Wayne Wheeled Vehicles
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Wayne Wheeled Vehicles (WWV) was a tradename of a division of a vehicle manufacturer that specialized primarily in the production of school buses. It was owned by
Harsco Corporation Harsco Corporation is a global industrial company based in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania. Harsco operates in 30 countries and employs approximately 11,000 people worldwide. The company provides industrial services and engineered products that serve ...
, who purchased the rights to use the Wayne brand name, certain product rights, as well as parts and tooling during the liquidation of assets of the
Wayne Corporation The Wayne Corporation was an American manufacturer of buses and other vehicles under the "Wayne" marque. The corporate headquarters were in Richmond, Indiana, in Wayne County, Indiana. During the middle 20th century, Wayne served as a leading p ...
in late 1992. The BMY-Wheeled Vehicles Division of Harsco operated the WWV function from an assembly facility at
Marysville, Ohio Marysville is a city in and the county seat of Union County, Ohio, United States, approximately 27 miles (44 km) northwest of Columbus. The population was 22,094 at the 2010 census, a 38.59% increase from 2000. Marysville's longtime slog ...
, where it also assembled military trucks. School bus production began there in 1993 and ended in early 1995. The entire operation was closed and the property vacated.


Overview

After the bankruptcy of its parent company Richmond Transportation Corporation in 1992, bus manufacturer Wayne Corporation was liquidated at auction. In February 1993, the product rights of Wayne and many other assets were purchased for $2.1 million by BMY, a military truck assembler owned by industrial conglomerate
Harsco Corporation Harsco Corporation is a global industrial company based in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania. Harsco operates in 30 countries and employs approximately 11,000 people worldwide. The company provides industrial services and engineered products that serve ...
. The company itself was not purchased in its entirety, including its subsidiaries, pensions, and other liabilities; in addition, the Richmond, Indiana factory was not included in the sale. Under its Defense Group, Harsco supplied military vehicles to the US Army, with BMY assembling the "Big Foot", a five-ton truck whose tires partially deflated for sand travel. Following the end of the
Persian Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...
, BMY sought to diversify its production due to a decreased demand for military vehicles. Following the sale, BMY transferred production of the Wayne Lifeguard, Lifestar, and Chaperone product lines to its Marysville, Ohio facility; for the first time since 1875, Waynes were not built in
Richmond, Indiana Richmond is a city in eastern Wayne County, Indiana. Bordering the state of Ohio, it is the county seat of Wayne County and is part of the Dayton, OH Metropolitan Statistical Area In the 2010 census, the city had a population of 36,812. Situa ...
. To reflect the change of ownership of the Wayne name, the company was renamed Wayne Wheeled Vehicles (in line with BMY-Wheeled Vehicles), often adopting the WWV or BMY-WWV acronym.


Closure

During the early 1990s, the ownership of school bus manufacturers underwent significant transition. Along with the bankruptcy of Wayne Corporation, Carpenter Industries also struggled with financial survival (filing and emerging from bankruptcy in 1990). The ownership of Blue Bird, Thomas, and AmTran/Ward would all change, as the former two transitioned from family-owned companies and AmTran was acquired by Navistar in 1991. The acquisition of AmTran marked the beginning of a series of joint ventures between industry suppliers and manufacturers, effectively leaving Wayne at a comparative disadvantage. For parent company BMY, demand for its primary product line declined further; truck assembly at the Marysville plant ended in June 1994. Harsco announced a deal in January, 1995 to sell the BMY-WWV operation to Warrwick Industries, a
Goshen, Indiana Goshen ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Elkhart County, Indiana, United States. It is the smaller of the two principal cities of the Elkhart-Goshen Metropolitan Statistical Area, which in turn is part of the South Bend-Elkhart-Mishawaka ...
-based commercial bus manufacturer of
Goshen Coach Goshen Coach was an American cutaway bus builder located in Salina, Kansas. The company was founded in 1985 and was owned by Thor Industries from 2005 until August 2013, when Thor sold the company to Allied Specialty Vehicles (later renamed REV ...
products. After the deal with Warrwick Industries failed to consummate, Harsco ended bus assembly at the Marysville plant in June 1995.


Products

Wayne Wheeled Vehicles purchased the rights to the Wayne product line and returned the full-size
Lifeguard A lifeguard is a rescuer who supervises the safety and rescue of swimmers, surfers, and other water sports participants such as in a swimming pool, water park, beach, spa, river and lake. Lifeguards are trained in swimming and CPR/ AED first a ...
conventional and Lifestar transit-style school buses to production. The most notable change was the change in chassis supplier for the Lifestar after the 1992 model year. Instead of using the
International 3900 The International 3000 Series is a transit-style (Type D) bus chassis manufactured by Navistar International, used for school bus and commercial bus applications. In production since 1990, it has been produced in both front and rear-engine config ...
chassis (shared with the AmTran Genesis), WWV switched to an all-new chassis supplied by
Crane Carrier Corporation Crane Carrier Company (often abbreviated CCC) is a manufacturer that specializes in construction truck and garbage truck chassis. Located in New Philadelphia, Ohio, it was established by Robert Zeligson in 1946, along with the affiliated Zeli ...
. BMY-WWV also produced hundreds of Wayne Chaperone models built on G30
cutaway van chassis Cutaway van chassis are used by second stage manufacturers for a wide range of completed motor vehicles. Especially popular in the United States, they are usually based upon incomplete vans to be bigger or smaller than pickup trucks and SUVs mad ...
supplied by
General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...
under the Chevrolet and GMC brand names.http://www.allworldauto.com/recalls/1993_wayne_chaperone_recalls_145-766-1993-1.html


RD 9000 prototype

In 1995, WWV unveiled a prototype of an all-new transit-style school bus called the Wayne RD 9000, featuring many innovations never before seen in school buses.Wayne RD 9000 promo video
However, between several lost bids for more military trucks and questionable profitability of the WWV production, BMY shut down completely and closed the Marysville plant in 1995. The RD 9000 never entered mass production. Most of its groundbreaking features were eventually adopted by the other school bus builders, but not until 5–10 years later.


References

{{North American bus builders Wayne Corporation Union County, Ohio 1992 establishments in Ohio 1995 disestablishments in Ohio