Old Bus Identification

[closelawgroup]

Hello - Can anyone identify this bus make/model/year? Thank you.

[Craig Gillingham]

My best guess is that it was a 50's IHC R-160.

[closelawgroup]

19 hours ago, Craig Gillingham said:

My best guess is that it was a 50's IHC R-160.

 

Craig, thanks, I think you are correct!  I poked around a bit and found a photo of a '55 IHC.  It has many similarities but is not the same year (or model?) (see photos in this post). I'll keep searching... if anyone has any more insight, I'd appreciate it!

 

Jason

[Bloo]

Craig Gillingham nailed it as close as you will get without reading the data plate (or the emblems on the side if they are still there.

 

It is an R-series International. They start at R-110, a half ton pickup, and get steadily bigger from there. R-160 is about 2 tons or so, and probably about right for a school bus. Postwar, International's first trucks, K or maybe KA series (the details escape me right now) looked more or less prewar.

 

In 1950 the L series came along. It looks like this:

 

 

Internationals were more by series than by year, and the L series ran from 1950-1952. 90 percent of the ones that show up for sale seem to be 1952. Occasionally you will see one titled 1953 but.....

 

In 1953 the R series came along. It was a minor facelift of the L. It looks like this:

 

 

It looked like your mystery bus in 1953, 1954, and 1955. Here is a smaller R-160 school bus from 1955:

 

 

In 1956 (or maybe sometime in 1955) the R series was replaced with the S series, but only for small and medium size trucks. Medium would have included the school bus. The S series looks like this:

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 19, 2020 by Bloo (see edit history)

[closelawgroup]

2 minutes ago, Bloo said:

Craig Gillingham nailed it as close as you will get without reading the data plate (or the emblems on the side if they are still there.

 

It is an R-series International. They start at R-110, a half ton pickup, and get steadily bigger from there. R-160 is about 2 tons or so, and probably about right for a school bus. . .

 

 

Thanks Bloo!  Great information.  If I ever get data plate info or any other answers, then I'll update the thread.

 

Jason

[28 Chrysler]

 

•  

 

Bloo

 "Postwar, International's first trucks, K or maybe KA series (the details escape me right now) looked more or less prewar."

 The post war Internationals were the KB series with a little more grill trim than the earlier K series.

[KURTRUK]

And for further clarification, International did not build the bus.  They only provided the chassis, engine, and front sheetmetal ahead of the cowl.  Bus companies build the body.  This could possibly be a Gillig bus (Hayward, Ca.). Many other bus/coach companies (Superior, Carpenter, etc.).

[Larry Schramm]

Or Blue Bird which has been building school buses since they installed their first body on a Model T in 1927.

 

That vehicle is in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.   Look here.

https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-collections/artifact/357533

 

At the factory in Fort Valley, Georgia, south of Atlanta, they have a reproduction.