A mid-1990s Carpenter conventional-style school bus in Wells, Maine.
The Carpenter Body Company, also known as the Ralph H. Carpenter Body Company, Carpenter Body Works, Inc., Carpenter Manufacturing Company, and Carpenter Industries, Inc., was a bus body builder based in Mitchell, Indiana, United States that started building buses in 1923. Years later, Carpenter purchased rights to build Crown Coach Buses, and in the late 1990s, relocated to the former Wayne Corporation plant in Richmond, Indiana. In 2000, it closed down and ended school bus production. After relocating to the former Wayne plant, Carpenter began to base many of its buses such as the "Classic 2000" on some of the designs used earlier on buses built in the plant by Wayne Corporation, utilizing certain features of the Wayne Lifeguard design.
In 2003, a serious problem with roof welds in some of the units produced at Mitchell was discovered following a roof failure during a rollover accident in Florida. Owners of Mitchell-manufactured buses were urged to check for NHTSA safety alerts for more information, since a recall campaign by a defunct manufacturer could not be made. Late model units made by Carpenter at the Richmond, Indiana plant were not involved with the potential flaw.
Founded by Ralph H. Carpenter
The organization which built Carpenter branded bus bodies was founded in Mitchell, Indiana in 1919 by Ralph H. Carpenter, a blacksmith by trade. He began his career building hauling wagons for two cement factories located near his southern Indiana hometown of Bloomington.
As his business grew, he began to expand into building horse-drawn "kid hacks" with wooden benches to transport children to school. As wagons became obsolete, he adapted his bodies for automobiles.
Carpenter's first true school bus was built in 1923. The first stop arms used on these buses were in the shape of a clenched fist with the index finger painted red. A combination of steel and wood replaced all wood construction and in 1935, a change to all-steel construction was made, joining Wayne Works and Blue Bird Body Company and others in this regard.
Frank W. Cyr: father of the yellow school bus
Most school buses turned the now familiar yellow in 1939. In April of that year, Frank W. Cyr, a professor at Teachers College in New York who became known as the "Father of the Yellow School Bus," organized a conference that established national school-bus construction standards, including the standard color of yellow for the school bus.
Engineers from Blue Bird Body Co., Chevrolet, International Harvester, Dodge, and Ford Motor Company, as well as paint experts from DuPont and Pittsburgh Paint showed up. Together with the transportation administrators, they met for 7 days and agreed on 44 standards, including the color and some mechanical specs such as body length, ceiling height, and aisle width.
It became known officially as National School Bus Chrome. The color was selected because black lettering on that hue was easiest to see in the semi-darkness of early morning and late afternoon.
The conference met for seven days and the attendees created a total of 44 standards, including specifications regarding body length, ceiling height and aisle width. Cyr's conference, funded by a $5,000 grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, was also a landmark event inasmuch as it included transportation officials from each of the then 48 states, as well as specialists from school-bus manufacturing and paint companies. The conference approach to school bus safety, as well as the yellow color, has endured into the 21st century.
Growth in school bus use after World War II
Following World War II, there was a nationwide movement in the U.S. to consolidate schools into fewer and larger ones. This meant that fewer students were attending school in their immediate neighborhood, particularly as they progressed into high school. This led in turn to a large increase in the demand for school buses.
Carpenter was a leading name in church bus and school bus safety efforts for many years. The company became a major school bus body builder in the post-World War II period.
1956: Fire destroys plant, workers rebuild
On March 12, 1956, a fire broke out inside Carpenter's Mitchell manufacturing plant. The plant was mostly destroyed. With the help of factory workers—some worked for no pay until later compensated—the factory was rebuilt and expanded in just 89 days.
Throughout the next twenty years, the business prospered and Carpenter became one of the "big six" major school bus body builders in the United States in the 1970s, competing directly against Blue Bird Body Company, Superior Coach Company, Thomas Built Buses, Inc., Ward Body Company, and Wayne Corporation.
1980s Bankruptcy and Dr. Beurt SerVaas
An early 1990s Carpenter conventional school bus on a Ford chassis.
A late 1980s Carpenter conventional school bus on an International chassis, now in use as a church bus.
In the early 1980s, there was a downturn in U.S. public school enrollments as the baby boom generation became older than school-age. U.S. school bus sales declined, a situation compounded by over-capacity in the bus body industry. The company unsuccessfully attempted to diversify into the small transit bus market. Carpenter was forced to enter bankruptcy in the mid-1980s.
Salvation came to Mitchell in the form of an Indianapolis-based industrialist, Dr. Beurt SerVaas, who led a refinancing and revitalization program to attempt to restore the company's role in the national school bus market. The company's unionized workers made major concessions, and production of school buses continued.
Crown by Carpenter
In the early 1990s, Carpenter Industries (formerly Carpenter Body Company) purchased the tooling and product rights to build Crown Coaches, long a product of a defunct U.S. bus builder in California. Around 1996, Carpenter leased the former Wayne plant at Richmond, and moved from its aged facilities in Mitchell. At the former Wayne plant, the company began producing Crown by Carpenter buses and delivery trucks.
The "Crown" design included a new roof design, utilizing one-piece roof bows, as well as a redesigned driver's area, and slight changes to the exterior, including different rubrail mounting.
One interesting design that came during the "Crown" model years was the Crown by Carpenter RE (rear engine), which was mounted on a Spartan chassis. This bus had the option of a rear emergency door, instead of an emergency window. To place the door in the rear, the floor was slanted up in the last few rows, in order to gain height over the engine compartment.
Carpenter Classic 2000
In late 1999, Carpenter unveiled a new model series to their line, called the Classic 2000 series. The Classic 2000 series featured an overall body redesign, including an entirely new driver's area (based on the Wayne Lifeguard), as well as new rubrail mounts, a flat rear section, and new roof caps. Conventional and FEs received larger rear emergency doors.
The 2000 Carpenter Chancellor RE rear-engine Type D school buses were built on Spartan chassis, featuring full air ride suspension, smaller wheels, and a double height frame for a ride similar to a motorcoach, as well as a flat floor inside the bus. The Chancellor series no longer included an option for a rear emergency door.
A Carpenter "Classic 2000" conventional school bus
Fallen Flag
By 2000, Spartan Motors, primarily a specialty chassis manufacturer, owned the majority of Carpenter Industries. Despite the improved sales Carpenter had attained over the last few years, profitability continued to elude the body builder in the highly competitive U.S. and Canadian school bus markets. The body company was closed in mid-2001, ending a huge history in the bus business.
Carpenter school bus at Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC has a thirty-six passenger school bus built by Carpenter Body Works in 1936 on a chassis by made by Dodge in 1939.
The bus carried students to the Martinsburg School (grade school) Martinsburg, Indiana from 1940-1946, and was owned and driven by Russell Bishop during that period. It was later used as a traveling grocery store until 1962.
The bus has a streamlined steel body painted double deep or Omaha orange with black trim. It was restored by Carpenter Body Works in the early 1980s under the supervision of Ollie Eager, who was Carpenter's plant manager in 1936 and John Foddrill, who worked in the Carpenter plant in 1936. The bus has replacement seats that do not match the originals exactly. The originals were black upholstery.
2003: Structural product flaws in Mitchell production discovered
On March 20, 2003 in Alachua County, Florida, an 83-passenger Carpenter school bus rolled over onto its roof, causing the roof to collapse down to the seat level. Luckily, only the driver was on board at the time, and survived the accident. Later inspection of the crash vehicle revealed numerous broken and defective welds in the roof and pillar structure.
Inspection of Carpenter school buses in various parts of the country revealed cracked and broken welds in the roof structure. The problem was not confined to Florida where it was first found.
The problem was broken or cracked welds in the roof structure that could cause the roof to collapse in the event of a rollover crash. Not all Carpenter buses had the broken or cracked welds. The problem was confined to all types of school buses built at the Carpenter plant in Mitchell, Indiana, prior to its closing in late 1995.
Normally, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) would conduct a full-scale investigation and if a defect determination were made, would order the manufacturer to conduct a safety recall. However, since Carpenter was no longer in business, there was no one that NHTSA could hold accountable to develop a remedy for this problem.
However, NHTSA was concerned about this problem, and issued several advisories regarding certain Carpenter buses.
NHTSA has indicated that virtually all of the production of Carpenter and Crown branded products from the Mitchell plant could potentially have the same flaw. Due to differences in construction techniques, Carpenter and Crown by Carpenter buses built at the Richmond plant were not included in several advisories issued.
The School Bus Information Council offered additional information about Carpenter buses and the NHSTA advisory.
Carpenter/Crown by Carpenter Bus Models
- Type A Classmate
- Type B Cadet
- Type C Classic
- Type D FE
- Corsair pre-1983
- Cavalier 1983-1988
- Counselor 1989-1999
- Chancellor 2000-2001
- Type D RE
- Corsair pre-1992
- Coach RE 1992-93
- Counselor 1994-99
- Chancellor 2001
- only one complete prototype and one rolling chassis were completed before Spartan Motors closed down Carpenter in 2001.
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