach started redesigning their buses. While there was no exterior design change, the biggest change of all was the passenger seating. The metal backed seats with very little back padding that the baby boom generation grew up with were redesigned into a high-backed, heavily padded seat. This new seating design, called compartmentalization, was part of the new design regulations and soon, the rest of the bus manufacturing community followed suit. Another change in the interior design was the omission of the steel column rails at the front of the bus. Instead, a single, curved stainless steel tube positioned back of the entrance stepwell served as the handrail when entering the bus. Neoplan entered into a partnership with Gillig in 1977 as well, but ended in 1979 after having built only a handful of buses. When the Neoplan partnership failed, Gillig began designing a new prototype transit bus under the “Phantom” name in partnership with AVIS Rent-a-Car. As a result of the new Phantom design, Gillig began redesigning the exterior of their classic-style school buses, and one major change was the side windows. Having seen the statistics on split-sash window frames, Gillig now incorporated this as a new standard for all of their new buses. To make this design more appealing, they added black trim around the windows and tinted windows became optional. The black dash wrap that was optional on earlier models became standard. By this time however, Gillig’s sales of school buses were in a sharp recession, led in part by a rather large fleet of pre-existing 30-years-old or older Gilligs still in active service (with those buses being service or rebuilt rather than replaced), and quality control issues which plagued nearly half of the 1980-1981 models that were built. As a result, in 1979 and into early 1980, Gillig began phasing out school bus production. 1982 marked the last year that the classic "Gillig Transit Coach" was manufactured. By the time the last classic-style school bus left the factory, Gillig had already geared itself for mass production of the Phantom, which by now was making its industry debut in the transit insustry. A few years following the meteoric overnight success of the Phantom, and a rise in the market conditions for school bus builders in general, Gillig went back to school bus manufacturing. In 1985, Gillig had produceda prototype of a new Phantom school bus, and the following year their very first Phantom-style school bus, which essentially was a heavily modified Phantom transit bus, made its debut. Initially, the Phantom School bus sold quite well and was thought to’ve been a similar success story to the original Phantom, but in 1991, sales started to slide again. In 1993, the last Phantom school bus rolled off the Hayward assembly line, and marked the last year that Gillig made school buses altogether.

Gillig Corporation – Now

Gillig now makes transit buses for urban applications. The unchanged-since-1982 Phantom line is still the most popular transit style urban transit on the road and is the bread-and-butter crop for Gillig. In 2000, Gillig unveiled the Low Floor (formerly called “Advantage”). The Low Floor was a prototype/joint effort between Hertz Rent-A-Car and Gillig to produce a new bus for airport shuttle use, and featured many “advantages” over the competition. For instance, one boarding the bus needs not to walk up the steps, as there aren’t any steps to walk on. The floor is level with most street side curbs, thus making accessibility second to none in the industry. The Low Floor is now a strong seller itself, and has even spun off two other models. The BRT, a futuristic looking variant of the Low Floor, and the Gillig Trolley, a bus built to resemble an old streetcar, are both based off of the Low Floor platform.