Among many innovations, Wayne pioneered the side-mounted guard rails of modern school buses, inboard wheelchair lifts, and high-headroom doors (a special accommodation for mobility-challenged persons requiring head and neck support from above).

The crowning safety achievement was the "Wayne Lifeguard" structural body design introduced in 1973, which featured continuous interior and exterior longitudinal panels.

The body design helped pave the way for U.S. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) for school buses, most of which became applicable on April 1, 1977.

In 1967, Wayne opened the largest school bus manufacturing facility in the United States; adjacent to Interstate 70, the factory became a familiar landmark to millions of travelers.

[1] In the vehicle bodies for school transportation that the company produced during this era, passengers sat on perimeter seating, facing the sides rather than the front of the bus.

For World War II, as with other school bus manufacturers, Wayne Works retooled as a military supplier for the Armed Forces.

Kits were also shipped overseas even after all North American assembly was eventually centralized in Richmond, Indiana and Windsor, Ontario in the early 1960s.

However, the small company found it could not compete in the general market with the larger automobile makers, so they began specializing in hearses and ambulances.

In a $1.5 million purchase of the Electronics Division of Gruen Watch Company of Cincinnati, Ohio, Divco-Wayne sought to enter the aerospace technology segment.

[2] As Boise Cascade had sought out Divco-Wayne for its manufactured-housing division, Wayne Corporation was resold in October 1968 for $15 million to Indian Head, Inc., a textile conglomerate.

Divco-Wayne had formed a union and had expanded into a moderate sized-conglomerate, with all facilities basically within 500 miles (800 km) of Wayne's Richmond, Indiana base.

Indian Head Inc. acquired Wayne Corp., which its history recorded as "maker of school buses, ambulances, hearses, professional cars" from Divco-Wayne.

In the early 1970s, the principal platform for school buses smaller than conventional types but with more than 4 wheels was the truck chassis in widespread use for commercial delivery work: the step van.

Prior to the Busette, small school buses were conversions of full-size vans or large SUVs (such as the Chevrolet Suburban or International Travelall).

A downturn in North American school bus purchase volumes began in the late 1970s as the children of the Baby Boom completed their elementary and secondary educations.

At the same time coachbuilders met downsizing in the automotive industry, the federal government in the United States updated its requirements concerning minimum width, headroom, and equipment levels of emergency vehicles.

About the time of the 1979 energy crisis, Wayne's Engineering Department experimented with creation of a stretch conversion of the diesel-powered Volkswagen Rabbit.

By 1983, Wayne dealers and union leaders were told that the annual losses at Wayne/Welles were reportedly in the millions, and the Thyssen owners were poised to end the relationship and financial hemorrhage.

In 1984, Richmond Transportation Corporation (RTC) was formed by Jack H. Dekruif, a Corona del Mar, California-based industrialist, and several officers who had served at Wayne for many years under the Indian Head and Thyssen ownership.

A civic leader in Richmond, Indiana, his prior responsibilities at Wayne included sales, marketing, and purchasing over a period of more than 15 years.

Although as industrialist investor, Dekruif had a track record of liquidating troubled businesses, he was persuaded to allow the new organization to operate and compete.

Using the same GM and Ford dual rear-wheel chassis as the Busette/Transette, the Chaperone fit the single-panel construction of the Lifeguard on its body, along with a standard bus-style door.

During 1994, Harsco began to change its footprint as a defense supplier; leading to BMY ending production of its 5-ton truck line.

After an attempted sale of Wayne (to a commercial bus manufacturer) fell through, WWV was closed down by parent company Harsco in June 1995.

In 1990, Wayne discontinued production of the Busette in favor of the Chaperone, with the tooling for the body design sold to Mid Bus.

Alongside Wayne, Indiana was home to school bus manufacturer Carpenter Body Works, a family-owned company from its 1919 founding until 1990.

The company had sought to restart production of the Crown Supercoach Series II (introduced 1989), but the high cost of the vehicle and complexity of its design led Carpenter to shelve the idea (but retained all parts of the purchase).

Both the leadership and workforce based at Richmond included a number of veterans of the former Wayne operations there; as such, they brought considerable experience and knowledge of the plant and industry to the effort.

At the end of the 1990s, lower initial capital costs for school buses began to trump their longevity; when it was time for purchasing decisions, financially pressed districts and contractors tended to select cheaper products with shorter life cycles.

In early 2001, majority owner Spartan Motors (holding a ⅔ stake) did not see any potential return on any further investments made on the company, voting to end the venture.