Versare Company

Versare Company
TypeBus Company
IndustryManufacturing
Founded1925; 101 years ago (1925)
Defunct1928; 98 years ago (1928)
HeadquartersWatervliet, New York, US
ProductsBus
Versare Eight Wheeler (1925)
Versare Coach (1926)
Versare bus (28 are used by the Surface Transportation Company in New York)

Versare Car Company was a bus and trolley bus maker founded in 1925 and originally based in Watervliet, New York. Among their early work were experimental buses that utilized gasoline (Buda or Waukesha) and electric engines that could be run alone or together, a technique that could be seen as a very early ancestor to dual-mode vehicles of the modern day.

The six-cylinder engine from 1925 had a displacement of 8,991.56 cm³, with a bore of 114.3 mm and a stroke of 146.05 mm. The engine produced 110 hp. It was directly connected to a generator that had a continuous output of 40 kW. The actual drive motors were two Westinghouse electric motors, each delivering up to 28 hp at 175 volts.

In 1928, the assets of the company were purchased by the Cincinnati Car Company and the company's base was moved from Watervliet to Cincinnati, Ohio. The Versare nameplate returned in 1931 and remained until its demise in 1938.

Products

A long, 8-wheeled city bus is viewed from the side, parked in front of a brick building. The bus is about 1.5 times as tall as the uniformed man in the foreground.
Montreal Tramways Company bus #800, the "Atwater Street Monster". This Versare gas-electric bus was used in the 1920s and 1930s on the Atwater Avenue bus route.

References

  1. ↑ "Versare Coach". AERA v.14 1925-1926 Aug-Jan. 1925-10-01. Retrieved 2026-07-18.
  2. ↑ "Versare and Cincinnati car merge". Bus transportation v.7 1928. 1928-12-01. Retrieved 2026-07-18.
  3. 1 2 3 "History of the Bus in Montreal", The STM in Brief, Société de transport de Montréal, archived from the original on August 18, 2002, retrieved July 8, 2013, The new vehicles trials did not always have happy endings like, for instance, the bad experience of the "Atwater Street Monster". Bus number 800 made by the Versare Company was a huge machine powered by a compound gas-electric motor.
  4. 1 2 3 "The "Atwater Street Monster" and its driver in front of the St. Henry garage (1927)", Expo: Tribute to Workers from Past to Present, Société de transport de Montréal, archived from the original on 2002-08-18, retrieved July 8, 2013, In the years following the appearance of buses on Montreal's streets, the company tested a number of bus models, including a gas-electric hybrid model made by the Versare Company. Because the excessive distance between the axles prevented the driver from turning corners easily on the narrow streets of the time, this bus could be used only on the Atwater Avenue route. Seven years later, the aptly nicknamed "Atwater Street Monster" literally broke in two in the middle of the street.
  5. ↑ "Versare Coach". Motor coach transportation v.4-5 1926-1927. 1926-03-01. Retrieved 2026-07-18.
  6. ↑ "Versare 6 HC 37". Bus transportation v.7 1928. 1928-01-01. Retrieved 2026-07-18.