Fageol

Diamond T Design

Current Tractor List:

Advance Thresher Co. Steam Engines Advance-Rumely Company of La Porte, Indiana Agro Alldays Onions Allis Chalmers Electric Wheel's Allwork 14-28 AMES MANUFACTURING Co. Atlas Co. C. AULTMAN Austin Avance Avery Bailor Plow Manufacturing Co. Baker Sons Equipment Company Bates Bauche Bean Spray Pump Co. Bell Belleville Beltrail Benz Best The Big Four Birdsall Birth of the Tractor British Wallis Bryan Buffalo Pitts Bull COD Caldwell Vale Case Caterpillar Chase Citroen Clayton Cletrac Coleman Cooper Cameron Crawley Crowell Dakota David Deutz D June Doyen Eagle Emerson Brantingham Fageol Fairbanks Farmall Ferguson Fiat Filtz Fitch Ford Fordson Fowler Frick Gaar Scott Garner Geiser General Ordnance Glasgow Goodison Gray Hanomag Harrison Hart Parr Holt Hooven Hornsby Huber Illinois International Harvester Ivel JI Case Jelbart John Deere Johnson Komnick Lanz Leader Lindeman Marshall Predecessor Massey Manufacturing Massey Harris Massey Harris Matteson MAVAG McCormick McDonald Minneapolis Moline Mistral Monarch Morton Munktells National Nichols Nilson Oekonom Oliver Parrett Peter Brotherhood Pioneer Poehl Prague Prison Reeves Renault Republic Rock Island Ronaldson Rumely Rushton Russell Ruston Samson Sandusky Yuba Sandwich Saunderson Sawyer Massey Scemia Schneider Skoda Steam Traction Stinson Stock Manufacturing Co Taskers Tourand Twin City Tractors Upton Union Vickers Wood Wikov Waterloo Waterloo Boy Weeks Wyles Townsend Chapron Fey Mistral

Fageol

Fageol moving van from 1953

Fageol

The company was founded in 1916 to manufacture motor trucks, farm tractors and automobiles in Oakland, California.

In 1921, it became the first company to build a bus from the ground up. This new bus was called the "Safety Bus". The goal was to build a bus that was not prone to overturning when cornering. It had a wide track, and was lower to the ground to ensure the passengers' safety and ease of entry and exit. Following shortly after the success of the Safety Bus was the larger 22-seat "Safety Coach". The factory was located in Oakland, California, but did not survive the Great Depression of the early 1930s. It went into receivership, and the bank assumed control and re-organized under the name Fageol Truck and Coach. In 1938, Mr. Peterman bought the factory and its storys ending the Fageol Motors companies. Shortly, the first Peterbilt was produced.

The South Australian Railways (SAR) operated a number of Fageol buses and trucks. In 1932 that system introduced into service the first of four railcars converted from their road buses. These vehicles initially operated on the SAR 3ft 6in gauge Port Lincoln Division, however some were transferred to the South East Division branch line to Kingston, South Australia, prior to the line's conversion to broad gauge. The last railcar was condemned in 1961.

The Fageol brothers left the company in 1927 to form a the Twin Coach Company, manufacturing buses in Kent, Ohio.

Fageol_BSOT08_2b
Fageol (Great Western) 10-15

Early products included trucks and luxury cars, but the company soon focused on producing a compact tractor for Californian citrus growers. The first tractor was an orchard model that consisted of a two-wheeled power unit fitted with deeply-spudded wheels and attached to a ride-on axle with steering at the rear. This was soon followed by a true four-wheeled tractor, examples of which survive today. This was also fitted with the trademark spudded wheels, which led to it being described as a "walking tractor". A huge air filter and louvred bonnet top were other unique features that were particularly suited to the conditions under which it worked. The tractor achieved limited success and production ended around 1923. The Fageol company achieved far greater success with its range of high-speed coaches, and in the late 1920s the brothers founded the Twin Coach business, which is still active today.

Fageol 9-12 with Lycoming K engine
sitting on the back of an early Fageol truck,