Franz Brozincevic Wetzikon
Encyclopedia
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
maker of truck
Truck
A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, with the smallest being mechanically similar to an automobile...
s and bus
Bus
A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...
es, active between 1922 and 1985 and based in Wetzikon
Wetzikon
Wetzikon is a municipality in the district of Hinwil in the canton of Zürich in Switzerland.-Geography:Wetzikon has an area of . Of this area, 42.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while 17.6% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 27.9% is settled and the remainder is non-productive...
.
FBW gained an excellent reputation for the top-level engineering and the long-lasting life of its products, never producing series but instead making individually tailored vehicles. It used only components of its own manufacture, a costly system that allowed the company to produce only a few hundred units per year.
Notable designs from FBW included the underfloor-engined trucks, in production since 1949.
In 1982, FBW was merged with its Swiss competitor, Saurer
Saurer
Adolph Saurer AG was a Arbon, Switzerland , based manufacturer of trucks and buses, under the Saurer and Berna brand names, and active between 1903 and 1982....
, to form Nutzfahrzeuggesellschaft Arbon & Wetzikon (NAW), but new trolleybuses continued to be badged as FBW into 1984. Daimler-Benz
Daimler-Benz
Daimler-Benz AG was a German manufacturer of automobiles, motor vehicles, and internal combustion engines; founded in 1926. An Agreement of Mutual Interest - which was valid until year 2000 - was signed on 1 May 1924 between Karl Benz's Benz & Cie., and Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft, which had...
held a majority stake in the new company, NAW, and production of some types of FBW vehicles was discontinued, being replaced by assembly of Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz is a German manufacturer of automobiles, buses, coaches, and trucks. Mercedes-Benz is a division of its parent company, Daimler AG...
multi-axle
Axle
An axle is a central shaft for a rotating wheel or gear. On wheeled vehicles, the axle may be fixed to the wheels, rotating with them, or fixed to its surroundings, with the wheels rotating around the axle. In the former case, bearings or bushings are provided at the mounting points where the axle...
heavy hauler
Heavy hauler
A heavy hauler is a very large transporter for moving oversize loads which are toolarge to go on a highway without an escort and special permit.-Types of vehicles:...
trucks. The last FBW-badged truck was produced in 1985. However, NAW continued making trolleybuses until 2003.
Trolleybuses
TrolleybusTrolleybus
A trolleybus is an electric bus that draws its electricity from overhead wires using spring-loaded trolley poles. Two wires and poles are required to complete the electrical circuit...
es were a significant part of FBW production. Trolleybus production extended from 1932 until 1984. FBW supplied trolleybuses to 12 different Swiss cities, often multiple batches in different periods, and two cities in Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
.
Trolleybuses built by FBW are still in operation in several cities, both in Switzerland and in a few other countries where trolleybuses were sold secondhand for continued use after being withdrawn in the Swiss city concerned, such as in Ploieşti
Ploiesti
Ploiești is the county seat of Prahova County and lies in the historical region of Wallachia in Romania. The city is located north of Bucharest....
, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, where ex-Genève FBW vehicles (acquired secondhand in 2006) comprised the majority of the city's trolleybus fleet at the end of 2007.
Three FBW trolleybuses built in 1959–1963 are also in regular passenger service in 2011 in Valparaíso, Chile
Trolleybuses in Valparaíso
Trolleybuses in Valparaíso, Chile, have provided a portion of the public transit service since 1952. The trolleybus system is the second-oldest in South America. The originally state-owned system has been privately owned since 1982, and since 1994 it has been Chile's only operational trolleybus...
, where the privately owned trolleybus system acquired them secondhand from the Zürich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
transit system in 1991.