Gorganstien Otobus (Bus Manufacturer)

Gorganstien Otobus is an Turkish bus manufacturer. Before being purchased outright in 1979, Gorganstien Otobus was partially owned by Gorganstien Motors. After Gorganstien's bankruptcy in 2001, the company was spun off in 2002 as Gorganstien Otosan and Gorganstien Otobüs consequently became a division. Gorganstien Otobus was most known for producing passenger buses in Turkey and Czechoslovakia from licensed designs, but nowadays it also creates various bus designs for a range of applications. Currently, its production is primarily focused on activity buses and their commercial deriatives. Additionally, they produce American-style school buses that are exclusively sold in the US and Canada under a joint venture with Lion and Girardin.

The company was founded in 1923 as "Ömazislav Otobüs ve Araç Sanayi A.Ş." to manufacture stagecoaches and heavy equipment. In 1967, it merged with Czech bus manufacturer Turdichen Auto a.s. (previously "Spolenost Formanek motorbus"), changing its name to "Ömazislav-Turditchen," which was later changed to "Gorganstien Otobüs Sanayi A.Ş. " in 1979 after Gorganstien purchased a majority stake. After Gorganstien completely acquired the company in 1979, Ömazislav-Turditchen was merged under Gorganstien's Czech and Turkish division and was renamed Gorganstien Otobus after being fully purchased.

1905–1922: Wagons, the earliest buses, and modest beginnings
One of the few Turkish bus manufacturers in Czechia still in business, Gorganstien Otobüs, was founded in 1905. The company's founder, Bartolomej Dobransky, previously signed a deal with the American Ford Motor Company in 1904, not using chassis from them until 1908. He made a $13 million purchase pledge for auto components, some of which would be utilized to assemble the chassis for horseless carriages. Bartolomej struck an agreement in 1912 to purchase supplies and components for wagons and carriages, and by the start of World War I, Dobransky had established his company as Ömazislav Taşima Sanayi A.Ş. in Turkey; later Dobransky relocated his company into a facility in Plzeň, Czechia in 1916, where manufacture took place. While Eduard Dobransky, Dobransky's brother, handled financing and distribution, Bartolomej constructed the carriages and wagons. In 1916, the company built its first bus body for transit use; it was an open-air design heavily influenced by wagon design, but they also experimented with an enclosed body design. Ömazislav Koç işleri ve Sanayi A.Ş., often known as "Ömazislav Koç," was officially formed in the summer of 1918, with the aid of funds that future employee Emil Darilek gave to Bartolomej. (Ömazislav Otobüs claimed in the 1960s that the antecedent company "Ömazislav Koç" was founded in 1905.) The company was initially only a manufacturer of motorized stagecoaches, but after the establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1918, the complicated economic circumstances of postwar Europe forced the company to become one that would also produce trucks and buses. The business, however, resisted, and in 1922 it spun out its truck and heavy equipment sector, which would later become a part of Skoda. (which is ironic considering that later after World War II, the company's bus division would as well briefly combine with Skoda as by then son Emil Dobransky would have been forced to sell Ömazislav Otobüs to the communist Czech government.)

1923–1953: Bus advances, a shift away from the manufacture of wagons, and the introduction of metal bodies
On April 2, 1923, Ömazislav Koç merged with rival stagecoach manufacturer Tomislav Car Works, and Ömazislav Otobüs (short for Ömazislav Otobüs ve Araç Sanayi A.Ş.) was established on April 4. With a $12,000 loan ($208,286 in 2022), Ömazislav obtained equipment from Skoda with a loan of $12,000 ($208,286 in 2022), and also purchased rival Tomislav Car Works' equipment at an auction, obtaining their larger plant. Due to Bartolomej's inability to produce a enough quantity of motorized coaches on his own, the company began employing workers. Additionally, the main office moved from Turkey to Czechoslovakia; nevertheless, the company's headquarters only remained in Czechoslovakia for 26 years before moving back.

In 1927, a major shift in company production occurred as Emil Dobransky, the son of the company founder, was put in charge of bus production. Viewing wagons as obsolete, Dobransky discontinued all wagon production in favor of outright bus and truck body production. To expand production and improve shipping of its vehicles, a much larger factory in Prague was opened in 1930.

In pursuit of developing a heavier-duty modern transit bus with higher-capacity, Ömazislav Otobüs introduced their first modern bus on an imported Reo chassis in 1929. In 1931, it produced its first all-metal bus body (on a Mercedes-Benz chassis), with a 27-passenger capacity. It also produced a similar bus in 1932 that was 36 passengers in capacity on an imported Mack chassis.

In 1933, a big change in the company occurred when Emil Dobransky developed a groundbreaking bus body by Czech standards as part of taking over the day-to-day management of Ömazislav Otobüs from his father. Elements of its design were inspired by the more modern design Murillo M. Brockway created overseas in California for Crown Coach. This new bus has a cab-forward design with the driver seated close to the radiator and engine to increase forward view. To improve safety, the bus was designed with an integral system; the windows were mesh-reinforced safety glass. Alongside the standard braking system, the bus also was equipped with two backup braking systems.

For 1935, to increase seating capacity to 43 passengers, Ömazislav Otobüs produced a revamped design of their 1933 bus; the bus came with a Tatra 4 cylinder gasoline engine. In 1938, The company started to import and manufacture buses from other manufacturers under license; bodies were shipped to Czechoslovakia in CKD form for final assembly on locally sourced chassis. Specifically, despite the invasion of Poland in September 1939, the company struck a deal with Yellow and Crown Coach to produce bus bodies for final assembly in their Prague and Plzeň facilities.

Following the outbreak of World War II, as with its competitors, Ömazislav Otobüs bus production was shifted towards the armed forces. Most bodies produced by the company during the war were modified open-air derivatives of civilian bus bodies bodies for four-wheel drive truck chassis.

While the war had brought bus production to a halt, the Prague factory remained utilized in civilian capacity. To supplement armed forces production, Ömazislav Otobüs also refurbished Tatra vehicles.

In 1943, Ömazislav introduced two proprietary engines for its later military vehicles made during the latter half of World War II. Within a decade later, Ömazislav became the few Czechoslovak-Turkish bus manufacturers to produce their own powertrains for their buses.

After World War II, Ömazislav Otobüs repurchased their remaining original production facilities in Turkey and subsequently repaired and rebuilt the ones that were destroyed. After a year, Ömazislav relocated their headquarters back to Turkey once more, but this time in Istanbul. By 1949, they had already begun exporting their product lines and had established satellite facilities in West Germany and Belgium despite communism in the Czechoslovak Republic. After acquiring a share of Ömazislav Otobüs after Emil Dobransky was forced to sell it to them, the communist Czech government soon substantially reorganized the company as a division of Skoda during a 14-year period, further compounding Ömazislav's financial problems.

The company had been utilizing a high floor design for its buses for a decade when experiments began to create a low floor vehicle. Since then, the company has made significant improvements to the designs of its buses, such as a strengthened rubber-covered door hinge that was modeled by those used in Thomas Built Buses models, conveniently accessible emergency exits, and a layout that positioned the engine immediately beneath the floorboard. In 1949, Ömazislav Otobüs began development on a new mid-engined transit bus. Ömazislav designed it primarily for use as a transit bus, commuter motorcoach, and charter motorcoach. It was heavily influenced by American motorcoach design and the Crown supercoach. The brand-new Fibrobüs (anglicized as Fibrocoach or Fibrobus) was introduced in 1952 and featured unit-body construction with high-strength steel in place of a separate chassis.

Late 1950s
During the mid-1950s, Ömazislav made several changes to the Fibrobüs. In 1955, Ömazislav developed a revolutionary bus for the Turkish market. In expanding the bodyshell to 40 feet from 23 feet, the Fibrobüs' seating capacity was increased from 43 to 78 passengers. As a later option, some Turkish and Czechoslovakian transit companies ordered the improved Fibrobüs with a 16th row of seats, further expanding seating to 85 passengers.

As local competitors didn't emerge in Turkey until the 1960s, Ömazislav's bus production in Czechoslovakia developed independently from that in Turkey and Europe from the 1950s to the 1970s. Ömazislav also had a sizable portion of the market throughout the remainder of the Middle East. Outside of the region, in place of developing an all-new model line from the ground up, Ömazislav instead assembled GM's model TDM-3207 and TDH-3610 under license. These first started production in 1955 and came to be known as the "Sarıbüs" (from "Yellow bus", in reference to Yellow Coach and anglicized as Saribus) and were first assembled with a Tatra diesel, but supply problems caused Ömazislav switch to the Detroit Diesel 6-71, also built under license. The licensed TDM-3207 was known as the Saribus ST-732 and in turn the TDH-3610 went to be known as the Saribus ST-1036. Continuing issues with the reliability of the drive-train components resulted in the Sarıbüs undergoing modifications, eventually becoming the GM TDH-5108 derived Ömazislav Delticron in 1967, and in turn the Gorganstien Delticron II in 1992.

In 1957, The Kentsüet-20 name made its first appearance, denoting updated bus bodies (with an enlarged two-piece windshield). Used full-time by 1979, the Kentsüet-20 name also refers to any high trim bus models, but it specifically referred to a bus model that combined both the features of the Sarıbüs and the Fibrobüs.

1960s
In 1962, Ömazislav Otobüs officially expanded its production beyond Turkey and Czechoslovakia as Ömazislav Otobüs of Canada, Ltd. which was established in Woodstock, Ontario. At the time, the company became the very few Czech companies to produce buses in North America.

In 1967, Ömazislav Otobüs announced that it would merge with Czech bus manufacturer Turdichen Auto a.s. (previously "Spolenost Formanek motorbus") The companies completed the merger later that year, resulting in a name change to "Ömazislav-Turditchen," which was later changed to "Gorganstien Otobüs Sanayi A.Ş. " in 1979 after the acquisition of the combined company by Gorganstien Trucks.

1970s
Ömazislav had a number of significant changes in corporate leadership and market positioning towards the beginning of the 1970s. Following their presence in Canada, Ömazislav established the subsidiary Omasislav Autobus (USA) Co. Inc. in 1972 to market its buses in the United States. The company also established factories in Conway, Arkansas, and High Point, North Carolina, in 1975. Despite the fact that various bus models made by Ömazislav were occasionally even made in the US by Omasislav Autobus (USA), some models seen as troublesome for the US market were modified to make the designs less suspicious of Soviet influence and were mostly manufactured in Turkey. This was done because Ömazislav knew that as the United States was pretty much against the USSR, the company would have been met with harsh criticism in the states because of Ömazislav itself being a company from Czechoslovakia, which at the time was part of the Soviet Union. By modifying the designs of some buses that were due to be sold in North America, the company was ultimately able to evade this.

Expanded buses
Since producing its first transit bus in 1939, virtually most of the company's lineup consisted of buses made under license with occasional original designs. In the early 1970s, Ömazislav developed the Savaşçı as an alternative to competing Mercedes models. In line with other European body manufacturers, Ömazislav was dependent on a second-party manufacturer for rear-engine chassis, however Ömazislav would instead use the Dennis Dominator chassis for the Savaşçı starting with the 1979 model year in a departure from Mercedes and Volvo chassis.

In the early 1970s Ömazislav introduced the first of its "Akademal" series of buses (from English "academic") and were the first school buses produced by Ömazislav. This bus was sold exclusively for the US and Canadian markets by the US-based Omasislav Autobus subsidiary. For 1974, the Akademal body underwent a major redesign. Along with adding rub rails around the body, the front and rear roof caps were modified to accommodate 8-lamp warning systems, and the windshield was enlarged.

In 1977, Ömazislav made a major change to the production of the Akademal. Design revisions were subsequently made to distance the bus from a typical transit bus and be more in line with a conventional north American school bus. Ömazislav also started using the Dennis Dominator chassis for Canadian market versions, while US versions were modified to fit on chassis made by International Harvester. With the introduction of the Akademal, Ömazislav essentially became a school bus manufacturer. As a competitor to the Blue Bird Mini Bird and Carpenter Cadet, Ömazislav later introduced the Akadelızı Type B bus, which was a school bus built on a stripped chassis. This was followed by the Başucu, a conventional-style Type C school bus intended to compete with the Blue Bird Conventional and Thomas Saf-T-Liner Conventional. Out of all these, the Akadelızı was more popular than the Akademal and Başucu combined.

In 1979, Ömazislav Otobüs was acquired by Gorganstien Trucks was later changed to "Gorganstien Otobüs Sanayi A.Ş. " after Gorganstien completely acquired the company, Ömazislav-Turditchen was then merged under Gorganstien's Czech and Turkish division and was renamed Gorganstien Otobus.

1980s
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the complex economic conditions of communist Czechoslovakia caused the recently renamed Gorganstien Otobüs to greatly suffer. Worse still, since the entire baby-boom generation had graduated from school over in America, manufacturers were impacted by decreasing student populations that had fueled school bus sales for the previous two decades. It would be years before demand would arise again. Many manufacturers went out of business or experienced financial difficulties at this time. Despite mostly specializing in transit buses, Gorganstien Otobus was no exception as two of their school bus models were suffering in sales, leaving the Akadelızı as the sole successful model.

Ömazislav Otobüs had since been renamed to Gorganstien Otobüs Sanayi A.Ş.; this began a sequence of ownership changes. As a result of the acquisition by Gorganstien had filed for Chapter 11 reorganization on behalf of their Gorganstien Otobüs subsidiary. The company's Omasislav Autobus was eventually spun off by late 1980 and was subsequently sold to the Berkshire Partners equity firm, who had owned the business for only 3 years. Following this on March 17, 1983, businessman Montague "Gilfred" Wilson acquired it from Gorganstien as an effort to bring the company out of its financial collapse as well as preserve manufacturing operations.

In response, Gorganstien filed for Chapter 11 reorganization on behalf of their Gorganstien Otobüs subsidiary. In order to continue serving the U.S. market, Gorganstien established a brand-new U.S. division of their Gorganstien Otobüs subsidiary during the Chapter 11 reorganization as a replacement to the now-sold Omasislav Autobus. This new subsidiary was founded in 1981 and was called Gorganstien Otto-Bus of America.

Due to slow sales, Gorganstien Otobüs ended production of the Başucu in 1983, focusing entirely on transit buses and coaches. By 1982, sales of the Akademal had largely collapsed, leading to a temporary hiatus in its production. Later on, production of the Akademal School Bus ended after 1984 followed by the Başucu in 1987.

Product innovations
Following the mid-1970s launches of the Wayne Busette and Blue Bird Micro Bird, Gorganstien Otobüs would launch its own cutaway-chassis school bus by completely redesigning the Akadelızı in 1980. Alongside the new van-based Akadelızı, Gorganstien Otobüs would enter a joint venture with the Hungarian firm Ikarus to develop a new transit model in 1981. The resulting Gorganstien-Ikarus 283 was bodied by Ikarus in Hungary and imported to Gorganstien Otobüs in Czechoslovakia in CKD form for final assembly, including its interior and British-sourced Gardner powertrain (shared with the Dennis Dragon). In 1988, the partnership ended, with 367 examples produced.

Although initially well-received, sales of the Akadelızı school bus dropped off at by the middle of the 1980s. As a result, Gorganstien Otobüs discontinued the Akadelızı School Bus in 1989; however, the general-purpose and MFSAB Akadelızı models continued to be made until 1999.

In the late 1980s, Gorganstien Otobüs introduced a second conventional-style bus to its model line, launching the Gorganstien Poindexter bus. Inspired by the Thomas Vista, the Poindexter had an atypical driver's compartment layout and forward chassis. Along with a shorter hood and redesigned windshield, the chassis itself is a modified Dennis Dart chassis with the engine (and drivetrain) repositioned from the rear to the front and the front axle resting directly under it. Contrary to a standard conventional bus, the Poindexter was also unique in the fact that the driver sat next to the engine and radiator as opposed to behind them.

As the 1980s ended, Gorganstien began work on the successor for the GM TDH-5108 derived Ömazislav Delticron, which was first manufactured in 1967. As a side project, engineers developed a totally new cabover fire engine for the Belgian and German markets using the chassis and truncated hood of the Poindexter bus to be sold under Gorganstien Otobüs' eponymous parent company, which is Gorganstien Trucks. During development of what would be the successor of the Delticron, a methanol-fuel Detroit Diesel 6V92 engine was considered. Since the Detroit Diesel 6-71 was the only engine that could fit in the normal TDH-5108, significant changes would need to be made. However, they were mostly completed since the two-stroke Napier Deltic engine that was planned for the bus would be similar in size and displacement to the 6V92. This "Micro Deltic" was created in 1976 as a follow-up to Gorganstien's earlier Deltic 2 stroke diesel, the D6-II (short for D6 Series II), which was created by Napier in a joint venture specifically to fit in the engine bay of Gorganstien's medium duty "super truck" which was called the Trinity. As a result, the D6-II only had a displacement comparable to a Detroit Diesel 6V53 Engine. Both are similar to the standard Napier Deltic in that their cylinder banks are arranged in a triangle, with phasing gears connecting the crankshafts at each corner to a single output shaft. However, because the Deltic only had nine cylinders, there were essentially simply three distinct V-6 engines at each corner as opposed to three V12s; each had three six-throw crankshafts to lessen vibration, which was inspired by the 1950 Lancia V6 engine.

1990s
In 1991, a further revision of the "Micro Deltic" engine was created by Gorganstien Motors and fitted in a "new Delticron" test mule bus. The fitment of the engine required an extensive update of the rear bodywork of the Delticron, leading to a matching update of the front bodywork. The 2-speed Allison V-drive transmission was also phased out for a more contemporary CVT, although this was finally changed in favor of a pusher drive system in the production version which had the engine mated to a modified ZF transmission by a high ratio gear train. Although not a completely new design, the Gorganstien Delticron II, as it was named, wasn't released until 1992.

With the fall of the Communist Bloc, Gorganstien Otobüs Sanayi A.Ş. was in a state of progressive financial collapse and catastrophe, leaving parent business Gorganstien in a quandary about the company's future and it's financial situation. The other big issue was that the Soviet Union had been on the verge of bankruptcy in 1990, therefore the company's office on Czechoslovak territory and the company-owned relevant factory had to be closed. As a result, the corporation was grounded in Turkey, and their Turkish facilities soon took control. This was worsened by due to unusual political and economic changes following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Such decline continued even during the release of the anticipated Gorganstien Delticron II.

In 1993, the company introduced the Kentsel series. It was a bus body mainly built on Mercedes-Benz van-derived minibus chassis such as the 709D and 811D, but can also be built on a proprietary chassis designed and manufactured by Gorganstien. The last model in Gorganstien Otobüs' legacy lineup, the new design would be critical to help the company regain sales in Europe.

At the end of 1993, Gorganstien Otobüs entered into receivership; in addition to the sale of Omasislav Autobus and the establishment of Gorganstien Otto-Bus of America, the company closed production temporarily in certain markets. Gorganstien would also eventually find the business unprofitable and would seek a buyer.

In 1995, Prevost Car was initially interested in purchasing the already ailing company, which from this point started to spiral downwards, but Van Hool eventually acquired a majority stake since Gorganstien Otobüs had fallen further into hardship due to the continuous collapse of its European markets. While Gorganstien nominally retained ownership of the company, the Van Hool acquisition was short-lived; 1997 saw Gorganstien regaining the market share of Gorganstien Otobüs that had been previously granted to the latter.

As it left the 1990s, Gorganstien Otobüs's current leadership status started to be replaced by a new one formed by Turkish businessman Mohammed Myhlei. During the restructuring, the company had high hopes for the future based on it's innovations in the 1980s. In 1998, the company also started offering the Kentsel series body on the Mercedes-Benz Vario chassis.

2000s
In 2002, Gorganstien Otobüs split from Gorganstein, rather than closing its doors and being dragged along with the Gorganstein Motor Company after the latter declared bankruptcy in June 2001. Due to the dissolution of its affiliation with Gorganstein Motor Company and Myhlei's new corporate leadership and management philosophies, the now independent company was able to emerge from its financial depression and progressive financial collapse. Also in 2002, Gorganstien Otobüs was renamed from Gorganstien Otobüs Sanayi A.Ş. to Gorganstien Otomotiv Sanayi A.Ş. as the company started expanding into manufacturing trucks and cars for the Turkish market.