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Harry Zoltok turns his Winnipeg repair shop into the laboratory for the future of coach travel. He sketches his first vehicle design, an 11-passenger body on a Packard chassis, on the factory floor. His small manufacturing company, Fort Garry Motor Body and Paint Works, finds itself on the cusp of a new mass transportation industry.
Harry Zoltok was instrumental in moulding the company in its formative years. He accepted the challenge to build a coach that was durable, reliable and met the needs of the operator and MCI continues with that tradition today.
Obviously a natural engineer, Harry Zoltok developed a manufacturing process for MCI that was different from other bus builders and produced the most durable buses in the world. Today’s D model MCI coaches are still built using some of Harry’s ideas. Probably taken in the later 1950s,
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- Model Designations
MCI's founder Harry Zoltok immigrated to Canada from Russia in 1928 and settled in Winnipeg, Manitoba. In 1932, he partnered with Fred Sicinski and established a vehicle servicing company called the Fort Garry Motor Body and Paint Works, Ltd. A year later, they developed an 11 passenger body built on a Packard chassis. Focus began to shift toward b...
Service Centers
1. Bay Area/Northern CA(4120 Point Eden Way, Hayward, CA) 2. Blackwood, NJ(14 Harmon Dr.) 3. Collision and Refurbishment Center(480a Hartney St., Arnprior, ON) 4. Dallas, TX(9787 Clifford Dr.) 5. Des Plaines, IL(200 East Oakton St.) 6. Lebanon, TN(215 Maddox Simpson Parkway) 7. Los Angeles Area/Southern CA(2880 East Jurupa St., Ontario, CA) 8. Montreal, QC(3500 Rue St. Patrick)
After the original numbered Courier and MCmodels, MCI adopted letters for the different series of coaches. Two different schemes have been used:
The company was incorporated in 1933 by Harry Zoltok as Fort Garry Motor Body and Paint Works Limited, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. In 1948, Greyhound Lines of Canada , at that time MCI's major customer, became a majority shareholder when it purchased 65 percent of the company.
1930s. Motor Coach Industries traces its heritage to 1928 when founder Harry Zoltok stopped in Winnipeg, Manitoba (Canada) on his way west and decided to call the city home. He started an auto body repair shop with his partner Fred Sicinski, and on April 9, 1932 the fledging company was incorporated as Fort Garry Motor Body and Paint Works Limited.
Harry Zoltok turns his Winnipeg repair shop into the laboratory for the future of coach travel. He sketches his first vehicle design, an 11-passenger body on a Packard chassis, on the factory floor. His small manufacturing company, Fort Garry Motor Body and Paint Works, finds itself on the cusp of a new mass transit industry.
