page_title: Yellow Coach Manufacturing Company
section_title: 700-series (1931–1939)
hierarchical_section_title: Yellow Coach Manufacturing Company / Models produced / 700-series (1931–1939)
caption_attribution_description: English: Front view of a Greyhound Lines Supercoach bus (Yellow Coach Model 719) from the mid/late 1930s. Maryland license plate, Washington destination. Library of Congress reproduction number LC-DIG-hec-24762. Black and White photograph from the Harris &amp; Ewing Collection.
context_page_description: The Yellow Coach Manufacturing Company was an early manufacturer of passenger buses in the United States. Between 1923 and 1943, Yellow Coach built transit buses, electric-powered trolley buses, and parlor coaches.
  Founded in Chicago in 1923 by John D. Hertz as a subsidiary of his Yellow Cab Company, the company was renamed Yellow Truck and Coach Manufacturing Company in 1925 when General Motors purchased a majority stake. After GM completely acquired the company in 1943, it was merged with GM's truck division to form the GM Truck & Coach Division.
  The car rental subsidiary was purchased back by John Hertz in 1953 through The Omnibus Corporation and floated the following year as The Hertz Corporation.
context_section_description: In 1931, Yellow Coach introduced its 700 series buses, featuring one of the first bus designs to mount the engine in the rear. Mounting the engine in the rear represented a significant innovation, reducing mechanical losses, noise, and weight of a long drive shaft and exhaust running between a front engine and the rear drive and tailpipe.  Bus manufacturers in Germany and the United Kingdom would not perfect rear-engine models until the 1950s.  Customers did not always prefer rear-engined designs, noting that front engines were easier to access, and placed engine noise and vibration away from passengers and sometimes outside the coach body. Eventually, the 700 series included both front- and rear-engined models.
  In 1934, Dwight Austin, patent-holder on an innovative rear-drive system, was hired by Yellow Coach and soon developed new models in the 700-series with transverse engines and a “V” angle drive. The V-drive and other innovations introduced in the 700 series would become long-lasting standards: air conditioning, diesel engines, a flat front, a high passenger floor (with luggage beneath), and unibody construction. The V-drive would be GM's standard configuration until the 1980s.
caption: 700-series Greyhound Super Coach (1938 photo) (side view)
exif: {"Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "iPhoto 9.5.1", "Image DateTime": "2014:04:14 22:39:59", "Image ExifOffset": "136", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2014:04:14 22:39:59", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2014:04:14 22:39:59", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "834", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "692"}