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Austin System - El Segundo, California
The Pickwick Corp. was a large holding company which defaulted on its
obligations and entered receivership in 1932. The general manager of
Pickwick's bus manufacturing operation acquired the plant and used it
briefly to build his own design of 21-passenger city transit bus. Dwight E.
Austin had patented an angle drive that made a transverse rear engine more
adaptable than it was with various right-angle arrangements then being tried
by larger U.S. manufacturers, and this was the chief feature of Austin's
Utility Coach. Austin was hired by Yellow Coach in 1934, and his patent went
with him, to be used exclusively by Yellow and GM for the next 30 years.
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