|
In 1958, Louis J. Fageol retired, selling
Fageol Products marine
engine division to the Crofton Mfg. Co. of Los Angeles. Twin Coach kept
its
successful Cheektowaga aircraft plant which was kept busy constructing
wing and
fuselage assemblies for Boeing, (B-52), Grumann, North American and
Republic. In
1962, stockholders approved a name change for the company, and Twin
Coach became
the Twin Industries Corp.
Back in Ohio small numbers of the firm’s
Fageol gasoline and
Fageol-Leland Diesels were constructed, and the firm eeked out an
income
building delivery van bodies and bidding on government contracts for
postal
vehicles and the like.
In 1960 Joseph T. Myers, a Kent, Ohio
businessman (president
of Davey Tree Experts) and Twin Coach director, saw an opportunity, and
leased
a portion of the factory for his own firm, the Highway Products Co.,
which was
formed to construct small-to-medium sized vehicles for the U.S. Post
Office and
other agencies. Myers constructed delivery trucks, Parcel delivery
vans, mobile
post offices, small boats, missile launchers, etc., bidding on whatever
government contracts were appropriate and in 1962 purchased a portion
of the
former bus plant from Twin Coach/Twin Industries.
In addition Cummins and
Fageol-Leyland-powered 40 ft.
Highway Post Offices, the firm produced the Compac-Van, a medium-sized
forward-control 18,000-26,000lb. G.V.W. van produced under a contract
with
Cleveland, Ohio’s White Motors Co. Highway Products assumed the sales
and marketing of the
Compac-Van in
1965 and in 1968 introduced a 25-passenger Chrysler V-8 powered pusher
coach that
they marketed as the Twin Coach in order to capitalize on a new series
of
mass-transit grants recently made available to small cities by the
Federal
government. A 29-passenger Twin Coach joined the Highway Products
lineup in
1969 and in 1970 Joseph T. Myers sold his interest in the firm to Alco
Standard
Co., who subsequently used the facility to construct Class-A motor
homes under
the Cortez Motor Home brand name. Highway Products went bankrupt in
1975 after
approximately 900 Twin Coach buses were constructed.
© 2013 Mark Theobald for coachbuilt.com
|
|
|
